Oklahoma County not facing dire budget woes yet

Oklahoma County should make it through the upcoming budget year without too many problems, a vast difference from the budget woes plaguing state lawmakers and Oklahoma City officials.

This is because roughly 83% of the county's general budget comes from property taxes, a much more stable revenue source than the sales and use taxes heavily relied on by the city and state.

Property value es timates occurred on Jan. 1, months before the economy slipped because of COVID- 19. This means tax prices over the next year won't reflect the dismal economy.

But for Fiscal Year 2022, which starts on July 1, 2021, and will rely on property value estimates that occur next January based on what happens this year, officials are worried.

“I think the public can f eel confident knowing that for the next year, county government should be pretty OK ,” said Commissioner Brian Maughan. “It's a question of what happens the next fiscal year, starting July 1 of 2021. That's where we may be in a pickle.”

`Cautious optimism'

County Treasurer Butch Freeman said he is “comfortably confident” that the county will be able to cover its FY 2021 bills.

Total revenue to the county is currently projected to be about the same as last year, sitting at roughly $ 92 million, according to documents presented to the county's Budget Board last month.

That was a conservative estimate, said Danny Lambert, financial director in the county clerk's office.

“We don' t want to over estimate and then come up short,” Lambert said.

However, some funds outside of the general budget, like a gas tax that goes back to counties to fix roads, will likely experience “brutal” drops in the upcoming year, Maughan said.

And if unemployment problems persist and the economy doesn't pick up by the time the first round of FY 2021 tax payments are due in December, some may default on payments, Maughan said.

“I think that when we are seeing already that Oklahoma City has amassed a $3 million default on water bills, I expect that we probably need to prepare for having a lot of people default on paying their property taxes in December,” Maughan said.

In the immediate future, county offices and departments will hold flat budgets until meetings can be held to develop a full budget recommendation, said Cody Compton, first deputy for Commissioner Carrie Blumert.

Officials will meet again in September to finalize the budget for there st of the year, and adjustments will be made then, Compton said.

“For me, it' s ac aut io us optimism ,” he said. “Whatever is going to happen is going to happen, and we'll have to roll our sleeves up and come up with the best plan possible.”

Looking ahead

With acknowledgement of the possibility for property tax payment defaults for FY 2021, most officials said the biggest concern is still the FY 2022 budget.

As businesses close, commercial properties may see their values and subsequent t ax payments decrease when estimates come out “Whatever is going to happen is going to happen, and we'll have to roll our sleeves up and come up with the best plan possible.”

Cody Compton, first deputy for Commissioner Carrie Blumert

again next January.

Plus, the county assessor's office pointed to other economic factors like the struggling oil markets that impact properties across the county.

“Our staff will undertake a complete re-evaluation of ALL of the nearly 330,000 parcels of property in Oklahoma County's 720 square miles this year to determine any impact on property values,” reads a statement from Assessor Larry Stein. “The results of that evaluation could have ripple effects for years to come.”

Compton said many factors are at play and the county will have to make the best decisions as information becomes available.

“Residents should know that (the budget is) in good hands,” Compton said. “We've got very capable and diligent people here that really care about the citizens of Oklahoma County, and they'll do the best job they possibly can to manage this.”