Tax stand draws criticism for some GOP candidates

A national Democratic organization ripped some Republican candidates for Oklahoma governor on Tuesday, saying they would be worse than Gov. Mary Fallin on education.

“Todd Lamb, Kevin Stitt, and Gary Richardson would continue to let Oklahoma’s schools deteriorate,” said Jared Leopold, spokesman for the Democratic Governors Association. “Oklahoma’s students and teachers deserve a governor who will support them, not someone who will be even worse on education than Mary Fallin.”

The comments came a day after a candidate forum aired on Oklahoma City’s KOKC radio in which five of the Republican gubernatorial hopefuls were asked whether they would have signed the revenue and pay raise package for teachers that became law two weeks ago. Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb, Tulsa businessman Kevin Stitt and Tulsa attorney Gary Richardson said they would not have signed the package, which included $474 million in tax hikes to give the average teacher a raise of $6,100 a year.

Fallin signed legislation on Tuesday repealing about $40 million of that revenue, which would have come from a $5 per night tax on hotel rooms.

At the forum, Lamb said the package approved by the Legislature “gets an ‘F’ in reform. I’m opposed to tax increases. We continue to kick the reform can down the road . ... I’m very frustrated and very disappointed in how this teacher pay raise was signed and how it was passed.”

Asked specifically whether he would have signed the package, former Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett said, “We would never have gotten into this mess to begin with. We wouldn’t even be dealing with it.”

Richardson said at first that he “would probably have signed the package,” but then came back a few minutes later to say he would not have signed the tax increases.

Stitt said, “No, I wouldn’t have (signed the package) without reform.”

Apparently referring to new revenue from oil and gas production, Stitt said, “My concern is tying revenue to an unsustainable source in a cyclical industry.”

Auditor and Inspector Gary Jones said he would have signed the package because it mirrored one that he offered with Democratic legislators.

Jones said, “Not only would I have signed it, I’m the one who came up with the plan.”

He said $2 billion had been cut from the revenue stream in recent years and that new money was the only way to give teachers the raise politicians had been promising.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Drew Edmondson has called for higher taxes to fund raises for teachers, education support personnel and other state workers.

Teachers from Oklahoma City, Tulsa and many other school districts were expected to continue their walkout on Wednesday.