The biggest tax increase in Oklahoma history was completely unnecessary.
Every month, State Treasurer Ken Miller reports record-breaking revenues from virtually every revenue stream. A conservative estimate is that the state will see a budget surplus of more than $1.3 billion even when you don’t take into account money from the new taxes on cigarettes, gasoline and energy production.
Gov. Mary Fallin, the Democrats and the liberal Republican leadership jumped the gun and pushed through higher taxes when they knew they were not needed.
The liberal media did its part to deceive the public. Even now, when higher revenues break records every month, the press reports that the increases were not as much as projected.
What? More money than ever is coming in and the “fake news” is that, sure, it’s a lot, but it’s not as much as we projected. State finance officials are notorious for bad predictions on tax revenues.
No, the story has to be somewhat negative because the teachers’ union, the Democrats, agency chiefs and the Republican leadership have to have that back story to push for more tax increases when the 2019 session begins in February.
The underlying goal is to grow state government. Elected officials and agency heads can never seem to get enough.
The facts don’t lie. Oklahomans are paying too much in taxes and that is evident each and every month.