Constitutional amendment; creating the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights.

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STATE OF OKLAHOMA

2nd Session of the 60th Legislature (2026)

SENATE JOINT
RESOLUTION 26 By: Bergstrom

AS INTRODUCED

A Joint Resolution directing the Secretary of State
to refer to the people for their approval or
rejection a proposed amendment to the Oklahoma
Constitution by adding a new Section 44 to Article X;
providing short title; providing effective dates;
stating intent; requiring voter approval for certain
amendments; authorizing legal action to compel
enforcement; providing for the allowance of costs and
fees of certain plaintiffs to be covered; prohibiting
districts from being awarded costs and fees from
bringing suit; providing exception; providing for
interest on certain refunds; authorizing reasonable
methods for providing refunds; providing exception to
certain limitation on spending growth and voter
approval requirements under certain circumstance;
defining terms; prescribing procedure for certain
ballot issues; requiring certain disclosures provided
to registered voters by mail; prescribing information
to be included in disclosure; requiring certain
disclaimers in certain ballot titles; providing for
modification to tax rate and refund if levy
collections exceed estimate; prohibiting issuance of
debt that exceeds certain repayment costs; requiring
voter approval before certain revenue raising
measures are enforced; requiring voter approval
before the creation of certain debt obligations;
requiring political subdivisions to reserve emergency
funds; prescribing conditions for emergency tax
levies and spending; limiting spending growth for
political subdivisions; prescribing calculation of
limit; requiring refund for excess revenue growth;
prescribing base year amounts and calculation of
revenue growth; prohibiting new or increased tax
rates on the transfer of property; prohibiting the
levy of a local income tax; providing exclusion;

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authorizing political subdivisions to provide
exemptions and credits for ad valorem tax on
commercial personal property; requiring the mailing
of annual valuation notices; authorizing annual
appeal against valuation; requiring consideration of
certain sales for valuation; requiring certain sales
to be kept as public record; prescribing details
included on ad valorem tax bills; authorizing
political subdivisions to reduce certain payment for
certain state mandated programs; authorizing the
requirement of notice and procedure for reduction of
payment; providing ballot title; and directing
filing.

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
2ND SESSION OF THE 60TH OKLAHOMA LEGISLATURE:
SECTION 1. The Secretary of State shall refer to the people for
their approval or rejection, as and in the manner provided by law,
the following proposed amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution by
adding a new Section 44 to Article X to read as follows:
Section 44. A. This section shall be known and may be cited as
the “Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights”.
B. Except for subsection E of this section, this section shall
take effect on January 1, 2028. The preferred interpretation of
this section shall reasonably restrain most of the growth of
government. All provisions are self-executing and severable and
supersede conflicting state constitutional, state statutory,
charter, or other state or local provisions. Other limits on
district revenue, spending, and debt may be weakened only by future

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voter approval. Individual or class action enforcement suits may be
filed and shall have the highest civil priority of resolution.
Successful plaintiffs are allowed costs and reasonable attorney
fees, but a district is not unless a suit against it be ruled
frivolous. Revenue collected, kept, or spent illegally four (4)
full fiscal years prior to when a suit is filed shall be refunded
with ten percent (10%) annual simple interest for each full fiscal
year from the initial conduct in the four (4) prior fiscal years.
Subject to judicial review, districts may use any reasonable method
for refunds under this section, including temporary tax credits or
rate reductions. Refunds need not be proportional to prior taxpayer
liabilities when prior payments for each taxpayer are impractical to
identify or return. When annual district revenue is less than
annual payments on general obligation bonds, pensions, and final
court judgments, paragraph 1 of subsection E and subsection H of
this section shall be suspended to provide for the deficiency.
C. As used in this section:
1. “Ballot issue” means a non-recall measure voted on by
registered voters brought by an initiative petition or a measure
referred by the governing body of a district in an election;
2. “District” means any local government or political
subdivision, excluding public trusts;
3. The term “emergency” shall exclude economic conditions,
revenue shortfalls, or district salary or fringe benefit increases;

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4. “Fiscal year spending” means all district expenditures and
reserve increases except, as to both, those for refunds made in the
current or next fiscal year or those from gifts, federal funds,
collections for another government, pension contributions by
employees and pension fund earnings, reserve transfers or
expenditures, damage awards, or property sales;
5. “Inflation” means the percentage change in the United States
Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index, all items, all
urban consumers, or its successor index; and
6. “Local growth” means the following:
a. for a nonschool district, a net percentage change in
actual value of all real property in a district from
construction of taxable real property improvements,
minus destruction of similar improvements, and
additions to, minus deletions from, taxable real
property, and
b. for a school district, the percentage change in
student enrollment.
D. 1. Ballot issues shall be decided in a state general
election, biennial local district election, or on the first Tuesday
in November of odd-numbered years. Except for petitions, bonded
debt, or charter or constitutional provisions, districts may
consolidate ballot issues and voters may approve a delay of up to

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four (4) years in voting on ballot issues. District actions taken
during such a delay shall not extend beyond that period.
2. At least thirty (30) days before a ballot issue election,
districts shall mail at the least cost, and as a package where
districts with ballot issues overlap, a titled notice or set of
notices addressed to “All Registered Voters” at each address of one
or more active registered electors. Ballot titles shall have this
order of preference: “NOTICE OF ELECTION TO INCREASE TAXES/TO
INCREASE DEBT/ON AN INITIATIVE PETITION/ON A MEASURE SENT BY THE
[GOVERNING BODY].” Except for district voter-approved additions,
notices shall include only:
a. the election date, hours, ballot title, text, and
local election office address and telephone number,
b. for proposed district tax or bonded debt increases,
the estimated or actual total of district fiscal year
spending for the current year and each of the past
four (4) years, and the overall percentage and dollar
change,
c. for the first full fiscal year of each proposed
district tax increase, district estimates of the
maximum dollar amount of each increase and of district
fiscal year spending without the increase,
d. for proposed district bonded debt, the principal
amount and maximum annual and total district repayment

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cost, and the principal balance of total current
district bonded debt and the maximum annual and
remaining total district repayment cost, and
e. two summaries, up to five hundred words each, one for
and one against the proposal, of written comments
filed with the election officer by forty-five (45)
days before the election. No summary shall mention
names of persons or private groups, nor any
endorsements of or resolutions against the proposal.
Petition representatives following these rules shall
write this summary for their petition. The election
officer shall maintain and accurately summarize all
other relevant written comments.
3. Except by later voter approval, if a tax increase or fiscal
year spending exceeds any estimate in subparagraph c of paragraph 2
of this subsection for the same fiscal year, the tax increase is
thereafter reduced up to one hundred percent (100%) in proportion to
the combined dollar excess, and the combined excess revenue refunded
in the next fiscal year. District bonded debt shall not issue on
terms that could exceed the share of the maximum repayment costs of
the bond pursuant to subparagraph d of paragraph 2 of this
subsection. Ballot titles for tax or bonded debt increases shall
begin, “SHALL (DISTRICT) TAXES BE INCREASED (first or, if phased in,
final full fiscal year dollar increase) ANNUALLY...?” or “SHALL

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(DISTRICT) DEBT BE INCREASED (principal amount), WITH A REPAYMENT
COST OF (maximum total district cost)...?”
E. Beginning November 2, 2027, districts shall have voter
approval in advance for:
1. Unless subsection B or G of this section applies, any new
tax, tax rate increase, mill levy above that for the prior year,
assessment ratio increase for a property class, or extension of an
expiring tax, or a tax policy change directly causing a net tax
revenue increase to any district; and
2. Except for refinancing district bonded debt at a lower
interest rate or adding new employees to existing district pension
plans, the creation of any multiple-fiscal-year direct or indirect
district debt or other financial obligation whatsoever without
adequate present cash reserves pledged irrevocably and held for
payments in all future fiscal years.
F. Each district shall reserve for fiscal year 2029 one percent
(1%) or more, for fiscal year 2030 two percent (2%) or more, and for
all later fiscal years three percent (3%) or more of its fiscal year
spending excluding bonded debt service. Unused reserves apply to
the reserve in the next fiscal year.
G. This subsection grants no new taxing power. Emergency ad
valorem taxes are prohibited. Emergency tax revenue is excluded for
purposes of paragraph 3 of subsection D and subsection H of this

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section, even if later ratified by voters. Emergency taxes shall
also meet all of the following conditions:
1. A two-thirds (2/3) majority of a local district board or
commission declares the emergency and imposes the tax by separate
recorded roll call votes;
2. Emergency tax revenue shall be spent only after emergency
reserves are depleted and shall be refunded within one hundred
eighty (180) days after the emergency ends, if not spent on the
emergency; and
3. A tax not approved on the next election date sixty (60) days
or more after the declaration shall end with that election month.
H. 1. The maximum annual percentage change in state fiscal
year spending shall equal inflation plus the percentage change in
state population in the prior calendar year, adjusted for revenue
changes approved by voters after 2027. Population shall be
determined by the latest annual United States Census Bureau
estimates and such number shall be adjusted every decade to match
the Federal Decennial Census.
2. The maximum annual percentage change in fiscal year spending
for each local district equals inflation in the prior calendar year
plus annual local population growth, adjusted for revenue changes
approved by voters after 2027 and reductions provided for in
paragraph 2 of subsection I and subsection J of this section.

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3. The maximum annual percentage change in each district’s
property tax revenue equals inflation in the prior calendar year
plus annual local population growth, adjusted for property tax
revenue changes approved by voters after 2027 and reductions
provided for in paragraph 2 of subsection I and subsection J of this
section.
4. If revenue from sources not excluded from fiscal year
spending exceeds the limits provided in this subsection in dollars
for that fiscal year, the excess shall be refunded in the next
fiscal year unless voters approve a revenue change as an offset.
Initial district bases are current fiscal year spending and ad
valorem tax collected for tax year 2027. The exclusion or inclusion
due to the formation or dissolution of a public trust shall change
district bases and future year limits. Future creation of district
bonded debt shall increase, and retiring or refinancing district
bonded debt shall lower, fiscal year spending and ad valorem tax
revenue by the annual debt service so funded. Debt service changes,
reductions, refunds made pursuant to subsection B and paragraph 3 of
subsection D of this section, and voter-approved revenue changes are
dollar amounts that are exceptions to, and not part of, any district
base. Voter-approved revenue changes do not require a tax rate
change.
I. 1. New or increased district transfer tax rates on real
property are prohibited. No district income tax shall be imposed.

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2. Each district may enact cumulative uniform exemptions and
credits to reduce or end ad valorem tax on commercial personal
property.
3. Regardless of assessment frequency, valuation notices shall
be mailed annually and may be appealed annually, with no presumption
in favor of any pending valuation. Past or future sales by a lender
or government shall also be considered as comparable market sales
and their sales prices kept as public records. Actual value shall
be stated on all ad valorem tax bills and valuation notices and, for
residential real property, determined solely by the market approach
to appraisal.
J. Regarding state mandates, except for public education
through grade twelve or as required of a local district by federal
law, a local district may reduce or end the portion of payment
provided by the local district to any program delegated to it by the
Legislature for administration. For current programs, the state may
require ninety (90) days’ notice and that the adjustment occur in a
maximum of three equal, annual installments.
SECTION 2. The Ballot Title for the proposed Constitutional
amendment as set forth in SECTION 1 of this resolution shall be in
the following form:
BALLOT TITLE
Legislative Referendum No. ____ State Question No. ____
THE GIST OF THE PROPOSITION IS AS FOLLOWS:

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This measure adds a new Section 44 to Article 10 of the Oklahoma
Constitution, creating the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. This
measure restrains the growth of local government spending
through limitations on levy increases and taxpayer refunds. The
measure authorizes citizens to bring suit to enforce the
limitations. The measure requires voter approval before the
issuance of new debt and measures to increase revenue, and
authorizes voters to suspend the voter approval requirements for
a certain period. Notices on ballot elections and information
pertaining to dates, costs of revenue raising measures, costs
for the issuance of debt, spending amounts, and certain other
information are required to be sent to registered voters at
least thirty days before elections. The measure requires
taxpayer refunds to be issued if tax levies or spending exceed
estimates. The measure requires the disclosure of tax increases
and extensions to be included in ballot titles. The measure
requires voter approval for all measures that directly or
indirectly increase revenue or extend existing revenue-raising
measures and measures to increase debt. The measure requires
political subdivisions to reserve emergency funds. The measure
provides for the levy of emergency taxes with a super majority
approval of the local governing bodies, which shall later be
approved by voters. The measure limits annual spending and
property tax increases based on inflation and population

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increases, with certain exceptions, and, if the limits are
exceeded, requires the excess to be refunded to the taxpayer.
The measure prohibits any new local tax or increases to any
existing tax on the transfer of property. The measure prohibits
the levy of local income taxes. The measure also authorizes
local governments to provide exemptions or credits to property
taxes on commercial personal property. The measure requires
valuation notices to be sent to all property owners, with the
ability to appeal those valuations, as well as other disclosure
requirements. The measure also authorizes local governments to
reduce or eliminate payments for certain state mandated
programs.
SHALL THE PROPOSAL BE APPROVED?
FOR THE PROPOSAL — YES _____________
AGAINST THE PROPOSAL — NO _____________
SECTION 3. The President Pro Tempore of the Senate shall,
immediately after the passage of this resolution, prepare and file
one copy thereof, including the Ballot Title set forth in SECTION 2
hereof, with the Secretary of State and one copy with the Attorney
General.

60-2-2577 QD 12/31/2025 2:04:28 AM