Momentum growing for ‘Step Up’ package
PROPOSALS advanced by the nonpartisan Step Up Oklahoma coalition, like the proverbial snowball rolling downhill, continue to gather momentum via support from individuals and groups across Oklahoma. Lawmakers should take note.
The coalition began in early December with a conversation among three businessmen that, unplanned, turned into a discussion about the state’s budget problems, the Legislature’s inability to fund teacher pay raises and other concerns facing Oklahoma. In short order, those three began soliciting ideas from others.
The result, after six weeks, was a package that includes nearly $800 million in revenue-raising items, coupled with numerous government reforms. The revenue raisers include an increase in the fuel tax, passage of a $1.50-per-pack tobacco tax, an increase in the gross production tax on all wells, and elimination of some income tax deductions and tax loopholes while modernizing the tax code.
The goal is to provide $5,000 raises for teachers and principals, create a more consistent revenue stream for state government, and restructure government at the state and county levels to improve accountability. It’s a plan that’s gaining traction.
Soon after Step Up Oklahoma unveiled its proposal, the Oklahoma Oil & Gas Association and the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association endorsed it. That’s no small thing — both groups had worked hard in 2017 to defeat legislative efforts to increase the GPT from 2 percent to 4 percent, something that would cost the industry about $133.5 million.
The Oklahoma Education Association backs the plan, as does most every public education advocacy group in the state, the Oklahoma City and Tulsa school districts, and the presidents of Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma.
A group representing small independent oil and gas producers initially balked at the Step Up Oklahoma plan, saying it wanted the GPT raised to 7 percent. This week the organization changed course, provided that Step Up Oklahoma follows through on some promised tweaks to its plan. This is how things should work when the common interest is the priority — recognize an issue as legitimate, and quickly negotiate a reasonable solution.
Also this week, the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber, the Tulsa chamber, the Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits, the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy and the Oklahoma Association of Health Care Providers were among those joining the list of endorsers.
The latter is concerned about $93 million in state and federal budget cuts to Oklahoma’s nursing homes since 2010, which has led to reduced services and the closing of some nursing homes. “Something has to change,” the organization’s CEO, Nico Gomez, said.
Joe Dorman, CEO of the child advocacy group, said the Step Up Oklahoma plan “represents the best hope for shoring up services that directly impact Oklahoma children.”
The chamber’s chairwoman, Rhonda Hooper, noted the significance of such a broad cross-section of people developing the plan. That collaboration “should send a clear message, not only to our state legislators but to every Oklahoman, that it is time to work together to put the welfare of Oklahoma above individual interests,” Hooper said.
More and more Oklahomans are saying the same thing.