Letter: ‘You can’t tax-cut your way out’ of budget trouble

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

239

COMMENTARY

tax-cut your way out — A packed gallery watches questions on HB 1054X, the revenue bill featuring a gross production tax hike on Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017. (William W. Savage III)

To the editors:

Republicans just don’t get it. You can’t tax-cut your way out of our self-imposed state revenue failure. Yet, on Thursday, Nov. 9, Republican leadership in the state House sent a measure to the Senate that would exempt semis and trailers, cargo vehicles and (even) oil-field fracking tanks from the new automobile sales tax they just passed this spring, according to an article in The Oklahoman.

The same paper reveals that the Legislature’s failure to resolve the budget crisis forced the Oklahoma Health Care Authority to slash their budget for SoonerCare, the health care program for the poorest citizens in our state: 9 percent across-the-board cuts, 4 percent from nursing facilities, 4 percent from intermediate care facilities and 4 percent from nursing facilities for AIDS patients. Even if additional tax cuts do benefit big companies with large fleets like Love’s and Walmart, they will also further threaten the lives of seniors and people with disabilities.

In fact, the Legislature can’t even tell you how much they already give away in tax discounts to corporations that should be paying more of their assessed taxes to help pull the state out of the crisis. When will voters demand that Republicans finally stop catering to their wealthiest corporate donors and start protecting vulnerable and middle-class taxpayers from the financial disaster that the Republican majority has created?

Phyllis Bryant
Edmond, Oklahoma

(Editor’s Note: As a responsible public forum, NonDoc runs Letters to the Editors up to about 300 words and reserves the right to edit lightly for length, style and grammar. To submit a letter for publication, please write to letters@nondoc.com.)