OKPOLICY.ORG
The State Chamber Research Foundation recently published its 2024 Business Leaders Poll, the result of its survey of 325 business owners and executives in Oklahoma, taken over four weeks early this summer. The State Chamber Research Foundation says its poll “is the only statewide, scientific survey that annually measures the sentiments, concerns and outlook of business leaders-from the C-suites to the corner stores-who shape Oklahoma’s economy.” The foundation does not say how or if the businesses it surveyed were randomly selected or if they are a survey of State Chamber membership.
The State Chamber Research Foundation bills itself as “the business community’s think tank” and says that “through high quality research and analysis, SCRF educates policymakers and the public about the virtues of the free enterprise system, the public policy ideas that enable free enterprise to thrive, and the positive contributions of the business community to the prosperity and welfare of the people of Oklahoma.”
The findings of the Business Leaders Poll provide insight into at least a segment of the business community on issues that will likely be on the agenda during the next legislative session.
Probably the most fundamental issue will be tax policy. Gov. Kevin Stitt has kept his insistence on eliminating the state income tax, front and center during his administration. There’s no reason to think he won’t be pressing for more income tax cuts next session.
In past sessions the House of Representatives, under the leadership of Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, has been more than willing to pass almost any tax cut that was on the table and send it to the State Senate. The Senate has taken a more cautious approach.
With the change in leadership next session, Sen. President Pro Tempore Greg Treat, R-OKC, and former Senate Appropriations Chair Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, who, among others, were instrumental in holding the line will be gone, as will be McCall. So, actions to be taken on tax cut proposals are unknown at this point.
In its “top findings” of the survey, the State Chamber Research Foundation asserts that “78 percent of business leaders favor reducing or eliminating the state income tax,” which appears to provide ammunition for the tax-cutting agenda. But when you read the survey itself, the results are much more nuanced.
For example, the report says “though supportive of income tax reform, business leaders generally do not wish to see tax cuts come at the expense of spending on core government services such as education, mental health programs, and infrastructure.”
When asked “would you rather cut income tax or increase spending on infrastructure,” a whopping 73 percent said they would rather increase spending on infrastructure. Only 24 percent said tax cuts. When the choice was between increased spending on education or tax cuts, the result was 71 percent to 28 percent favoring education spending.
The same question on mental health programs yielded 61 percent favoring increased spending on mental health programs over tax cuts. The only preference for tax cuts was over “social programs,” which were undefined. It’s hard to believe that other state government functions such as public safety and public health would not rank higher than tax cuts.
Thoughtful legislators, like thoughtful businesspeople, understand you can’t have quality education, infrastructure, and mental health programs without funding them properly. Hopefully, policymakers will take care to read the whole report, not just the bullet points on an advocacy piece.
We are currently in a good economy, so the legislature and governor are fortunate — unlike so often in the past — to have the opportunity for good choices. Wouldn’t it be better to use this rare and possibly fleeting occasion to make tangible, quantitative progress toward the kind of state these business people are asking for rather than to squander it on session after session of working to remain at the bottom of the heap?
