In a press release Thursday, the Tulsa County Assessor’s Office doesn’t apologize, but does “understand the importance of clear and accurate communication with property owners, and regrets any confusion caused by a printing issue.” Let’s hope no citizen suffered cardiac arrest from bad information.
The assessor’s release continued: A printing subcontractor’s error caused an unknown number of “Notices of Valuation Increase” to be printed on the wrong form, rendering them illegible and unusable. The vendor subsequently mailed the entire printing to both residential and commercial property owners, but is unable to identify which taxpayers received the illegible forms, or precisely how many.
“As soon as we were made aware of the issue by taxpayers, we investigated the source and extent of the issue. We then informed the public through a statement on our website, and began the process of immediate repair,” said Tulsa County Assessor John Wright. “We have identified that this office provided correct data and printing specifications. A printing error occurred during the vendor’s production process.”
County Assessor offices are statutorily required to print and mail a paper form to all property owners whose valuation increased over the previous year. Upon the date of mailing, a property owner has 30 days to file a protest if they disagree with the valuation. The notice also identifies several existing exemptions which may be available to the taxpayer.
The Tulsa County Assessor’s Office typically sends approximately 200,000 notices annually, divided into three mailing groups over several weeks. This issue occurred in the first mailing group of 2026, which contained 91,898 notices.
“Upon contact from our office, the vendor conducted an investigation and determined that a box of forms had been mislabeled, resulting in an estimated few hundred incorrect printings (less than one percent),” said Wright. “Unfortunately, the vendor cannot specifically identify which accounts received the wrong form. If we could identify those accounts, we would resend only that range; however, to ensure compliance with our statutory duty, and confidence in our accuracy, I have made the difficult decision that the entire group must be resent,” continued Wright.
New, corrected notices are expected to be printed and mailed within approximately one week. The mailing of the replacement notices will restart the 30-day protest period. Tulsa County property owners who received a “Notice of Valuation Increase” dated 27 JAN should disregard it, and rely on the new, corrected notice.
Assessor Wright concluded, “Going forward, in our commitment to accuracy, and transparency, this office will implement additional electronic and logistical safeguards in all future mailings to prevent a similar error. We hold a serious obligation to ensure all property owners receive a correct, legible, reproducible notice so they may confidently exercise their constitutional right to proper redress.”