Fallin cuts top tax rate, says state revenue growth is enough.

[Townsend]

And there he is....  Have you called Hoss yet?  

You thinking about it with one free hand?

Creepy.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Hmmmmm, We are facing a budget shortfall, (lightbulb), I got an idea! Let's cut taxes and then maybe we will become debt free. Hey wait a minute...

I do not understand why so many Oklahomans fall for this time after time. These people who want taxes cut are the same people who complain that the country is in debt. We must come up with a real solution, not one that will get somebody elected again in 2012, or 2014.

Wishful thinking.  And since our top cash crop is marijuana, obviously many of those types are smoking their own product....

[guido911]

You thinking about it with one free hand?

Creepy.

Oh I'M creepy. 

[Hoss]

Oh I'M creepy. 

Stick to ambulance-chasing, counselor.

[Townsend]

House panel votes down measure to review tax credits

http://newsok.com/oklahoma-house-panel-votes-down-measure-to-review-tax-credits/article/3754483

A legislative panel rang the death knell Monday on a lawmaker’s seven-year crusade to scrutinize business tax credits by rejecting a bill that targeted 32 credits to pass legislative muster to continue. “The lobbyists win,” state Rep. David Dank said after the House of Representatives Subcommittee on revenue and taxation voted 10-3 to not advance House Bill 1371. “They continue to win. “The legislators do not have the will to look at the multimillions of dollars that are being given away in tax credits and determine which ones are benefiting the state and which ones aren’t,” he said. Dank, R-Oklahoma City, said his bill’s defeat also cripples efforts to significantly reduce the state’s personal income tax rate.

Report: Oklahoma 5th highest in U.S. in sales tax rates

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20130212_16_A7_OKLAHO777921

If you buy something in Oklahoma, the government is going to take a bigger bite than just about anywhere else in the nation, according to a Monday report from the Tax Foundation. The average combined state and local sales tax rate in Oklahoma is the fifth highest in the nation. Oklahoma’s 4.5 percent state sales tax is lower than that of any of the surrounding states. Texas, which has no state income tax, has a 6.25 percent state sales tax. But the relatively high local sales tax rates in the Oklahoma — averaging 4.17 percent — push the state into the top combined levels. Only four states — Louisiana, Colorado, New York and Alabama — have higher average local sales tax rates than Oklahoma.

[sauerkraut]

House panel votes down measure to review tax credits

http://newsok.com/oklahoma-house-panel-votes-down-measure-to-review-tax-credits/article/3754483

Report: Oklahoma 5th highest in U.S. in sales tax rates

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20130212_16_A7_OKLAHO777921

Good articles. And some people complain when Mary Fallin wants to cut taxes. We still have high taxes- The problem is gov't spending. Taxes need to be cut  across the board.

[Townsend]

And some people complain when Mary Fallin wants to cut taxes.

She's attempting to cut different taxes.

[Hoss]

She's attempting to cut different taxes.

Dem damned ole facts...

[heironymouspasparagus]

Good articles. And some people complain when Mary Fallin wants to cut taxes. We still have high taxes- The problem is gov't spending. Taxes need to be cut  across the board.

Why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth.
Will Rogers

Yeah, I know it's a repeat, but it bears repeating.

[Townsend]

Gov. Fallin rebuffs justice reinvestment funds

http://watchdog.org/71218/gov-fallin-rebuffs-justice-reinvestment-funds/

OKLAHOMA CITY – Gov. Mary Fallin’s legal counsel told the Council of State Governments  that Oklahoma will rebuff anticipated federal funds for implementation of criminal justice reform legislation passed in recent years.

Fallin supported legislative passage of the 2011-2012 “justice reinvestment” measures, designed to shift Oklahoma away from incarceration of nonviolent offenders and toward alternatives to imprisonment.

The program to move Oklahoma away from its “first-in-the-nation” levels of imprisonment was modeled in part on successful efforts in Texas, and advocated by the national “Right on Crime” group based in the Lone Star State.

After the governor signed the historic legislation, her office joined a process to secure several hundred thousand dollars for the state, in the form of one-time money from the federal Bureau of Justice Assistance. That effort was coordinated through the Council of State Governments, to finance training for law enforcement and criminal justice system personnel.

In a reversal, Fallin’s attorney last week told members of a group working on implementation of the new laws that she will forego the assistance.

Watchdog.org obtained the correspondence from members of the group of officials who have worked on implementation of the legislation since last summer.

At the moment, there is no money in the state pipeline to implement the new law, although the governor may be seeking additional appropriations to replace the federal assistanc.

In a Feb. 21 letter copied to members of the Oklahoma Justice Reinvestment Core Work Group, Rebecca R. Frazier, deputy general counsel for Fallin, told Elizabeth Lyon, state initiatives program director for CSG, “(I)t has been determined that the need for extensive additional financial support will not be needed to fund training efforts to implement Oklahoma’s Justice Reform and Reinvestment initiative. For example, due to the excellent leadership by Oklahoma’s Attorney General and the District Attorney’s Council, it was determined that these state partners would be able to train for full implementation using available resources.”

“Due to the apparent need for only modest financial resources to achieve appropriate competence for full implementation of Oklahoma’s Justice Reform and Reinvestment initiative the Governor would prefer to pay for executive branch training needs out of state budget assets,” Lyon wrote. “Please remove the requests for funding for the Department of Mental Health and Department of Corrections. Oklahoma will self-fund those important training programs.”

In her Feb. 21 letter to Lyon, Frazier said that “in October 2012, in anticipation of the need for extensive additional financial support to fund training for multiple state entities to (ensure) full implement the Justice Reform and Reinvestment initiative, Governor Fallin wrote to the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) requesting favorable consideration of an expected funding request by the Council of State Governments.”

Lyon had written members of the “core work group”, including Frazier, on Feb. 20 detailing the process she had assisted, intended to model state policies on “the best practices for policy implementation to increase public safety and to best position Oklahoma for successful implementation.”

Lyon noted in her Feb. 20 letter that the governor’s office had provided initial approval for the grant submission to CSG on Jan. 14.

Is this a good thing for Oklahoma?

[Townsend]

Two bills advance to cut Oklahoma's income tax

Oklahoma House Bill 1598 would reduce Oklahoma's top personal income tax rate from 5.25 percent to 4.99 percent, and House Bill 2032 would drop it to 5 percent. In a vote Monday along party lines, a committee of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed both measures.

http://newsok.com/two-bills-advance-to-cut-oklahomas-income-tax/article/3759121

Two bills that call for cutting Oklahoma's top personal income tax rate won easy approval Monday evening in a legislative committee.

The House of Representatives Appropriations and Budget Committee voted 17-5 to pass House Bill 1598, which would drop the top personal income tax rate from 5.25 percent to 4.99 percent.

Committee Chairman Scott Martin, R-Norman, said the reduction would cost the state about $47 million in revenue for the 2014 fiscal year, which begins July 1, and about $121 million in future years when fully implemented.
 Personal income taxes are projected to bring in about $2.1 billion of the legislatively appropriated $7 billion budget for the 2014 fiscal year.

The committee also passed HB 2032, by House Speaker T.W. Shannon, R-Lawton, which would drop the personal income tax rate to 5 percent. It passed 18-5.

All the Democrats on the committee voted against both proposals, with Reps. Joe Dorman, D-Rush Springs, and Eric Proctor, D-Tulsa, saying the loss of revenue would hurt core state functions, such as public safety, education and roads.

Martin said the tax cuts would stimulate economic development by attracting industries.

Both bills advance to the House Calendar Committee, which will determine whether they will get a hearing on the House floor.

[Townsend]

Kansas tax cuts raise budget concerns

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20130304_16_A1_CUTLIN737290

Last year, Kansas did what Oklahoma talked about. It slashed personal income tax rates, from a top bracket of 6.45 percent to 4.9 percent, and eliminated income taxes altogether for nearly 200,000 farms and businesses. Kansas’ bold step was part of a broader attack against the income tax. For Kansas, the immediate result of income tax reform has been a $700 million hit to a $6 billion general fund, which projects out to a revenue loss of $2.5 billion through 2018. In January, Bloomberg reported Kansas’ uncertain budget outlook had hurt its standing in the bond markets.

[Red Arrow]

Kansas tax cuts raise budget concerns
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20130304_16_A1_CUTLIN737290
which projects out to a revenue loss of $2.5 billion through 2018.

Is there anything special about 2018 other than being 5 years?  Most of the stuff I hear about the Federal revenue shortfalls or gains is based on 10 years.

[Townsend]

Kansas universities brace for state cuts to program funding

http://www.kansas.com/2013/03/17/2720275/kansas-universities-brace-for.html#storylink=cpy

The relentless push to shrink government and cut taxes could trigger tuition hikes and mean less state money for a program that provides aviation companies with work-ready employees. Competing versions of budget cuts from the House and Senate both include reductions in state aid for universities, a move that could add to ever-increasing tuition rates. Meanwhile, the National Center for Aviation Training in Wichita, essentially a tech college built primarily by Sedgwick County to produce work-ready employees for aircraft manufacturers, is poised to lose $2 million of the $5 million it has become accustomed to receiving from the state. Those cuts also would pluck $2 million each in funding from cancer research at the University of Kansas and animal health research at Kansas State University.

[Townsend]

No guarantee tax cut will make it through Oklahoma Legislature

http://newsok.com/no-guarantee-tax-cut-will-make-it-through-oklahoma-legislature/article/3766239

Despite unified Republican control of both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s office, this may be the second consecutive year without a tax cut after the governor proposed one. Legislative Democrats are on record opposing a tax cut, and have a surprising ally: Senate Republicans, who also oppose a tax reduction in 2014. The governor and House Republicans support a quarter-point reduction of the top rate (to 5 percent) starting next January. Senate Republicans differ from Democrats in supporting a plan to lower the top rate to 4.75 percent in 2015 while also eliminating many individual and business tax breaks.