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AE 01056 - Oklahoma Ad Valorem Mill Levies, Fiscal Year 2001 Assembled by Notie H. Lansford, Jr. Professor and Extension Economist Department of Agricultural Economics Oklahoma State University ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Members of the support staff in the Department of Agricultural Economics are acknowledged for their contributions in assembling this report. Recognition goes to Michelle Easterwood and Dondee Payne for helping update the tables and the figures, data input, data verification, and endless other details. Thanks to the State Auditor and Inspector, Oklahoma Tax Commission Ad Valorem Division, and Association of County Commissioners of Oklahoma for partial funding of this project. Special recognition goes to Elaine Baker and her staff at the State Board of Equalization for providing copies of the ad valorem levy (millage) reports. Finally, thanks to the county treasurers who provided levy sheets and clarifying information. SOURCE OF INFORMATION By county: Fiscal Year 2000-2001 Certified Ad Valorem Tax Levies report submitted to the State Auditor and Inspector. Numerous county treasurers and assessors provided additional detail upon request. OBJECTIVE OF THE REPORT This is the eighth time an ad valorem mill levies report has been prepared. This edition lists the fiscal year 2000-2001 ad valorem tax levies within every county in Oklahoma. Ad valorem taxes provide revenues for funding public programs. Thus, this edition is primarily assembled to assist local officials and others interested in the management of public revenues. It also provides useful information for taxpayers and those studying public fiscal policy. Some simple statistics were derived such as the mean levy for a county, the mean levy for the State of Oklahoma, and the percent share of the levy to each taxing unit. These statistical derivations are not intended to be used as representative statistics for deriving the tax burden of the average taxpayer. Their primary purpose is to approximate the distribution of ad valorem tax among the various taxing entities. DESCRIPTION OF THE REPORT Organization of Tables by School District There is a table of ad valorem tax levies for each county. Within a table, the rows are arranged by school district, and the columns are by tax unit. For example, the county general fund is a tax unit. Each row is summed to give the total ad valorem tax millage that is levied on the taxable property within the school district. The column headings are explained on pages 10 and 11. A unique combination of codes is used to define a school district. A code is included to denote whether or not the school district is a joint school district. In the column entitled “Jt. Co. No.”, three zeros were entered if the school district is not a joint school district. If a joint school district, then the county number was entered of the county where the school district headquarters is located. A code is also included to denote if the row refers to the urban or rural portion of the school district. In some school districts the total levy for the urban portion is different than in the rural portion. In school districts where this occurs there are two lines of data with the school district’s two code lines differing by the symbol “U” for urban and “R” for rural. Examples of these codes are shown on page 12. Statistical Summary of Tables Each table includes a statistical summary for the county. The statistical summary gives the mean levy, the highest total levy, and lowest total levy in the county. The mean county levy is simply the average of the total levies listed for a county. The smallest total levy (minimum) and the largest levy (maximum) for a county were taken directly from the total tax levies reported in the far right-hand column. Organization of Pie Charts Each county is followed by a pie chart. The chart shows the percent of the levy for the county that is shared by each tax unit. The percent was found by dividing the total tax levy for each tax unit by the sum of school levies for the county. State of Oklahoma Summary Statistics Averages, medians, minimums, and maximums were computed for the State. Table 78 shows these statistics for each tax unit over all seventy-seven counties. The State summary statistics were computed using all positive (non-zero) millages across all rows (schools). (The statewide mean was not found by summing the mean levy for each county and dividing the sum by seventy-seven (counties) as was done in the first two editions of this report.) In addition, for each taxing unit the statewide “count” is given. This is simply the number of rows in Tables 1 - 77 that had a mill levy for a given taxing unit.
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