STATEMENT: Tax cut defies economics and common sense

Oklahoma Policy Institute released the following statement in response to the House passage of HB 2508 to schedule more personal and corporate income tax cuts for 2016:

More tax cuts that will provide little or no benefit to most people are the last thing Oklahomans need. Oklahoma is already a low tax state with too few college graduates. Schools are struggling to educate more students with less funds and fewer teachers than 5 years ago. We won’t be more prosperous when we’re an even lower tax state with less education. It defies economics and common sense.

It’s especially irresponsible to schedule tax cuts years in advance when we don’t know what our budget needs may be. If we can’t afford a tax cut now because revenues are down and we’re struggling to fund core services, how do we know what the best policy will be down the road? We could face a natural disaster, a drop in federal support, spiking health care costs, or who knows what. Legislators can’t predict the future, so they shouldn’t be putting our tax system on auto-pilot.