Full Senate Approves Property Tax Cap Vote

The State Senate has approved a measure that could help slow property tax hikes. Senate Joint Resolution 59, by Sen. Jim Reynolds, was passed on Wednesday. If approved by the House, SJR 59 would let Oklahoma voters decide whether to lower the current property tax cap of five percent to three percent.

“This legislation came straight from my constituents who are begging for relief from increases in property taxes,” said Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City. “This is an especially burdensome tax for many low-income and older people in my district and throughout Oklahoma.”

Reynolds said the five percent cap on property value assessments was supposed to limit yearly increases, but it has not worked in the way property owners thought it would.

“They certainly weren’t expecting their property taxes to go up the full five percent every year, which is the maximum allowed, but that’s exactly what’s been happening. That wasn’t the intent of that cap, and that’s why we need to give taxpayers an opportunity to adjust it.”

Reynolds said that since the mid-eighties, the average U.S. inflation rate has been 2.7 percent.

“And yet, with the current five percent cap, people in many counties have seen their property taxes go up each year at nearly twice the rate of inflation,” Reynolds said. “This simply gives property owners the opportunity to get these increases under control.”