New revenue must be part of budget debate

T HE Legislature just completed the final week for bills to be voted on in their house of origin. The fact the House was able to finish its work Wednesday night, instead of going late into Thursday or even into Friday, indicates the leadership is keeping the trains running on a pretty good schedule.

However, it’s also true that important revenueraising bills sought by Gov. Mary Fallin to help address an $878 million budget shortfall face an uncertain future, in part because they’ve been met tepidly by House leadership.

Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, has consistently said the focus should be on finding as many efficiencies in government as possible. In discussing ways to pay for a potential teacher pay raise plan, McCall said Thursday that it needed to be accomplished “without putting our members on a vote to increase taxes.”

Yet we've been disappointed by continued reluctance to get behind Fallin’s call for a $1.50-per-pack increase in the cigarette tax, which has the potential to generate $180 million to $200 million for health care. This is an idea that’s popular with the voting public — support is in the 65 percent range — and would lead tens of thousands of Oklahoma adults to quit smoking while preventing a similar number of youngsters from ever smoking in the first place.

Any tax increase coming from the Legislature requires three-fourths support in each chamber. Some conservative Republicans will oppose any tax increase ideas. This means the GOP would need the help of House Democrats, who on Thursday proposed $1.4 billion worth of revenue increases that include raising taxes on tobacco, on individuals who make more than $100,00 per year, and on oil and gas production.

An increase in the state’s tax on gasoline and diesel fuel was another part of Fallin’s budget proposal, and it also has received a cool reception. A Republican senator has floated a gas tax increase to pay for teacher raises, but revenue-raising measures must originate in the House.

Rep. Leslie Osborn, chairwoman of the Appropriations and Budget Committee, said last week that “everything is on the table” including taxes on tobacco, fuel and services, along with tax credits, tax exemptions and tax deductions. Osborn, R-Mustang, deserves credit for putting forward the tobacco tax bill, and for acknowledging that simply continuing to cut state agencies, as has been the norm the past three years, cannot be the default approach for lawmakers in her party. This is something Fallin, state Treasurer Ken Miller and state finance secretary Preston Doerflinger — all conservative Republicans — have spoken about many times as well.

David Blatt with the Oklahoma Policy Institute told our editorial board last week that he’s more worried about this year’s budget than any in the past. “There doesn’t seem to be a sign that any of the revenue options put out there are really gathering support,” Blatt said.

We're all for making government as efficient as possible. Yet strict adherence to ideology can't continue to rule the day. The state of the state budget requires letting go of party line beliefs, at least to some degree.

Otherwise, the session may not end in late May as scheduled. Fallin has said she would consider vetoing the budget if lawmakers resort solely to slashing state agencies. She may get the chance to prove she's not bluffing.