Can we afford to get rid of property taxes?

Because we are diving into one of those core questions that we must ask again and again here in Oklahoma and it’s *** question about taxes, specifically this week, property taxes nobody likes paying them. Many of us struggle to afford them, but if we cut them or we freeze them, what impact could that have on our schools, on our roads, on our first responders? Well today here on Oklahoma Chronicle, I am joined by. *** couple of people who might answer this big question in different ways just to my right here, Dave Bond back with us from the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. Dave believes that we can find ways to give homeowners relief and do it responsibly. It’s nice to have you here, Dave. Also here with us today, Oklahoma County assessor Larry Stein. Larry, you certainly understand the uh the budget pressures that are constantly facing local and county governments and. And uh we look forward to, to uh your thoughts on this, and I just want to start with you here, Larry, as we talk about property taxes. I think *** lot of people, we know what it feels like to pay taxes. We don’t always know where our taxes are going. So for folks who don’t know where property taxes are going, where are they going? Well, property taxes is the largest revenue source for the state of Oklahoma, and it primarily goes to support public schools, technology centers, state colleges, and then the essential county services that are the foundation of government at the local level. And in Oklahoma County, about 9 cents out of every property tax dollar goes to the county. The rest of it goes to cities and towns in addition to the. Schools and the cities and towns have raised *** lot of property taxes by selling bonds to do projects that they can’t pay with cash, so that’s where all the property taxes go. It’s *** complicated process, but it is the largest funding source for public education and all of the other governmental services. Remember there’s about 60 counties in the state where there’s only county government. They don’t have *** police department. They rely on the sheriff for public safety and they rely on the commissioners for their roads and. Also support their local public schools. Out of every dollar, what percentage of that dollar is going to education? More than 70 cents in Oklahoma County now in in many of the states, the Constitution requires that *** 50 cents out of every property dollar, property tax dollar goes to support your local public schools, and that’s *** constitutional requirement, Dave, the overall thinking, because we’ve seen *** bunch of different proposals, we’re not going to get too much in the in the weeds of, of some of those proposals, but. But basically there’s *** lot of talk right now about ways to give Oklahomans relief. Generally speaking, where do you, where does the OCPA fall on the need for that to happen and the possibility of doing it responsibly? So most folks in Oklahoma tend to agree that the property tax is the most offensive of all taxes. Why is that? Well, just the idea that you can’t really ever fully own your home if you’re having to pay the government year after year for permission to stay in it. So that idea I think is very real for Oklahomans. It’s not, not necessarily the most economically destructive tax. The income tax is typically more economically destructive, but it’s *** property tax is an incredibly offensive tax. Part of the problem too is I don’t think. Larry does this, but there are *** lot of county assessors around the state who year after year are increasing valuations of homes for the purposes of collecting property taxes to the max. The state constitution says you can increase it up to 3%, the valuation of the home each year for the purposes of collecting property tax to fund all the things that Larry was talking about, all of which are important. But *** lot of county assessors are interpreting that to say you must increase it. They they that’s literally what they are being told they have to do and so. The state constitution does not say that it’s just that’s the limit. It’s not required. That’s the maximum amount that your property tax could increase every year for your primary home, your homestead is 3%, right? So *** lot of counties are blowing that out and you’re seeing some counties, especially some of the suburban counties. Cleveland County comes to mind typically first for *** lot of folks in this type of conversation. They’re, they’re producing these huge surpluses of county property of citizens’ property tax dollars, and folks are seeing that they’re seeing their bills go up year after year after year, and there’s *** lot of understandable frustration. All right, so Larry react to that. Well, the, the dilemma is that the state constitution, the, the changes that were made require assessors to increase to match the market value. Houses across the country in, in Oklahoma are valued more because of inflation. We got *** lot of people from other states that are moving here. And they can’t believe the deal they’ve got on *** house and they can’t believe the property taxes are so low, and property taxes in Oklahoma are among the lowest in the country. The other thing is insurance for homes has gone up because inflation has increased the value of the homes. I’ve got the records that show that $6000 to $10,000 in Central Oklahoma are the rates for insurance premiums and huge deductibles because that’s what they have to pay. The property taxes aren’t going up. They’re, they’re limited to 3% by constitution. The concern is. The $10,000 bill for property tax for property insurance that they don’t know about and it’s busting *** lot of real estate deals they’re looking at the data and saying I can’t afford $500 *** month for insurance on this house, so that’s what’s happening with it if if you want to address the issue of what’s happening in real estate, real estate’s being driven up and you, it’s not, it’s not that you don’t own your house, the bank owns your house. And when you don’t pay the bank they’ll sell your house for you. The problem is that the inflation rate, the bank that owns your house until you pay it off, they want to make sure that their investments properly protected and they’re, they’re demanding that you put an insurance policy on there so they can get their money if your house burns down or it blows away in *** storm and those rates because of the storms that we have in Oklahoma are increasing. all the time. So moving forward on this, Dave, what do you think would be *** reasonable change that should happen? As I mentioned, there, there, there’s *** number of proposals. There’s *** ballot initiative going out there that wants to eliminate property taxes. There’s another one to drop that, that maximum cap from 3% to something lower, something closer between 1 and 2%. And then there’s some some other things kind of in between all of that as well. What do you think would be ***, *** good step forward in your opinion? So there’s two really important things that Oklahomans really do seem to be clamoring for, and as are to his point, *** lot of other folks all over the country. This is truly going on nationwide for many of the reasons he was talking about. Also, you’ve got *** big generation. Baby boomers coming into retirement right now, paying off the home, not having to deal with the bank anymore, and yet still getting that slam from the property taxes and the insurance and I have seen people propose dropping property taxes for seniors entirely. Is that something that you’d like to see? We can do that now. Well, so two things. One, we’ve got to stop the bleeding. We’ve got to hit pause for Oklahoma home owners for *** minute until *** majority of folks can settle on *** long-term solution. So some type of 1 or 2 year freeze would be *** really, really good thing to do. But what happens, just really quick on that, we freeze for 1 or 2 years. It’s not like the, it’s not like the budgets freeze for our local schools and governments and all of that, right? Well, so for some counties they’re running that have the most taxpayers, *** lot of them are running huge surpluses right now. Some of the outlying counties maybe aren’t *** lot of those suburban counties, remember they’re based on the sales tax increases that they’re seeing in those areas. That’s not property taxes because it’s property taxes are limited right now because of the constitutional changes we’ve made in Oklahoma County. Property tax cuts are $400 million this year alone and they. Going up every year statewide because of all the things that assessors have supported over the past 30 years, the property tax savings statewide is $1.7 billion. The problem that people are having is with insurance. You’ve got people that are paying $10,000 *** year and they’re plugging it into their escrow account and they don’t even see it, but there’s only one assessor and there’s only one treasurer. When that bill comes to the treasurer, they don’t. Understand that it’s not property taxes going to the county, it’s going to the insurance companies that are raising rates. No, I, I, I, I certainly understand that, and I want to get back because you said *** couple of things. You said, I want to freeze. What, what’s the next thing that you think would be *** good step? So the other thing that’s really important, there are *** number of different proposals. Some favor senior citizens, some favor younger first-time home buyers. We need something in Oklahoma that helps both that helps everyone that really does help bring things to *** manageable level across the board. So just doing it for seniors would be great for them, be awesome for them. But what about the younger home buyers who still have kids at home and all those types of things and at the same time there’s things that would help the younger home buyers in particular but not necessarily deal with the runaway increases in valuations and assessments of the homes of the older people. Those are both very real concerns. I, I guess really quick though, it’s like how do we do that though without affecting. Some of those other things, some of the services, and Larry, I know you want to jump in one second. Let’s give Dave *** chance to answer that. So the first thing we would say is to put *** 1 or 2 year freeze on property, home valuations, not necessarily commercial, but for homes. We’re talking about homes. That’s where we really need this to be dealt with as Oklahomans. So *** 1 or 2 year freeze. Get enough consensus on *** long term thing, but that one or 2 year freeze allows people to catch their breath for *** minute and then keep going. But there are other options too, like in Utah, for instance, if you’ve got *** county like Cleveland County is here who’s running big time surpluses. Cap those surpluses and anything over that that’s collected, whether it’s some sales tax or property tax or whatever, refund that to the taxpayers in those counties. Not every county is in that spot, but those are some of your biggest population counties in Oklahoma. All right, I, I, we’re running *** little bit low on time. So Larry, I want to bring you back in here. Everything that you’re hearing right now, what is your overall thought? My concern is that there are bonds that have been sold all across the state from school districts and cities and towns. When you freeze that revenue. Stream that doesn’t mean you can pay off the bonds, and if you don’t pay off the bonds, then the cities have the ability of raising the millage rate, which is calculated to figure out the property taxes. There are hundreds, there are billions of dollars of bonds that have been passed in Oklahoma City in the past couple of years. That when you freeze those revenue streams, that means the cities have the unilateral authority to increase your millage rates to raise your property taxes. It’s extreme. complicated thing and assessors have presented many plans to be able to target people who really need the help seniors, we can eliminate their property taxes completely and we’re trying to help the veterans and the police and fire and EMTs with rebates from the state of Oklahoma, but we can’t get those things to focus on and and what we’re really looking at is *** lot of real estate with *** million people that have moved into Oklahoma buying houses and causing their values to go up and then. Their insurance rates go up. Their property taxes are limited severely with 3 and 5%. It’s among the lowest in the country. So Larry really does bring up *** really good point real quick about bond and really quick because we’re on time now. We’ve got to move bond elections for cities and counties and school districts to November when more people are voting and have the chance to weigh in. Those have to be moved to November. Tell you what, we have to stop it right there, otherwise my producer’s gonna get very upset at me. Tell you what, let’s do *** few more minutes. We’ll put it online and so we can continue to talk about this here in just *** little bit.

Oklahoma Chronicle: Can the state afford to get rid of property taxes?

Updated: 10:30 AM CDT Apr 19, 2026

Editorial Standards ⓘ

Nobody likes paying property taxes, and many Oklahomans struggle to afford them.Because of this, some argue that the state should cut property taxes altogether. Can Oklahoma communities afford it, and can homeowners afford to keep taxes where they now stand?>> Download the KOCO 5 App | Subscribe to KOCO 5’s YouTube channel | Sign up for KOCO 5’s Morning NewsletterOn the latest edition of Oklahoma Chronicle with Evan Onstot, we dive into the questions surrounding property taxes. If we cut them or freeze them, what kind of impact would that have on Oklahoma schools, roads, and first responders? Evan spoke with Oklahoma County Assessor Lary Stein and David Bond, with the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, about the issue. Open the video player above to watch part one of their discussion and the video player below for part two. You also can watch the full episode of this week’s Oklahoma Chronicle with Evan Onstot in the video player below.

OKLAHOMA CITY —

Nobody likes paying property taxes, and many Oklahomans struggle to afford them.

Because of this, some argue that the state should cut property taxes altogether. Can Oklahoma communities afford it, and can homeowners afford to keep taxes where they now stand?

>> Download the KOCO 5 App | Subscribe to KOCO 5’s YouTube channel | Sign up for KOCO 5’s Morning Newsletter

On the latest edition of Oklahoma Chronicle with Evan Onstot, we dive into the questions surrounding property taxes. If we cut them or freeze them, what kind of impact would that have on Oklahoma schools, roads, and first responders?

Evan spoke with Oklahoma County Assessor Lary Stein and David Bond, with the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, about the issue. Open the video player above to watch part one of their discussion and the video player below for part two.

You also can watch the full episode of this week’s Oklahoma Chronicle with Evan Onstot in the video player below.