OKPOLICY.ORG
At a time when calls for property tax cuts dominate headlines and dinner table debates, more people are asking a simple question: What’s in it for me?
It’s a fair question. Why should I pay for services I don’t use, schools my family doesn’t attend, or roads I rarely drive? The short answer: taxes are less about what I use today and more about the kind of community I want for tomorrow. My taxes – including property taxes – are not just bills. They are investments in safety, stability, and the unspoken promise of what we owe the next generation.
My wife and I are empty nesters now that both our children have graduated from Tulsa Public Schools. It would be easy to argue our property taxes shouldn’t go to schools anymore since I don’t have any children attending. But I also know that good schools keep neighborhoods vibrant, strengthen the local housing market, and attract families and businesses. Even from a purely self-interested perspective, all of these benefits are good for my property value. So even without my own children in the classroom, I benefit from living in a community that funds education in line with its societal value.
The same is true for Tulsa Tech and Tulsa Community College. I don’t have any family members who have ever taken classes there, but I benefit from my property taxes being used for these schools to help create a local workforce trained for in-demand jobs. When people gain skills close to home, employers can find skilled talent, and the entire region grows stronger.
Here in Tulsa, I’ve paid around $5 a month for EMSA for nearly 20 years and never once needed an ambulance. The same is true for my tax dollars that fund police and fire services that I’ve never used for myself. I could look at that and think I wasted my money. Instead, I see it as buying peace of mind. The system is there, staffed, and ready, because each of us chips in. I don’t want to wait until an emergency to wonder whether it’s funded well enough to save my family.
As a personal aside, I try to do everything in my power to avoid traveling through the congestion in south Tulsa. When I shop in midtown Tulsa, I know that my sales taxes help pay for streets and infrastructure elsewhere. And I also know I benefit from that, even when I don’t travel there. Why?
Because a city or county is not a collection of private islands. It’s a connected system. Well-maintained infrastructure — roads, bridges, water, and sewer systems — supports daily life and business everywhere, even where we don’t personally spend time. If roads crumble or water systems fail in one part of town, all of us feel it: in traffic, in higher costs, in lost opportunity.
Paying taxes is often framed as a burden in a culture that increasingly tells us to focus only on ourselves. But the quiet truth: paying taxes is both selfless and deeply practical. Safe streets help reduce crime everywhere. Good schools lower long-term costs. Strong public health systems prevent crises that would cost far more later.
We plant trees knowing we may never sit in their shade. Taxes work the same way. They create benefits that stretch beyond our front doors — and beyond our lifetimes.
If we want a stronger Oklahoma — safer neighborhoods, better jobs, healthier families — we have to see taxes for what they are: a shared investment in a better tomorrow for our family and our communities.
As the drumbeat grows for making drastic changes to property tax revenue that funds our schools and our communities, I urge you to help spread this message. Remind your friends and neighbors that when we invest together, we improve not just our tomorrows, but our today.
