Palpitations, Trepidation over 'Ruination' Legislation
"Oklahoma doesn't want to end up an income-tax sandwich" between Texas and Kansas, Gov. Mary Fallin once noted. OCPA president Michael Carnuccio agrees. Today in the Journal Record, he says the time has come to move forward with Gov. Fallin's plan to "chart a course toward the gradual elimination of the state income tax."
As you might surmise, not everyone is on board with the idea. Oklahoma's institutional Left, for example, is appalled at the very mention of it. Democratic politicians -- and many Republican politicians -- don't like it. Tax consumers don't like it. As a quarter-million-dollar-a-year school bureaucrat in Jenks warned darkly, "Elimination of the personal income tax in Oklahoma will see the ruination of this state." (To which Joy Hofmeister replied: "I agree 100%!" Which was disappointing.)
Fortunately, some of Oklahoma's political leaders understand the benefits of tax reduction and can articulate them. Oklahoma's commissioner of labor, my fellow Bartlesville native Mark Costello, is duty-bound to "foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of this state." Recently on KOKH FOX 25, Commissioner Costello chatted with Carnuccio about the benefits of tax cuts.
As you might surmise, not everyone is on board with the idea. Oklahoma's institutional Left, for example, is appalled at the very mention of it. Democratic politicians -- and many Republican politicians -- don't like it. Tax consumers don't like it. As a quarter-million-dollar-a-year school bureaucrat in Jenks warned darkly, "Elimination of the personal income tax in Oklahoma will see the ruination of this state." (To which Joy Hofmeister replied: "I agree 100%!" Which was disappointing.)
Fortunately, some of Oklahoma's political leaders understand the benefits of tax reduction and can articulate them. Oklahoma's commissioner of labor, my fellow Bartlesville native Mark Costello, is duty-bound to "foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of this state." Recently on KOKH FOX 25, Commissioner Costello chatted with Carnuccio about the benefits of tax cuts.
