Funding Core Services
Obviously, as a teacher, Public Education is one of my greatest motivations for running for office. Our Legislature has made the deepest cuts to education of any other state in the nation (28%) over the last ten years. However, it's not just education that has seen deep cuts with the state's annual budget shortfalls. In fact, just as recently as February, the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, Oklahoma Health Care Authority, and the Department of Human Services all faced a budget crisis so critical that they nearly ran out of money before the Legislature took action. Additionally, there is a waiting list in Oklahoma for residents with developmental disabilities that exceeds 7,000 people. Our state Legislature has not appropriated funding to help reduce this list, and many individuals on the list literally die waiting for resources to improve their care of living. We need to fund our state agencies, and the best way to do that is through revenue raising measures that minimally impact the lower- and middle-class. Such measures would include legislation like eliminating Capital Gains (a tax exemption for the wealthy), restructuring income tax brackets (anyone who makes over $7,200 a year pays the same 5% tax rate), and restoring GPT to its original 7 percent.
Vouchers and ESAs
Part of increasing funding for education means combating legislation that would take money from traditional public education to put towards charter and private schools. Research has shown how the privatization of the education system contributes to systemic racism, discriminates against students with disabilities, and diminishes the quality of the traditional public education system as traditional schools are forced to do more work with less funds.
Human Rights
The Oklahoma Legislature's continual perpetuation of legislation seeking to discriminate against individuals based on race, gender, and sexual orientation is shameful. Most recently, SB1140--a bill seeking to allow discrimination against adopting couples on the basis of a couples' sexual orientation, religious affiliation, or relationship status--passed out of the judiciary committee along a party line vote. Such legislation does nothing to progress society towards true equality for all people. Likewise, such legislation ends up burdening the taxpayer as it inevitably will get caught in the judiciary system as it's reviewed for constitutionality.
Criminal Justice Reform
Over the course of the next ten years, the prison population in Oklahoma is projected to rise by 25%. This increase will cost the taxpayer approximately $2 billion dollars over the next decade. This is a cost unlikely to be covered by our current Legislature, which means prisons will continue to be overcrowded and understaffed, making the environment unsafe both for corrections officers as well as inmates. Rather than continue to fill our prisons with those charged with minor drug crimes, Oklahoma needs to invest in programs that provide counseling and rehabilitation services for non-violent offenders. Such programs reduce an individual's probability of becoming a repeat offender, and they cost the taxpayer less money.
Sounds great...but how?
The aforementioned reforms must be made without the passage of regressive taxes that disproportionately burden the lower- and middle- class. Such legislation would look like the following:
- Restore Income Tax Brackets ($150-$300 million): Much of the continual cuts to our state budget come from the income tax cuts our Legislature has facilitated since the mid 2000s. Over 43% of those who have enjoyed benefits from income tax cuts belong to the top 5% of wealthy Oklahoman households. If we restored the income tax bracket to 5.25% (up from 5%), it would generate approximately $150 million dollars in revenue for the state, while costing the average family only an additional $30-40 per year in taxes. Something I'd like to see done, additionally, is the institution of a 6% tax bracket for single earners making more than $100,000 ($200,000 for joint earners) and a 7% tax bracket for single earners making more than $200,000 ($400,000 for joint earners). These additional tax brackets would affect only 3% of Oklahoman households, while generating close to $300 million in revenue.
- Eliminate Capital Gains ($40-100 million): While the true estimated revenue this would generate is volatile (anywhere from $40 million to $100 million depending on agriculture exemptions), this is a tax exemption that an independent agency's audit revealed has lost Oklahoma $450 million in revenue over the course of the last 4 years. Of those who benefit from Capital Gains, 64% of the benefits went to 824 households in Oklahoma--all with incomes of more than $1 million. The true beneficiaries of this exemption, despite what legislators may say, are those who hold stock in companies based in Oklahoma (hint: oil and gas). If an individual who has stock in an Oklahoma company (regardless of whether this individual is an Oklahoma resident or not) sells his/her stock for a profit, they do not have to pay taxes on their profit under the capital gains exemption.
- Restore GPT to 7% for the first 36 months (>$300 million): We made progress with HB1010xx in raising oil and gas's Gross Production Tax from 2% to 5%, but it's time to take the "incentive rate" back up to 7%. The reason rate used to be so low was to incentivize oil and gas companies to come to Oklahoma and explore horizontal drilling (fracking) in the '90s. The time has long since passed that oil and gas has needed any persuasion to drill in Oklahoma. They're here. The oil is here. They need to begin paying a rate comparable (but still lower than) neighboring states' GPT.
- Mandate Combined Reporting ($70 million):
States such as Kansas, Texas, and Colorado have already adopted legislation that mandate combined reporting. As Oklahoma law currently stands, national corporations can use multiple avenues to exploit tax structures by shifting profits from one state subsidiary to the next. While local Oklahoma businesses don't have any option but to pay corporate tax rates in Oklahoma (as all of their subsidiaries are in one state), national corporations with subsidiaries in many states can shift their income around to avoid paying corporate taxes in Oklahoma. Mandating combined reporting would ensure that national corporations pay their fair share to the state, while leveling the playing field for locally owned business.
- Restore Income Tax Brackets ($150-$300 million): Much of the continual cuts to our state budget come from the income tax cuts our Legislature has facilitated since the mid 2000s. Over 43% of those who have enjoyed benefits from income tax cuts belong to the top 5% of wealthy Oklahoman households. If we restored the income tax bracket to 5.25% (up from 5%), it would generate approximately $150 million dollars in revenue for the state, while costing the average family only an additional $30-40 per year in taxes. Something I'd like to see done, additionally, is the institution of a 6% tax bracket for single earners making more than $100,000 ($200,000 for joint earners) and a 7% tax bracket for single earners making more than $200,000 ($400,000 for joint earners). These additional tax brackets would affect only 3% of Oklahoman households, while generating close to $300 million in revenue.
- Eliminate Capital Gains ($40-100 million): While the true estimated revenue this would generate is volatile (anywhere from $40 million to $100 million depending on agriculture exemptions), this is a tax exemption that an independent agency's audit revealed has lost Oklahoma $450 million in revenue over the course of the last 4 years. Of those who benefit from Capital Gains, 64% of the benefits went to 824 households in Oklahoma--all with incomes of more than $1 million. The true beneficiaries of this exemption, despite what legislators may say, are those who hold stock in companies based in Oklahoma (hint: oil and gas). If an individual who has stock in an Oklahoma company (regardless of whether this individual is an Oklahoma resident or not) sells his/her stock for a profit, they do not have to pay taxes on their profit under the capital gains exemption.
- Restore GPT to 7% for the first 36 months (>$300 million): We made progress with HB1010xx in raising oil and gas's Gross Production Tax from 2% to 5%, but it's time to take the "incentive rate" back up to 7%. The reason rate used to be so low was to incentivize oil and gas companies to come to Oklahoma and explore horizontal drilling (fracking) in the '90s. The time has long since passed that oil and gas has needed any persuasion to drill in Oklahoma. They're here. The oil is here. They need to begin paying a rate comparable (but still lower than) neighboring states' GPT.
- Mandate Combined Reporting ($70 million):
States such as Kansas, Texas, and Colorado have already adopted legislation that mandate combined reporting. As Oklahoma law currently stands, national corporations can use multiple avenues to exploit tax structures by shifting profits from one state subsidiary to the next. While local Oklahoma businesses don't have any option but to pay corporate tax rates in Oklahoma (as all of their subsidiaries are in one state), national corporations with subsidiaries in many states can shift their income around to avoid paying corporate taxes in Oklahoma. Mandating combined reporting would ensure that national corporations pay their fair share to the state, while leveling the playing field for locally owned business.