Oklahoman Supports Fallin, Modest Cuts
Oklahoma tax cut proposal modest for a sandwich state
The Oklahoman Editorial | Published: February 18, 2013
GOV. Mary Fallin and legislative leaders have touted income tax cuts by saying previous cuts led to higher revenues, not reductions. A countering view is that tax cuts can never lead to higher revenues but growth that would have happened anyway can make it appear that way.
These are two ways of looking at the same thing. We can never say with certainty what might have happened had some policy or another not been enacted.
State Finance Secretary Preston Doerflinger is among those echoing the lower taxes/higher revenue argument. He has some recent numbers to back him up. Despite the top state personal income tax rate dropping from 5.5 percent to 5.25 percent, income tax receipts are rising and hit a healthy $578.3 million in January.
“Income tax collections are outperforming expectations by double digits through the first seven months of fiscal year 2013,” Doerflinger said. This paints a picture of an expanding economy and forms justification for another incremental tax rate cut, to 5 percent.