Budget & Tax
Trent England | October 4, 2017
Cost Avoidance #10: Legally access the rainy day fund
Trent England
#10) Legally Access the Rainy Day Fund
Oklahoma has a Constitutional Reserve Fund, more commonly known as the Rainy Day Fund, for such a time as this.
It’s worth remembering that foreign nations intentionally drove down the price of oil in hopes of harming Oklahoman and other American businesses. The resilience of our free market system blunted some of the impact, but still many Oklahomans have paid the price.
When the economy is down, so are tax collections. As Curtis Shelton has explained, it is the economy much more than tax rates that explains most of the recent fluctuations in state personal income tax revenues. (And after tax cuts in 2005 and 2006, revenues jumped.)
Earlier this year I wrote about how Oklahoma’s Constitutional Reserve Fund works and how not to take money out of it. But unlike the executive branch, the legislature has the power to use the Fund to patch up the budget in order to avoid harming taxpayers.
Trent England
David and Ann Brown Distinguished Fellow
Trent England is the David and Ann Brown Distinguished Fellow at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, where he previously served as executive vice president. He is also the founder and executive director of Save Our States, which educates Americans about the importance of the Electoral College. England is a producer of the feature-length documentary “Safeguard: An Electoral College Story.” He has appeared three times on Fox & Friends and is a frequent guest on media programs from coast to coast. He is the author of Why We Must Defend the Electoral College and a contributor to The Heritage Guide to the Constitution and One Nation Under Arrest: How Crazy Laws, Rogue Prosecutors, and Activist Judges Threaten Your Liberty. His writing has also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Washington Times, Hillsdale College's Imprimis speech digest, and other publications. Trent formerly hosted morning drive-time radio in Oklahoma City and has filled for various radio hosts including Ben Shapiro. A former legal policy analyst at The Heritage Foundation, he holds a law degree from The George Mason University School of Law and a bachelor of arts in government from Claremont McKenna College.