{"id":18200,"date":"2014-01-30T06:19:03","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T12:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=18200"},"modified":"2014-01-30T06:34:49","modified_gmt":"2014-01-30T12:34:49","slug":"the-legacy-and-challenges-of-a-state-question-that-shapes-bills-decades-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/01\/30\/the-legacy-and-challenges-of-a-state-question-that-shapes-bills-decades-later\/","title":{"rendered":"The Legacy and Challenges of a State Question That Shapes Bills Decades Later"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Oklahoma<\/a><\/p>\n

LLudo \/ Flickr<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>

When the 2014 legislative session starts Feb. 3, state lawmakers will face more than 2,000 bills and resolutions, and are expected to have $170 million less to spend<\/a> than last year. They will also be confronted by agency heads, most of which will argue, publicly, for more money.<\/p>

Many of the bills under consideration this year address revenue and spending, directly. Republican measures to cut the income tax, for example, or gross production taxes on oil and gas activity the energy industry would like to reduce<\/a>.<\/p>

But all the budget meetings and bills \u2014 from pension reform to bonds for storm shelter construction at public schools<\/a> \u2014 are affected by government funding, and will be shaped by a single state question Oklahoma voters made into law more than 20 years ago.<\/p>

<\/p>\n

Born from Bust<\/h4>

Oklahoma government seems like it\u2019s designed to wither on the vine. For the last two decades, it’s been nearly impossible to raise state taxes in Oklahoma.<\/p>

\u201cYou need to have a super-majority in the house and the senate, and the governor has to sign it,” says Alexander Holmes, a Regent’s Professor of Economics at the University of Oklahoma, where he chairs the Economics Department. “You have to have all three parties in order to increase taxes.\u201d<\/p>

Oklahoma voters in 1992 approved State Question 640, a measure that forced any tax increase to go before a vote of the people if it doesn\u2019t win a three-fourths vote in both houses of the legislature.<\/p>

\u201cIn Oklahoma, I’m still betting that if you reduce the taxes you can never make them go up again,” Holmes says.<\/p>

Holmes knows a lot about State Question 640 because he was at the Capitol when the effort was born. From 1987 to 1991, he was the state budget director and Gov. Henry Bellmon\u2019s Secretary of Finance and Revenue. Holmes says oil busts in the 1980s spurred a double-dip recession that forced Bellmon and lawmakers to raise taxes to fill state budget gaps. At the same time, Bellmon was pushing for a $230 million school reform package that was passed through an emergency clause, which prompted outcry from opponents who wanted a statewide vote.<\/p>

\u201cIt was a bloody, brutal battle,” Holmes says.<\/p>

Backers\u00a0of State Question 640 soundly outspent their rivals, and Oklahoma voters approved the measure by a 56 percent majority.<\/p>\n

Limit Not Limiting<\/h4>

Now, 23 years later, Preston Doerflinger has Holmes\u2019 old job.<\/p>

\u201cAs far as 640 goes, it just doesn’t enter into the equation,\u201d says Doerflinger, who serves as Gov. Mary Fallin’s Secretary of Finance and Revenue and director of the\u00a0Office of Management and Enterprise Services.<\/p>

Doerflinger isn\u2019t worried about the tax revenue limitation. He says Oklahomans wouldn\u2019t want to raise taxes even if it were easier, politically.<\/p>

\u201cIf anything, I think you’ll see continue to see moves to reduce taxes,” he says. “Whether that be through income tax, franchise tax, there are other places that I think the citizens of this state would rather see their tax burdens decreased.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Related<\/h4>\n
\n
Posts<\/h5>\n