For the sixth time, Comanche County “earned a perfect score” on an annual audit conducted by the Oklahoma Tax Commission, County Assessor Grant Edwards announced.
Only six of Oklahoma’s 77 counties received a perfect score on the 2024 audit, the OTC confirmed. Besides Comanche County, the five other counties with the perfect Performance Audit score of 200 points were Stephens, Canadian, Mayes, Oklahoma, and Wagoner counties,” Emily Haxton, the Tax Commission’s external communications and press coordinator, told Southwest Ledger.
Sixty-seven other counties met the minimum 140-point threshold of the audit. Those counties included Cotton, Grady, Greer, Harmon, Jackson, Jefferson, Kiowa and Tillman. Caddo County was one of 14 counties that did not score at least 140 points to meet the minimum threshold.
The annual audit consisted of “10 random questions as well as an Equalization Study” and “takes approximately seven months to complete,” Edwards said.
The Performance Audit is the result of substantial work performed by the State Board of Equalization (SBOE) to introduce a procedural audit, which replaced the Annual Valuation Audit in 2013.
A key component of the Performance Audit is a computer assisted mass appraisal (CAMA) market value ratio study at time of sale. A comparison of the assessor’s CAMA fair cash values to the sales prices, at time of sale, for the various classes of property gives a reliable indication as to the true and actual overall valuation levels by property class in the county as compared to the market.
Additionally, the Performance Audit contains questions relating to data collection, visual inspection, assessment administration, mapping, agricultural use value, statutory accreditation, personal property, use of approved forms, and compliance with constitutional valuation limitations.
Performance Audits provide a useful report “upon which State Board of Equalization members can rely for information regarding CAMA valuation and administrative procedures in the 77 Oklahoma counties,” the SBOE reported.