Articles

Putting a veil around total education expenses is a step backward in the debate over total state spending. An honest debate on public education funding calls for more transparency, not less.

On Monday, Gov. Mary Fallin will deliver her final State of the State address to open the 2018 legislative session. For the governor in her final year in office, and for the Legislature in the second year of session, there’s plenty of unfinished business.

In 2015 a very important piece of legislation, House Bill 1748, required Oklahoma state agencies to publicly report the amount of federal funding they receive and the strings attached to that money. The measure passed overwhelmingly in both chambers.

The time has come to reform TSET in two ways. First, new tobacco settlement dollars should be redirected to high-priority health care needs (rural hospitals, care for veterans, etc.). Second, TSET’s endowment should be reduced, capped, and limited to helping people quit smoking and to health care needs related to smoking (what most people thought TSET was about in the first place).

The legislature should repeal its zero-emission tax credit for all sources of zero-emission power, not just wind.

Because taxing income means disincentivizing paid work, OCPA advocates shifting the state of Oklahoma away from reliance on income taxes. Moreover, state lawmakers should eliminate the possibility of local income taxes within Oklahoma—while allowing city governments to access available and stable sources of revenue to support the legitimate ends of local government.

Oklahoma needs greater transparency, an all-funds budget, and a streamlined revenue-estimation process.

In 2018 much of the focus in the state Capitol building will be on building a budget. But in this issue of Perspective, we urge policymakers to remember the larger imperative: building a state.

Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein may face criminal charges from Los Angles to London. If he does, he can pay part of his legal bills with money from Oklahoma taxpayers.

The Tax Foundation, a well-known nonprofit that studies fiscal policy across the United States, has issued a critical analysis of the combination of tax changes and tax increases advanced over the past two weeks by Step Up Oklahoma.