Tax Reform Information

Oklahoma Policy Institute has been an active participant in the debate over the proposed elimination or reduction of the state personal income tax. Listed below are  presentations, fact sheets, blog posts, and other information we’ve prepared related to tax reform, as well as links to media coverage of the issue.  For resources specific to the debate on curbing the tax break for oil and gas production, click here.

• STATEMENT:  Tax cut vote ignores the wishes of Oklahomans and what’s best for economy – April 2014
• Poll: Support for tax cuts has dropped significantly – March 2014
• STATEMENT: Tax cut defies economics and common sense – March 2014
• David Boren: Wake Up Oklahoma! – Advertisement, February 2014
• STATEMENT: Striking down of tax cut offers lawmakers a lifeline  – December 2013
• Poll shows Oklahomans oppose tax cut after learning the facts – April 2013
• How the Tax Cut Proposal Would Affect Oklahoma – April 2013
• STATEMENT: Tax cut plan follows bad example – April 2013
• Economist Forum: Eliminating the Income Tax: Silver Bullet or Fool’s Gold? – April  2012
• Tax Cut Skeptics – Notable Quotes

Fact Sheets

• Together Oklahoma: Protect Essential Revenues – March 2014
• How the Tax Cut Proposal Would Affect Oklahoma – April 2013
• Severe education funding cuts threaten Oklahoma’s economic future: Oklahoma has made some of the deepest cuts to funding for local schools of any state in the country in recent years.
• Questions and Answers about the 2012 Tax Plan Agreement – Updated 5-21-2012
• Side By Side Comparison of 2012 Major Tax Cut Proposals – Updated 5-2-2012
• 9 Reasons Why Oklahoma Should Preserve the State Income Tax  [HTML Version] (earlier version available in Spanish)
• Don’t Be Fooled by Junk Economics: A 1-page fact sheet summarizing major problems with the analysis by Arthur Laffer that is being used by proponents of abolishing Oklahoma’s personal income tax.
• 10 Things You Should Know About Oklahoma’s Budget and Tax System (June 2011): Here are ten facts to help anyone better understand Oklahoma’s budget and tax system. A great conversation starter!

Click here for more fact sheets in the archives

Issue Briefs

• Action Items for Oklahoma: Tax Reform (January 2013):  OK Policy’s agenda for creating a 21st century tax system suited for a 21st century economy
• Unnecessary and Unaffordable: The Case for Curbing Oklahoma’s Oil and Gas Tax Breaks (October 2012)
• The “Tax Cut” Bait and Switch (April 2011): How losing broad-based tax credits to make way for cuts to the top income tax rate would harm average Oklahomans
• The Case for the Income Tax (November 2011): This 8-page issue brief explains why repealing or reducing the state income tax is ill-advised.
• Fixing the Sales Tax: Options for Reform (February 2011): The sales tax is the largest single source of state and local tax revenue but is increasingly falling short.
• Shining the Light on Tax Breaks (February 2010): An OK Policy brief makes the case for increasing disclosure and scrutiny of tax expenditures, the array of exemptions, credits, deductions, and the like in the tax code that allow taxes not to be paid when they otherwise would.

Reports by Others

• More Evidence You Can’t Lure Entrepreneurs With Tax Cuts (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Feb 2014)
• State Personal Income Tax Cuts: A Poor Strategy for Economic Growth (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, March 2013)
• Cutting State Personal Income Taxes Won’t Help Small Businesses Create Jobs and May Harm State Economies (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, February 2013)
• Laffer’s New Job Growth Factoid Is All Rhetoric and No Substance (Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, Feb. 2013)
• States With “High Rate” Income Taxes Are Still Outperforming No-Tax States (Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, Feb. 2013)
• Selling Snake Oil to the States: The American Legislative Exchange Council’s Flawed Prescriptions for Prosperity (Good Jobs First, Nov. 2012)
• Laffer’s Invalid Case for Phasing Out Oklahoma’s Personal Income Tax (Dr. Kent Olson, Oklahoma State University, September 2012)
• Guide to Oklahoma Tax Credits (Oklahoma Tax Commission, April 2012) 
• The Deteriorating Relationship between Oklahoma State Tax Collections and Personal Income (Dr. Robert Dauffenbach and Dr. Larkin Werner, April 2012)
• The Texas Economic Model: Hard for Other States to Follow and Not All That It Seems (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, April 2012)
• Without a State Income Tax, Other Taxes are Higher (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, March 2012)
• The Voodoo Economics of Phasing Out Oklahoma’s Personal Income Tax (Dr. Kent Olson, Oklahoma State University, March 2012)
• Putting Real Economics into an Economic Assessment of the Oklahoma Income Tax (Dr. Jonathan Willner, Oklahoma City University, March 2012)
• The Flawed Case for Eliminating Personal Income Taxation in Oklahoma (Dr. Cynthia Rogers, University of Oklahoma, March 2012)
• Tax Flight is a Myth: Higher State Taxes Bring More Revenue, Not More Migration (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2011)

Op-Eds/Blog Posts/Press Releases

• 5 things you should know about Oklahoma taxes (April 2014)
• Unpopular but inevitable? (David Blatt, Journal Record, April 2014)
• There’s still no free lunch: Impact of massive tax cuts on Kansas offer warning for Oklahoma (April 2014)
• Trigger happy (David Blatt, Journal Record, March 2014)
• Latest tax cut proposals would leave budget on auto-pilot (March 2014)
• Let’s have full accountability for tax cuts (Kent Olson, February 2014)
• Tax rate has nothing to do with Oklahoma’s economic competitiveness (David Blatt, Oklahoman, February 2014)
• Oklahoma’s tax, budget policies make no sense (Phil Busey Sr., Edmond Sun, February 2014)
• Wake Up Oklahoma! (David Boren, February 2014)
• Tax cut experiment leaves Kansans struggling (Annie McKay, February 2014)
• Graph of the Day: Tax cut will provide little benefit to most Oklahomans (February 2014)
• Do cuts in state income tax boost economic growth? (Dan Rickman, February 2014)
• The Governor’s Budget In-Depth: Budget cuts and tax cuts don’t add up (February 2014)
• Oklahoma’s gas tax needs a tune-up (January 2014)
• Cutting taxes, cutting budgets, cutting common sense (David Blatt, Journal Record,  January 2014)
• ‘How Money Walks’ has no leg to stand on (July 2013)
• After talk of reigning in tax breaks, Oklahoma added more (June 2013)
• Silver linings tax cuts (May 2013)
• Tax cuts will stunt your revenue growth (April 2013)
• Betting the franchise (April 2013)
• Do we need another tax cut? (April 2013)
• The promising life and untimely death of tax cut reform (April 2013)
• And In This Corner: The Senate’s tax plan (March 2013)
• Governor Fallin’s tax cut would do little to nothing for the average Oklahoman (February 2013)
• Tax cuts not self-funding (David Blatt, Journal Record, February, 2013)
• The dangers of cherry-picking facts (February 2013)
• Statement:  Governor’s proposed budget falls far short (February 2013)
• Tax cut drama continues (David Blatt, Journal Record, January, 2013)
• The tax shift returns (January 2013)
• The case against another income tax cut (Mickey Hepner, January 2013)
• Faulty Structures: Report puts spotlight on threats to states’ fiscal stability (August 2012)
• Guest Blog (Peter Fisher): Doctor is Out to Lunch: ALEC recommends wrong prescriptions for state economic prosperity (August 2012)
• That’s a Laffer! Top economists unanimously reject that tax cuts will yield higher revenue (July 2012)
• Guest Post (Indivar Dutta-Gupta): EITC Even Better for Children than We Thought (July 2012)
• Guest Blog (Ken Miller): Tax reform revisited (June 2012)

Click here for more op eds/blog posts/ press releases from the archives

Presentations

• 11 Things You Should Know about Oklahoma Budget and Taxes (January 2014)
• Oklahoma’s Fiscal Outlook: From Crisis to Stability (February 2013)
• Presentation to the Oklahoma Task Force on Comprehensive Tax Reform (September 2011): Oklahoma Policy Institute presented to this legislative task force on September 15, 2011. You can view the presentation on our website or download it as a PDF.

Media Coverage

• Editorial: State tax cut was a poor choice (Tulsa World, May 4, 2014)
• Editorial: No tax cuts (Journal Record, April 15, 2014)
• Editorial: Trooper pay raise not the only one that’s needed (Tulsa World, April 16, 2014)
• OU leader slams funding cuts (Tulsa World, February 16, 2014)
• Senators: Increase school funding (Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, February 14, 2013)
• Finding offsets must be part of efforts to reduce Oklahoma income tax (NewsOK, Nov 13, 2012)
• The little think tank that could (Tulsa World, June 3, 2012)
• Oklahoma’s personal income tax rate won’t be cut this year (NewsOK. May 25, 2012)
• Republican base takes a hit with GOP-backed tax cut (NewsOK, May 23, 2012)
• Now is not the time to lower taxes (Norman Transcript, May 18, 2012)
• Group of 30 state leaders oppose “tax trigger mechanisms” (CapitolBeatOK, May 16, 2012)

Click here for more media coverage from the archives

Videos

• Together OK – Together Oklahoma connects your values to state budget priorities
• The Economy Bowl – 1-minute animated video comparing the Oklahoma and Texas economies
• Eliminating The Income Tax: Silver Bullet or Fool’s Gold Highlights – 10-minute highlight reel from our forum of Oklahoma economists and economic developers
• Eliminating The Income Tax: Silver Bullet or Fool’s Gold Full – Full two-hour forum
• Why raise taxes on working families? – 4-minute video sharing personal stories of how Oklahomans would be affected by the loss of broad-based tax credits
• Why raise taxes on working families? – 39 second version
• State Chamber Tax Debate – Tax policy debate between Dr. Mickey Hepner and Dr. Arthur Laffer, moderated by State Treasurer Ken Miller