04/25/2026
This is a very good read from one of my fellow Assessors…maybe you can take the time to read it, because I know I couldn’t have explained it any better. Being an Assessor is a thankless job but a job I and my other 76 Assessors take very seriously. We are not policy we are procedure!
From Alfalfa County Assessor:
What is an Assessor and what do they do?
The short answer is: value property
The long answer is in a 400 page Assessors Handbook that actually has a lot of duties left out.
I had a nice talk with a Taxpayer today and I have colleagues across the state talking about this very subject, so I just wanted to share some snippets of those conversations.
As an elected official the Assessor needs to be fair and impartial. There are laws that dictate almost everything that happens in the Assessors office so doing anything contrary to the oath of office isn't honorable or good for the local government, communities, constituents, or entities who depend on accuracy of the office.
What are the laws and how are they ENFORCED? Most of the statutes related to the Assessors office are found in title 68, some in title 19. Property taxes are in the Oklahoma constitution and upholding the constitution is part of the oath of office. More information is found in historical AG opinions and even in the OTC rules (because there is a statute that says Assessors SHALL follow OTC rules). Enforced with an annual OTC audit that is presented to the State Board of Equalization. An Assessor can be removed from office and the state will come in and get the office back to operating correctly.
Let's get back on point- value property.
Seems easy enough- just make everything worthless and lower taxes, but then again the constitution has something to say about that. They are ad valorem taxes meaning "According to value". Market value is even defined as what a willing buyer would pay and what a willing seller would accept.
There absolutely exists the argument that taxes should be based on actual last sale or maybe strictly cost value. Or another popular thought is that eventually you shouldn't have taxes on your home.
Assessors don't have an opinion about that because the office operates independently of the person or people who work there. The office has a duty to uphold the constitution and the laws of Oklahoma as they currently exist. That's it.
So homesteads are defined, a senior freeze has qualifying stipulations, deadlines for applications exist and yes even the methods of valuing property has standards and limits. TO ENSURE THIS IS DONE ACCURATELY, THE OFFICE IS AUDITED ON ALMOST EVER BENCHMARK, PROCEDURE, AND ANALYSIS PERFORMED.
Every.
Single.
Year.
I won't go into Cost, Income, and Sales approach to value, but just know that Good Data in = Good Data Out. Sometimes there is a lack of data. Sometimes there are variables so a loaf shed doesn't value at the same price as a garage. Makes sense.
Great so now we have a value. It should be easy now. NOPE. There is a difference between a Market Value and a Taxable Value.
What?!?!?!? Yep. Thought the job was to value property. It was supposed to be simple.
Remember that constitution. There are caps listed in there that says you homestead or ag property can't have a Taxable increase in value higher than 3% per year ( unless there is new construction, improvement or title transfer) and 5% on other properties. But personal property is supposed to be actual value ever years so there is no cap on that.
That is the hardest part to explain. You may have a Market Value higher than your Taxable Value.
Why? How is that fair? Why doesn't everyone have a capped value?
It all depends on how long you owned the property; how has the economy changed since you bought or built your property; and even how have the replacement cost tables changed over the years.
So here is an example. We might have a house valued at 80/sqft. We could calculate new build less depreciation is 85/sqft but sales are all over the place but generally between 65-90/sqft. You can protest the 80/sqft and we might settle on 75/sqft. That would be a good conversation.
(That is over simplified for today's purpose. Actually we will take a look at sales and see if we can determine why one sold low vs. the ones who sold high. What does the subject property have in common? Are there neighborhood trends? Was there interior information that would factor in? We still have to treat the property the same as every other like property in the neighborhood. Maybe a full neighborhood adjustment needs made. It is not an individual value of property. It must still meet mass appraisal standards. Maybe - we already have the propertyvalued too low becausewe didn't know about the basement.)
Back on topic...
However- if your cap is still calculated to be only about 69/sqft, even if we agree and settle on something reasonable there won't be any change to the taxable value. That is how the cap works. I didn't make the rules. I just follow them.
Now a year has passed and there is another 3% increase. 🤔 But if we agreed to a value what changed. Let's assume the market was steady and Market Value (ad valorem) did not change up or down. The only thing that is going to change is the Capped Value.
If you are getting a Capped Value increase it is because you are NOT paying taxes on the Full Market Value. It does not negate the fact that we agreed to a fair and reasonable value. The capped value is just math. Furthermore the tax benefit was added to the constitution in 1980 to guard against fast growing inflation. It was actually really smart.
The problem sometimes is that the request is for 30/sqft and simply accepting a low value would be a disservice to every single other taxpayer and extremely dishonest. The values have to make sense compared to how every other taxpayer is treated. And remember that AUDIT (EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR.) that was mentioned earlier. This right here is VERY heavily reviewed. If the Assessor is wildly over or under valuing property it WILL be caught in the audit.
So we have:
1. Market Value
2. Capped Value
3. Sometimes a Settled Value will be lower than a Capped Value and sometimes it wont.
So what ever is the lowest is turned into an Assessed Value by multiplying the Assessment Ratio. Simple multiplication.
See I knew there was an easy part of the job in here somewhere.
The Assessed Value is then multiplied by a mill levy. (For anyone new, a mill is a tenth of a penny so essentially it is a percentage of the assessed value)
Voilà! Estimated Tax.
Estimated??? After ALLLL that we still only have an estimate?
If you got all that and want to know how mill levies can increase your tax bill even if you have a senior freeze or a decreasing value, the please comment "more".
Not sure if this is boring or just way toooooo much. Some days it feels like a lot and some days it feels like I am serving a purpose, so just let me know.
