By Shane Smith

A new State Question has been filed, that if passed by Oklahoma voters, would eventually see property taxes for homeowners abolished in the state of Oklahoma. State Question 843 – filed on January 12 by state Sen. Shane Jett (R-Shawnee), Rep. Jay Steagall (R-Yukon), and former state Rep. Mike Reynolds (R-Oklahoma City) – would effect a statutory change that would reduce property taxes in three yearly stages, with their complete elimination by 2029 for homeowners who live in their homes. This statutory change would not apply to businesses or landlords, and would exempt local bonded indebtedness enacted prior to December 31, 2026, until those bonds are paid.

A predictable howl has gone up at the thought of an end to property taxes, a great wailing and gnashing of teeth at the thought of municipalities, counties, and schools, forcibly relinquished of their ability to view property owners as a resource to be tapped at will. There has been a flurry of editorials bemoaned the “irresponsibility” of the thought of abolishing property taxes, but their arguments come across as little more than the infantile objections of local governments and school boards who have clearly not been told “no” enough times by the captive taxpayers who fund their outrageous spending sprees.

In an op-ed published in The Oklahoman in December (following the filing of an earlier version of the initiative) Jason Lowe – a former state representative and now Oklahoma County Commissioner – uses a very poorly thought-out analogy, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” to oppose the end of property taxes. Are the proponents of SQ 843 really the Grinch, as Lowe claims, or is it really county government? After all, they’re the ones demanding their rather large cut of our wages right around Christmas time. Are we really Grinch-like for finally demanding an end to this un-American practice, or are we the Whos down in Whoville who’ve grown tired of this misanthropic, anti-social threat year after year? Yes, local government will need to rethink how they spend our money and make modest increases in sales taxes and fees to make up the difference.

Their budgets may go down, but it won’t be the end of the world. And most importantly, they won’t have a guaranteed captive tax base that they can bilk every year without their input. Local government will have to approach tax policy with much more thought and care, but we’ll manage beautifully, and we homeowners are not going to stand around and be called selfish for wanting absolute ownership of what is, in fact, ours. There is a selfish actor in this story, and most certainly a Grinch, but it isn’t supporters of State Question 843.

Through the issuance of outrageous bonds, our schools build opulent facilities, fill the classrooms with unnecessary technology, hire an army of administrators, create a curriculum of the most time-wasting, needless courses you’ve ever seen, yet fail to perform the most fundamental task of teaching our kids how to read at a non-pathetic level. According to the Nation’s Report Card, Oklahoma consistently ranks at the bottom 47th/48th of states in reading levels at grades four and eight.

School bonds themselves have created a situation where education itself has taken a backseat, to the point of being totally forgotten. It truly feels like the current education system has been reduced to a racket to gin up multi-million dollar bonds that are then paraded in front of voters, who are essentially shamed into voting in their favor. Every new bond is roughly triple the amount of the one preceding it, and we as Good Citizens are expected to line up and vote for it, and force property owners to foot the bill, and provide the collateral, in the form of our very homes that we own, to secure the bond. We’ve all seen the vultures begin to circle when one bond is almost paid off, and we begin to hear the entreaties of proponents of the next bond, and how our public school system just desperately needs some new $100 million facility, with alms tossed to teachers and students to sweeten the deal.

Municipal bonds are no different. City councils are wooed with visions of grandeur into foisting multi-billion-dollar bonds onto the captive tax base of homeowners, who more than anything would simply prefer that potholes get filled, and that our city be safe and clean to live in. This can easily be accomplished without property tax.

Someone has to apply the brake to insatiable local government. With State Question 843, the voters of Oklahoma will be able to do just that. County governments will never operate responsibly unless forced to do so. Unless forced via this vote, local government will never cease to view you, the homeowner, as a captive resource that can be tapped to make up budget shortfalls. County governments must be forced to operate within their means. Without the elimination of property taxes, we’ll see an unending sequence of massive bonds, and ribbon-cutting ceremonies on publicly-funded atrocities, issued right up until the moment of Armaggedon.

The very notion of a property tax is deeply un-American, if we understand “American” to mean the right to freedom from government interference and overreach. Instead, a property tax is inherently socialist/communist, in that the belief that the governments are the true owners of all property, and that no individual has a right to actually own anything without paying the government yearly rent. We all see how the money is spent, and that’s why this idea is so popular, and why it will almost certainly be passed if it makes it to the ballot. That is why the long-time beneficiaries of your money are screeching in such pain.

We must be able to securely own our homes without the threat of confiscation lest we pay the massive lump sum at the end of every year, just as everyone is broke from Christmas spending. There must be something of ours that is beyond the reach of the sticky fingers of our local overlords. Supporters of this will be branded as hatefully selfish, and we’ve already seen this argument become the cornerstone in the fight against State Question 843. We are called the selfless ones, we who say that those who own their homes shouldn’t have to pay rent to the government for the privilege. We live in an era where many homeowners are hanging by a thread, and the massive tax bill at the end of the year is, for many, a hideous monster that hides in the corner of our minds, too awful to think about as we approach December 31st, but eventually must be faced. How about we slay that monster forever for Oklahoma families?

The selfishness lies with those who believe that they are the rightful owners of what you’ve worked so hard to buy for you and your family. Selfishness is callously viewing property owners as an expendable resource that can be drawn on without their input whatsoever. Selfishness is then spending those millions on projects that lead to nowhere, facilities that either fail or aren’t used at all, or projects that enrich a few at everyone’s expense. Selfishness is forcing the sale of a homeowner’s residence because they can’t fork over the several thousand dollars demanded by the local governments, and I don’t know how public employees can look themselves in the mirror every time this travesty occurs. This has to end. And it will end in our state, effecting the greatest and most transformative course-correction, away from bloated, overbearing government, and towards the vision of America that our Founders intended.

Contrary to State Question 843 opponents, this isn’t a gift to the rich. The rich don’t mind property taxes; they pay them with ease. It’s the middle class, and those in the lower classes who may have been gifted a house, but now run themselves ragged attempting to squirrel away several thousand bucks just so it isn’t taken from them.

Underlying the push to end the property tax is the belief in property rights, the belief that what you own isn’t on loan from the government, but is actually yours. You, the wage earner, know better how to spend your own money than the government. Your money belongs in your pocket.

The abolition of the homeowner property tax is a selfless, humane, and honorable goal, and its passage would be revolutionary. Oklahoma can lead the nation in ending an historic injustice. The time has come.