Lawmakers are finally starting to look at revenue options (Capitol Update)

Steve Lewis served as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1989-1991. He currently practices law in Tulsa and represents clients at the Capitol.

Last week saw a flurry of bills meet the deadline for floor passage in their house of origin. With so many bills and last-minute amendments jammed into one week, it’s difficult even for legislators to keep up with what happened. But generally, legislators peeled away another layer of the onion and now have until April 13th to get bills out of committee in the other house. Then, by April 27th Senate Bills must pass the House floor and House Bills must pass the Senate floor.

Concurrently, the appropriations process is now formally (finally) moving. The Joint Committee on Appropriations and Budget (JCAB) will hold its first meeting today. Deadlines don’t apply to JCAB bills, so appropriations and any revenue measures will get their first hearing in JCAB between now and the end of session. With nine weeks to go in session, it’s time to be concerned if you direct or work for a state agency, manage or teach in a public school, contract with the state to provide a service from building roads to providing healthcare, or if you rely on any services provided by those folks — which is all of us.

House Democrats announced their willingness to support an increase in gross production tax and state income tax on higher income individuals and families that they say will raise over $1 billion when combined with the increase in the cigarette tax proposed by Republicans. But Democratic Leader Scott Inman made it clear that to get significant Democratic support, there’s going to have to be more to the Republican proposals than a cigarette tax and the massive repeal of state sales tax exemptions proposed by Governor Fallin, which is a non-starter.

I’m not sure how much if any of this is realistic on either side, but it’s at least a good sign that both parties are talking out loud about specific revenue proposals much earlier than last year. The problem is, there’s no evidence they are talking to each other yet. Last year they waited until only days were left in the session to start talking and ran out of time before they could find common ground. The ball is really in the court of the majority Republicans. They control the agenda. But the Democrats have now signaled their willingness to do more than just stand back and throw rocks.