Whose side are they on? (Capitol Updates)

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. You can sign up on his website to receive the Capitol Updates newsletter by email.

When the equalization board met on Tuesday, the board members approved a revenue certification that grew the budget gap between this year and next year from $900.8 million to $1.1 billion. This could use up nearly half of the $466 million in tax increases Governor Fallin proposed in her FY-17 budget without even beginning to cure the original budget hole.

The difficulty of the task at hand for legislators was demonstrated by the reaction to the Senate Finance Committee’s first actions on sales tax exemptions. The governor issued a statement saying lawmakers need to be careful “not to harm economic development prospects by hampering the state’s ability to diversify its economy and create jobs.” Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman reminded the governor it was she who proposed tax reform in her state of the state address on February 1st.

“It’s disappointing that less than two weeks into the legislative session, however, there already is a retreat from the idea of simply examining whether or not tax incentives are working,” Bingman said. “The alternative is deep cuts to core services like education, public safety and transportation, which all of us are trying to avoid.” $200 million of the governor’s tax proposal was supposed to be gained by eliminating sales tax exemptions. If the legislature can’t even talk about an exemption enjoyed by a company who is “considering” bringing some jobs to Oklahoma, how hard is it going to be to actually remove an exemption on people who are already here?

This session is going to be one where members are called on to look at whose side they are on. Are they on the side of the 3rd grader trying to learn to read in an overcrowded classroom taught by a substitute teacher with less than adequate experience or on the side of the “job creators” who claim they need low taxes to make Oklahoma “business friendly.” In other years maybe it was possible to claim both sides. Probably not this year.