Oklahoma Votes August 25 on Making the State Refund for Factory Tax Exemptions Discretionary

Oklahoma voters decide State Question 844 on August 25, 2026, at the runoff primary. The measure amends paragraphs E and F of Article X, Section 6B of the state constitution, the section that grants a five-year ad valorem exemption to new, expanded or reopened manufacturing facilities and requires the state to reimburse the school districts, counties, municipalities, career technology centers, junior colleges, health departments, libraries and emergency medical services districts that lose the property tax. The Oklahoma Tax Commission's Ad Valorem Division reported total reimbursements of $88,635,421 for the 2025 tax year.

The concentration in that figure is the reason the measure exists. Mayes County, which contains the Mid-America Industrial Park, drew $35,601,298, or just over 40% of the state total. Tulsa County was second at $16,949,307. Inside the Mayes County schedule, a single filer, listed as Google LLC-Myall LLC, accounts for $34,187,160 across five separate exemptions running in years one through five, at $12,201,611, $6,815,693, $5,894,803, $4,989,806 and $4,285,247. One campus in one county is therefore worth twice the entire reimbursement flowing to Tulsa County, where the largest single beneficiary, the combined Holly Sinclair refineries, draws $3.4 million. The Oklahoma Legislature disqualified wind farms from the exemption in 2015 and data centers in 2021, and will phase out solar farms in 2028. A year-one exemption still appeared on the Mayes County list for the 2025 tax year.

SQ 844 does not touch the exemption, the eligibility rules in 68 O.S. 2902, or the county option to divert part of the county levy to economic development. It converts the state's reimbursement obligation from a constitutional guarantee into a matter the Legislature sets by statute, and it ties local debt capacity to the level the Legislature picks.

That second effect is the one missing from the campaign. Paragraph F currently adds the assessed valuation of exempt property to the assessed valuation of taxable property when computing the constitutional limit on indebtedness of political subdivisions under Section 26 of the same article. The amendment adds five words that change the arithmetic: the amount added is to be "equal to the level of reimbursement applicable to such property under the laws enacted by the Legislature." A district hosting an exempt plant currently carries that plant's full value in its bonding base. After the change, it carries whatever fraction the Legislature has decided to reimburse. Any pitch that promises a host district will bond for roads, water or a school expansion off the back of an incoming plant is written against the old paragraph F.

The fiscal driver is not disputed by either side. The Ad Valorem Reimbursement Fund is filled by 1% of state income tax collections, and it has not covered the obligation since 2002, according to the Oklahoma Policy Institute. The Oklahoma Incentive Evaluation Commission's 2024 analysis of the exemption found that the 1% covered 30.5% of reimbursements between fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2024. In fiscal 2025 the Legislature appropriated a $64.8 million supplement in HB 2766 to cover the school share alone. The statewide bill has come down from a 2019 tax year peak of $161 million, largely because the wind exemptions removed in 2015 have been expiring since 2018, and it is still roughly three times what the dedicated revenue stream funds.

House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, puts the case in terms of who holds the pen. "As it stands right now, a county assessor assesses one of these properties, and whatever the assessed value is, the state of Oklahoma has to pick up the tab," he told Oklahoma Voice. "It's a blank check. The state of Oklahoma doesn't have the ability to contest this. So, one county assessor gets to determine what the check is going to be, and the other 76 counties have to write the check." He said the Legislature does not intend to reopen reimbursement rates already established, and would apply new levels to future deals.

The mechanical point is correct, and it is the strongest argument in the debate. The party paying has no role in the valuation that sets its liability, and the Legislature already holds the blunter instrument: it can strike an industry from the eligible list, as it did with wind, data centers and solar, and it passed a bill in 2020 to end reimbursements outright before Governor Kevin Stitt vetoed it. Opponents who say SQ 844 hands lawmakers a new power are overstating what is new.

What is new is the removal of the floor. The pledge to leave existing rates alone is a statement of intent by one speaker in one session, and it appears nowhere in the ballot title, which says only that the levels and methodologies "will replace the current statutory framework for reimbursement" and that the fiscal impact "will depend on the application of the levels and methodologies adopted by the Legislature." An exemption granted in 2027 pays out through 2031, across at least two more legislatures. For the district on the receiving end, that is the difference between a receivable and a request. Pryor Public Schools, which contains most of the developed part of the Mid-America Industrial Park, received $24 million in reimbursements this year and takes nothing from the state aid formula, according to Superintendent Lisa Muller. Districts in that position return to the formula if the reimbursement shrinks, which is the mechanism behind the superintendents' claim that a change concentrated in two counties reaches every district in the state.

For officers outside Oklahoma the transferable question is narrow. Most US states that exempt new industrial property from local tax hold the local taxing entities harmless in some form, and the hold-harmless is usually the reason a school board supports a project it would otherwise fight. Whether that promise sits in a constitution, a formula or an annual appropriation determines what it is worth in year four.

SQ 844 is on the August 25 runoff primary ballot alongside SQ 846 and the City of Tulsa general election. The laws that would set the new levels and methodologies have not been written.