Coburn, others off mark with petition
Tom Coburn is a revered Oklahoman, but he and his followers are wrong as acid rain in their efforts to deprive our teachers of their pay raises by pushing a state question that would veto the laws that pay for the raises.
They call themselves Oklahoma Taxpayers Unite!, but a more apt label would be Tax Resenters. Coburn says he is their spokesman, but not “involved in organizing.” That’s akin to pouring fuel on a fire and then saying you didn’t start it.
“I’ve been to Washington,
I know how easy it is to raise taxes,” he says. Really? The taxes he complains of (severance, fuel and tobacco) were the first significant tax package in 28 years. They were signed by a governor who took office urging reduction of state income taxes to zero and passed by both houses of the Legislature, many of whose members were repeatedly elected opposing taxes on the stump. These state leaders did not go to Washington, but, to their credit, they let go of their blind adherence to an anti-tax ideology that put Oklahoma’s ability to provide core services on or near the bottom of all states in all categories.
Passage of these bills was the opposite of easy. It took years, two special sessions, recognition by rational members of the majority party that they had erred, overcoming powerful oil and tobacco lobbies, a historic teachers’ walkout, and the only tax increase by a 75 percent vote in state history. Yet Coburn wants us to believe these modest tax increases weren’t needed.
“Why is it we can’t gain efficiencies?” he asks. “Eliminate waste and inefficiency” is
To their credit, state leaders let go of their blind adherence to an anti-tax ideology that put Oklahoma’s ability to provide core services on or near the bottom of all states in all categories.
the knee-jerk response of tax resenters to any tax at any time for any purpose, and no one disagrees with that goal. However, in the past 15 years, nine tax decreases took our top income tax rate from 7 percent to 5 percent, thereby removing $1.1 billion annually from state revenues. In the past 10 years, appropriated state agencies have been reduced from 85 to 67, and state employees were reduced from 35,000 to 28,000. Just recently there have been five budget shortfalls (having less revenue than the year before) and two budget failures (not having the revenue to fund the reduced budget.) Clearly, inadequate annual revenue is the problem.
The crowning irony is that the state auditor’s office, the key agency in finding waste, has suffered a 45 percent funding reduction in the past decade.
The laws funding teacher and state worker pay raises replaced only about $450 million of the annual reductions of past tax cuts. It is a start, but they failed to provide adequate revenues going forward to fund core services. Oklahomans are suffering the consequences.
For the sake of your state, do not sign the veto petition. If it makes it to the ballot, vote against it.