Stitt backs city option to levy property tax for police, fire
Republican gubernatorial candidate Kevin Stitt said Wednesday that he would back legislation allowing cities and towns to levy a property tax to help finance their public safety obligations.
Speaking at the Oklahoma Municipal League conference in downtown Oklahoma City, Stitt said cities should have the flexibility, through a popular vote, to raise additional revenue for their police and fire services. Reliance on the sales tax, he said, has led to some of the highest sales tax rates in the nation. The revenue is less sustainable as consumers’ purchase habits change, he said, and is more vulnerable to economic downturns.
Stitt said he was shocked to learn that “we’re the only state that doesn’t allow any kind of ad valorem base” for municipal operations. In Oklahoma, municipalities can levy property taxes, with voter approval, for capital projects, though the vast majority do not.
“Here’s what I always think about: We don’t have any different issues in our state than they have in Texas or Florida or Indiana,” Stitt said. “So if I’m the only state in the country that’s doing something, I’m really gong to scratch my head and think I’m either the smartest guy in the room or we’re the dumbest state.
“So we’re going to give cities flexibility to make sure they can have a piece of sustained revenue because when you have an economic downturn, the last thing we need at
that point is to have to cut our police departments.”
The property tax option for public safety operations is a major priority of the Oklahoma Municipal League.
The state House approved legislation last year that would have allowed municipalities to levy up to five mills on the dollar of assessed property value to pay for salaries and benefits of police officers and firefighters and for equipment. The Senate did not take up the bill.
After his remarks at the conference, Stitt said in an interview that he would support the bill that died in the Senate.
“If Oklahoma City or Tulsa or any municipality, if their people vote, they should have the right to do that,” Stitt said. “If they wanted to add a mill or two to pay for police and fire and streets, they should be able to do it.”
Former state Sen. AJ Griffin, who conducted the conversation with Stitt for the municipal league, said his position to allow cities to levy a new property tax would be “bucking the Farm Bureau.”
Stitt, who was recently endorsed by the Oklahoma Farm Bureau political action committee, said he would want farm land shielded from any new municipal property tax levies.
Oklahoma Farm Bureau President Rodd Moesel said in an interview Wednesday, “We are firmly entrenched against any expansion of the ad valorem tax.”
The tax has a disproportionate impact on farmers and ranchers, he said.
Exempting all farm land would be difficult because some is not defined in law as agricultural, Moesel said.
In an interview, Stitt said he had spoken to the Farm Bureau about the issue.
“They’re starting to realize that if 49 other states are doing something, we’ve got to have that conversation,” he said of Farm Bureau members. “We’ve got to have some kind of ag protection, which I’m absolutely for.
“For them to shut all those conversations down ... as governor, I won’t let one industry shut down what’s best for all 4 million Oklahomans.”
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Drew Edmondson was invited by the municipal league to share the stage with Stitt, but he said he had a prior engagement. Edmondson is expected to address the group on Thursday.