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Senate panel approves exemption for low‑value personal property from ad valorem tax
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Summary
The Revenue and Taxation Committee approved SB 18-39 to exempt from ad valorem tax personal property with a fair cash value of $5,000 or less per taxpayer account; an amendment clarifying 'per account' was adopted and the bill passed unanimously in committee.
Senator Daniels told the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee that SB 18-39 would exempt from ad valorem taxation personal property with a fair cash value of $5,000 or less per taxpayer account, arguing the administrative cost to counties and the irritation to taxpayers outweighed the revenue involved. He said the proposal originated with county treasurers in Rogers County and was later supported by treasurers in Dewey and Carter counties.
Daniels offered an amendment to insert the phrase 'per account' to prevent taxpayers from fragmenting many items into multiple de minimis entries. He said the change ensures the threshold applies at the taxpayer-account level rather than item-by-item. The committee adopted the amendment by voice vote.
After brief comment and no further debate, the committee moved SB 18-39 as amended. The clerk called the roll; the committee recorded 12 ayes, 0 nays, and the chair declared the bill passed out of committee to the Senate floor.
Why it matters: sponsors said the measure would standardize how counties handle small personal‑property assessments and reduce administrative burden. Daniels noted that, in the example cited to the committee, a relatively small subset of accounts produced only a modest amount of revenue while consuming disproportionate staff time to process; he asked the body to adopt the narrow exemption to reduce that friction for both counties and taxpayers.
Next steps: SB 18-39 advanced from the committee to the full Senate as amended; the committee record shows the sponsor intends to continue shaping policy on ad valorem reform at later stages.
Quotes "This has to do with making sure that we don't have somebody with a lot of personal property classifying each item so that all of them become de minimis," Senator Daniels said when explaining the amendment.
"So this is, like, point 005% of the entire revenue, taken in by Rogers County," Daniels said in committee remarks describing the county example cited to justify the change.
Ending The committee approved SB 18-39 as amended and sent it to the full Senate for further consideration.
