Ken Miller is State Treasurer and a member of the the Task Force for the Study of Tax Credits and Economic Incentives.  This originally appeared as an article in the November Oklahoma Economic Report and is reprinted with permission. For an earlier blog post on tax credit reform by Task Force co-chair David Dank, click here, and see this piece laying out OK Policy’s position.

Critics contend that if politicians are good at anything, it is studying something to death. While this legislative interim has been full of task forces and studies, many promise to be more than just simple academic exercises. True, some are meant to garner attention for a favored issue. Others are meant to bolster an opinion. And some are honest undertakings in search of good policy.

And there are some with elements of each of the above. Facing a December 31 report deadline, the Task Force for the Study of Tax Credits and Economic Incentives is preparing final recommendations.

It is this task force member’s hope that rhetoric and ideology will play a subordinate role to sound policy and economic reality. The task force recommendations can impact our business climate for years to come and must take into account the competitiveness of states in attracting industry and economic growth. Read the rest of this entry »

Rep. David Dank is co-chair of the Tax Credit Task Force. This is his opening statement to the Task Force’s meeting of November 9th. It is reprinted with permission and has been edited for length as indicated by [...] The full unabridged statement can be seen here. A column presenting OK Policy’s recommendations for tax reform that previously appeared on Oklahoma Watch can be seen here.

[…] The very first question we need to ask today is who we are representing here []

I think the only valid answer is, The Taxpayers.

Not the special interests who have benefited from many of these tax credits… and certainly not the few who have manipulated this system for personal gain.

I think we should also make a second thing clear today [] We are not against business. We don’t oppose growth. We believe that government policy can help create jobs. We don’t think all credits or incentives are bad.

What I think most of us believe after all we have heard here is that far too many tax credits and other incentives enacted in the past were created for the wrong reasons, and in the wrong way. Read the rest of this entry »

This post originally appeared on Oklahoma Watch as part of their Oklahoma Voices series. The legislative task force that has been studying tax breaks will vote on final recommendations at its November 30 meeting. Also appearing today on our blog is a statement by tax force co-chair Rep. David Dank.

The Oklahoma tax code contains hundreds of credits, deductions, and other special breaks that cost the state billions of dollars each year. In the last few months, a legislative task force has uncovered numerous tax credits and deductions that lack public transparency, adequate monitoring, or any clear proof that Oklahoma was getting its money’s worth.

For political reasons, it is sometimes easier for lawmakers to change the tax code rather than fund a state program to do the job directly. Yet monkeying with the tax code is often a less efficient way to achieve a goal. For example, in 2007 Sen. Mike Mazzei proposed a tax credit that would reimburse 20 percent of the cost of health club memberships. The measure, which did not pass, was intended to combat obesity. Yet there was no way to ensure that the credit was not wasted on those who would have joined a health club without it. If we instead invested those funds in public health programs to promote physical fitness, we could ensure that the money is spent on those who need it. Read the rest of this entry »

What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk is dedicated to this week’s events, publications, and blog posts.

This week the Census Bureau released new state-level data on income, poverty and health insurance coverage in 2010.  The Tulsa World interviewed our Director David Blatt on the rising poverty rate in Oklahoma.  Yesterday’s OK Policy blog post – Poverty rises in Oklahoma; children especially bearing the brunt -  concludes that despite experiencing a comparatively less severe recession than most other states, the situation for those at the bottom in Oklahoma is more fragile than ever. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the past several months, we have blogged several times on state tax incentives, in particular on the need to strengthen transparency and evaluation of tax credit programs (see our posts here,  here, here and here). The issue  seems to be quickly gaining critical mass.  In September, a Joint Legislative Task Force chaired by Senator Mike Mazzei and Representative Jeff Hickman began examining transferable tax credits (the Task Force meets again November 5th in Tulsa). Earlier this month, Representative Mike Reynolds called for an investigation into possible abuses associated specifically with two transferable tax credit programs, the Small Business Capital Companies credit and the Rural Small Business Capital Companies credit.  The Oklahoman has taken note, arguing in this editorial that, “while we remain convinced that some incentive programs are justified, the potential for abuse makes the scrutiny vital and timely.”

One common argument for tax incentives is that in the competitive world of state economic development, states that fail to offer tax breaks to entice companies to invest or stay put will see investment and jobs shift elsewhere. Read the rest of this entry »