Mazzei: Budget Fix Should Include Suspending Tax Cuts
Legislative options to include reconsidering tax cut
By RANDY KREHBIEL World Staff Writer
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Mazzei said Monday that Oklahoma’s “financial management options” should include suspension of the 0.25 percent reduction in the state income-tax rate that went into effect Jan. 1.
“Given the financial stress the state faces, we should consider a number of financial management options, one of which is a delay in the reduction from 5.25 to 5 percent in the top tax rate,” said Mazzei, R-Tulsa.
Mazzei last week filed Senate Bill 1073, which voids the reduction approved by the state Equalization Board in December 2014 and specifies such a reduction cannot occur in a fiscal year in which a revenue failure has been declared.
SB 1073 also raises the requirements for triggering a rate cut from 5 percent to 4.85 percent.