Coffee Talk

When visiting with other members of the Senate Republican Caucus, it is clear that when it comes to phone calls from our districts, the one issue that we get the most complaints about is property taxes and how they are continually going up.

A few years ago, Oklahomans enacted a cap that would limit yearly increases to no more than five percent. I’m sure many people thought that would mean their property taxes would go up less than that amount, and hopefully, some years stay the same. But instead, the full five percent has been the standard annual increase in many counties.

Senator Jim Reynolds introduced a measure this year that would enable the public to decide whether to lower that cap to three percent. That measure was approved by the full Senate this past week, although the debate was very intense. Opponents argued that this legislation would result in less money for schools and for county governments and the services they provide, including the maintenance of roads and bridges. That simply is not so.

Senate Joint Resolution 59 would not take away funding from the schools or counties. If approved by the voters, those entities would continue to receive exactly what they’ve been collecting, and possibly even more, each and every year. SJR 59 merely slows the rate of the increases, by reducing the five percent cap to three percent. Again, it does not take any money away from schools or from county roads and bridges. Furthermore, SJR 59 only applies to homesteads—it does not apply to commercial property.

I would never support a measure that I believed would hurt our schools. Certainly as a lawmaker, I want Oklahoma children to receive an excellent education. But it is also personal—my children attend public school so I have a vested interest in ensuring we are not taking funding away from those schools.

What we are doing is helping make sure the parents and grandparents of Oklahoma school children and their neighbors can keep more of their hard-earned money each year.