THEY CAN'T SAY NO!
by Steve Fair
Oklahoma
State Treasurer Ken Miller announced that total gross receipts into the state
treasury for the month of May were a record high of $971 million. Miller also announced that revenues into the
state for the past 12 months are within $14 million of matching the all-time
12-month record for collections. “As has been the case each month for more than a
year, Oklahoma’s economy is showing signs of ongoing expansion. In just the
past 14 months, since 12-month collections last bottomed out, gross receipts
have grown by more than $1.3 billion, an increase of more than 12 percent,” Miller said. Some of the revenue collected in May was from
changes in sales tax exemptions that were eliminated in 2017, but the bulk is
because the energy sector has rebounded and as oil/gas goes, so goes Oklahoma
state government’s revenue stream.
First, the new taxes enacted by the
legislature in March are not reflected in these revenue numbers. That means Oklahoma state government revenue
will most likely be at record levels for the next couple of years. The ‘holes in the budget’ will plug
themselves and state lawmakers will be looking for more programs to fund and
raises to give. Government will grow and
hardworking Oklahomans will foot the bill.
Since the common education lobby was
successful in convincing the legislature to pass historical tax increases this past
session to fund teacher pay increases, it is certain they will be back asking
for more money and will likely get it.
Second, the record revenue recovery makes
the largest tax increase in Oklahoma history passed in March even harder to
swallow. Taxpayers were told by virtually
every elected official the only way Oklahoma government could get out of the
‘budget hole’ was to tax ourselves more. Now we find out that if we would have
just waited, the revenue stream would have improved and the tax increases would
not have been necessary.
There are two reasons we are in this
‘cycle of customs’ in Oklahoma. The
first reason is we send rank novices to 23rd and Lincoln. Many of our lawmakers never paid attention to
Oklahoma public policy in their life until they were elected and now they are
in charge of it. That is a recipe for
disaster. Secondly, many of those
elected don’t have the iron rail up the shirt tail to handle the pressure of
lobbyists and legislative leadership. Like Ado Annie in the musical Oklahoma,
they just can’t say no.
This miraculous revenue recovery is not a
new phenomenon. This has happened
repeatedly in Oklahoma simply because Oklahoma government revenue is so
dependent on the oil/gas industry. Unfortunately,
instead of fixing the ups and downs, elected officials panic, convince the
public that state government is broke, and then pass permanent tax increases
that never go away.
All of the GOP candidates running for
Governor are advocating auditing state government. That’s all well and good, but until we have a
state legislature with the courage to cut government, auditing will be nothing
more than smoke and mirrors. And the tax
goes on- and the tax goes on
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