If property tax reform is to take place in Oklahoma, a solid strategy is imperative.

That was a principal theme during a panel discussion Friday at the Tulsa Regional Chamber’s second Legislative Briefing Breakfast of the year.

“It is important when you continue to have these conversations about reform that we look at having a plan to back-fill where we’re losing revenue,” Jenks Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Stacey Butterfield said. “We cannot simply go in and cut.”

In front of nearly 200 people at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Tulsa Downtown, she shared the stage with panelists Oklahoma State Sen. Dave Rader (Senate District 39) and Tulsa County Commissioner Lonnie Sims (District 2).

They spoke about the impacts of property tax reform on municipal, county and state budgets.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has said he would like the Legislature to take steps toward freezing property taxes, arguing that taxes threaten affordability for families and seniors. 

The state is funded primarily by sales, income and property taxes, with property taxes going mostly toward public school districts, county government services and local libraries or health departments.

A total of 64% of public schools’ state aid comes from property taxes, Butterfield said.

“The significant majority of those dollars are for workforce, salaries and benefits,” she said. “So, for schools, if these dollars are cut significantly, we are looking at workforce reductions. That means our class-size ratios will rise.” 

Sims said the state needs to diversify its tax structure. 

“If you took the property tax away, counties like Tulsa County can hopefully adjust through some of the sales tax because we’re the sixth-lowest (rate) in the state,” he said. “But for some of these rural counties, they are really going to struggle.” 

Rader and Sims said bolstering economic development can add to revenue streams that counties, municipalities and schools depend on. 

Rader cited Pryor Public Schools, a non-state-aid district that has for years benefited from the property tax dollars generated by Google, a tenant of MidAmerica Industrial Park.

“Why wouldn’t you want that for your schools?” he said. “Then, that leaves more money for the rest that are on the (state-aid) formula.”

Sims talked about the $3 billion data center complex being built in the Owasso Public Schools district in Tulsa County. 

“We’re going to get payment in lieu of tax six and a half million dollars a year,” he said. “Four million is going to be going to the school district. It’s going to expand roads and infrastructure out there that are severely bottle-necked out there with the growth of Owasso.” 

Rader assured the audience that regardless of where the property tax issue lands, Oklahoma will prosper.

“We have good schools around here,” he said.
“We have people who work really hard. We have a good workforce here. We have land that’s available, and you know what, when people come here, they stay here. They don’t want to live anywhere else because it is a great place to live.

“That’s what I would tell the Tulsa Regional Chamber, and I have confidence that’s what they are telling people. And that’s why we’re going to get the community to grow.”

Aside from the panel, nine other legislators gave updates at the event, which was sponsored by Paycom and Tulsa Tech.