Will this be Taxapalooza Tuesday?

It's being reported that the State House will most likely be voting on the Fallin tax-and-spend plan today.

Constitutionally, tax-raising measures must begin in the House of Representatives; it appears that Legislative leadership will follow constitutional procedure this time, as opposed to how they handled the Smoking Cessation Fee Tax at the end of the Regular Session in May.

Less than 12 months ago, Oklahoma voters overwhelmingly shot down a $615M tax increase. Governor Fallin, Speaker McCall, Pro Tem Schulz and other leading Republicans are now thumbing their nose at the Oklahoma voter and persisting on their path to raise taxes in spite of the clear voice against that plan.

Worse still, Fallin and gang are shamefully using teachers and state employees as political pawns, daring legislators who respect the vote of the people to vote against the plan, and be on record as being "against" teacher and state employee pay raises in the process.

It's irresponsible to increase spending when faced with a deficit. Yet, that's what Fallin, McCall and Schulz seek to do, calculating that it will be political suicide for anyone to [very sensibly] oppose this teacher pay raise. Legislators are having a small carrot dangled in front of them, while under the shadow of a huge club.

As I said on Friday, a teacher pay raise is a worthy goal, but doing so during a deficit and by increasing taxes on Oklahomans is the wrong time and manner. Using it as blackmail to induce legislators to vote for higher taxes is disgraceful.


Go to OKLegislature.gov to find your legislator's contact information, and urge them to oppose the Fallin tax-and-spend plan.