Stitt considers another special session for tax cuts
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – The first half of the 59th Oklahoma legislature is in the books, but the Governor is now considering a special session dealing with tax cuts.
Governor Kevin Stitt achieved his education reform priority: private school tax credits. But he did not get the tax cuts he was hoping for.
Stitt asked for personal income, corporate, and grocery sales tax cuts.
Last year, he called lawmakers in for a special session to figure out tax cuts, but it accomplished nothing.
It sounds like he will try again this year.
“I’m considering calling people back for another special session,” said Governor Stitt.
This week, Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat didn’t sound supportive of that idea.
“He did it last year but it didn’t work out for him. I don’t anticipate him doing that this year,” said Treat.
Instead of the tax cuts the Governor wanted, the legislature passed an elimination to the franchise tax and changed the tax code to benefit married couples.
“We tried to look at balancing recurring revenue and those tax cuts that we can afford through the franchise and the marriage penalty, we were ready to accept,” said Treat. “We thought those were good policy and good measures financially.”
Democrats agree with Treat that the budget cannot handle more tax cuts.
“It’s kind of strange to think about catastrophic tax cuts that would totally change the income base when we’ve already committed, in three years, $250 million to private school vouchers, and when you look at that it’s growing over time,” said Sen. Julia Kirt, D-OKC.
As it stands, the budget would cost the state close to $13 billion.
Stitt said that parts of the budget were too expensive, but he didn’t say specifically.
“It looks like we’re spending a lot of our savings account and we’re also raising the base level expenses above recurring revenue I think it puts us in a harmful situation,” said Stitt.
The budget process has been running in its own special session.
The reason behind that, if the Governor makes line-item vetoes, the legislature could come back at a later date in June for overrides.