Earlier this week, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that the developer's exemption for property taxes violated the Oklahoma Constitution.

60 O.S. 2817 had the following developer's provision:

"[T]he fair cash value of a lot in any platted addition or a subdivision in a city, town or county zoned for residential, commercial, industrial or other use shall be deemed to be the total purchase price paid by the developer of the addition or subdivision for the land comprising the platted addition or subdivision divided by the number of lots contained in the addition or subdivision until the lot with building or buildings located thereon shall have been conveyed to a bona fide purchaser or shall have been occupied other than as a sales office by the owner thereof, or shall have been leased, whichever event shall first occur."
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In sum, the provision allowed developers to only pay the ad valorem taxes on the property at the value the property had when the developer received the property -- not the rate everyone else pays which is based on what the assessor says is the actual value of the property (which depends on a number of factors, but is supposed to arrive at a number resembling fair market value of the land and assuming the land is receiving its highest and best use).

In holding this portion of the statute unconstitutional, the court is now requiring the county assessors to annually appraise all land held by developers the same way the land would be appraised for you or me.

Developers now have as much as a year, probably less to either unload their property, develop it, or be taxed at its current value.

What does this mean?

For areas like Bricktown, where some developers such as Jim Brewer or Cotton have held onto land for extended periods of time, grandfathered in at extremely low rates, they will now be reassessed and forced to pay a pretty penny in ad valorem tax. It's time to either sh** or get of the pot.