With the first month of the 2026 legislative session in the rearview mirror, lawmakers are making progress on the thousands of bills filed at the beginning of the year.
The first set of deadlines have come and gone, and Oklahoma Farm Bureau has kept an eye on several bills of note, including two bills relating to personal property tax.
HB 3433 by Rep. Jonathan Wilk would set a depreciation schedule for agricultural equipment and set a $15-per-year in-lieu tax once the equipment reaches a low value. HB 3178 by Rep. Nick Archer, a similar bill under consideration, would not require an in-lieu tax at all once the equipment reaches a low depreciation value.
While OKFB does not believe both bills will pass, either proposed tax break would be a welcome change to farmers and ranchers who often keep equipment for decades or even generations.
Across the rotunda, the Senate has seen a few bills seeking to modify the state’s homestead ad valorem tax exemption.
Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton has authored two homestead exemption bills in an attempt to find beneficial tax cuts for landowners, including SB 2146. This measure would allow the homestead exemption to include any land classified as agricultural land, changing the 160-acre cap that is currently in place.
SB 1809, Paxton’s second homestead bill, would increase the homestead exemption from $1,000 to $5,000. This would increase landowner savings from $50 per year to $350 per year, but it would come with a cost of millions of dollars in lost county tax revenue. OKFB will continue to monitor the legislation, advocating for landowner tax relief without jeopardizing Oklahoma’s rural communities.
OKFB members are likely familiar with the Right to Repair, which has been a prevalent topic at the national level for many years, but the discussion has moved down to the state level in Oklahoma with Rep. Mark Lawson’s HB 3617. The bill would require equipment manufacturers to make parts and diagnostic materials available to independent repair providers, giving farmers and ranchers more options when it comes to repairing high-tech agricultural equipment.
OKFB is keeping an eye on the measure at the state level but is unsure of the implications of varying rules from state to state and prefers to manage the issue on a national level.
Finally, OKFB is monitoring HB 3270 by Rep. Nick Archer, which has taken an interesting direction in the first month of work at the state Capitol. What started as a bill seeking to limit the transportation of feral hogs has become a bill regarding chronic wasting disease in deer. The bill, which now seeks to move disease management and oversight from the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife to the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry, is no longer as relevant to Farm Bureau members and is a good reminder to keep a watchful eye on a bill’s language as it moves throughout the legislative process.
To stay up to date on what OKFB is doing at the state Capitol during legislatives session, be sure to tune in to OKFB’s weekly public policy update each Friday at noon via Zoom. Contact your field representative for more information on how to get connected.
