As of January the 1 2014, Logan County property owners will pay significantly less in yearly ad valorem taxes.
The property tax reduction takes hold as Logan County Assessor, Tisha Hampton, lowers the percent of the tax from 12 percent to 11 percent. This represents an 8 percent reduction in the base property tax paid by Logan County residents.
As an example, a resident of the Guthrie school district who owns a home valued at $150,000, and who claims homestead exemption, will experience a decrease from $1,297 to $1,183.
At 11 percent, the reduction brings Logan County’s real property assessment ratio in line with the neighboring counties of Oklahoma, Payne, Lincoln, Kingfisher and thirty-five other Oklahoma counties.
“It wasn’t right for Logan County residents to endure higher taxes than their neighbors in surrounding counties,” Hampton explained. “By lowering taxes, we do right for current residents and stop the policy of punishing those who choose to move to Logan County from neighboring counties.”
In 1996, Oklahoma voters approved State Question 675. This initiative put a cap of 13.5 percent and a floor of 11 percent on the taxable percentage of property. This effectively froze Logan County’s assessment at its then-current ratio of 12 percent. Earlier this year, Hampton determined that subject to the guidelines of SQ 675, she had the authority to lower the rate to 11 percent. Hampton becomes the first County Assessor in Oklahoma to lower an assessment ratio since the state question was approved in 1996. Once lowered, the rate may only be increased through a vote of the people.
Taxpayers will notice the new lower rates on tax assessments to be issued later this spring.
If our tax is 12% now and it is going to 11% isn’t that a 1% decrease and not 8%?
What they mean is your bill will go down by 8% since the assessment is dropping from 12 to 11.
Those in the Guthrie School system pay less in property tax overall… because our school assessments are so much lower than the surrounding school districts. So this decrease really helps those who live in Logan County but are in Edmond School district because they were paying higher rates for both. I read another recent story that showed the school mileage rates of all schools in Logan County and Guthrie Schools were the lowest… even lower than Coyle/Langston by 1pt and lower than Edmond by over 20pts. That is why our schools keep buying Edmond’s left overs instead of having the funds to buy new technology and books. Can we get a bond issue passed now???? Before the Junior High collapses on our kids heads!!!
Since ad valorem makes up a significant part of a schools budget, this will equate to about a $400,000 reduction to Guthrie Public Schools income. So you can expect them to continue to have to buy cast-offs and maybe even see some hard cuts coming up.
Curious what that estimate of $400k actually would turn out to be since it would change the state aid formula, wouldn’t it? Also, what’s the total district budget for the year? It would help more to talk about percentages than dollar amounts if we are to understand the impact.
The schools’ budget is posted on the school website at http://www.guthrie.k12.ok.us/domain/6
It’s approximately $21,823,000/year so around 1.8% decrease if the 400,000 figure is correct. And I bet you are correct that it won’t be a full $400,000 as the state aid formula will adjust too. But the bigger picture is that even at current funding our schools are falling apart and our children don’t even have enough books to bring them home for homework. The teachers get a classroom set and have to send home copied work pages which is probably illegal too (copy right infringement…). When will this city start investing in children beyond the glory of Friday Night Lights? Stepping off my soapbox for now.
Sherry, I think you may have hit the nail on the head. We as parents probably need to do a better job of attending school board meetings and looking at their budgets.
So being the numbers person…. I took a look at the line items in the budget and discovered that the total Ad Valorem Tax in the School budget is $484,267.07 so this decrease will not make a $400K difference. The difference will be about $38,741.37 about the salary of one Teacher… which we can’t afford to cut! And no, I’m not a teacher nor do I work for the district. As a matter of fact, I drive 45 minutes each way and work for a small business in OKC. I love Guthrie and feel that I received a good education from GPS. Which prepared me for success at the University level and beyond. Hoping I can say the same about my children’s education….
I looked wrong the first glance. I can now see where they are getting their $400k figure. I was only looking at one place in the budget where ad valorem tax is credited. there are actually 3 places totaling $5,115,000 in the 13-14 proposed budget. Thus their figure at 8% decrease on this total. This is a net change from the 12-13 actual budget of ($190,359.46). Thus they were calculating a significant increase due to new construction and property value elevations that will be more than offset by the decrease in the tax rate.