{"id":4001,"date":"2012-01-26T16:34:22","date_gmt":"2012-01-26T22:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=4001"},"modified":"2012-12-20T09:51:26","modified_gmt":"2012-12-20T15:51:26","slug":"an-economist-in-okc-its-about-enhancing-the-quality-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2012\/01\/26\/an-economist-in-okc-its-about-enhancing-the-quality-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"An Economist in OKC: ‘It’s about enhancing the quality of life’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Joe Wertz \/ NPR StateImpact<\/p>\n

State representatives Joe Dorman, Emily Virgin and Scott Martin paneled Wednesday's state budget forum at OETA in Oklahoma City.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Our state budget roadshow<\/a> continued last night in Oklahoma City.<\/p>

The legislative panelists answered questions about tribal tax compacts, water rights and the ongoing issues at the Department of Health Services.<\/p>

And like it was at Monday’s inaugural event<\/a> in Tulsa, much of the talk centered on the debate about Oklahoma’s income tax<\/a>.<\/p>

<\/p>

Our legislative panelists \u2014 state Rep. Joe Dorman, D-Rush Springs; Rep. Scott Martin, R-Norman and Rep. Emily Virgin, D-Norman \u2014 also talked about higher education, which legislative leaders have said will be scrutinized<\/a> in the upcoming session.<\/p>

Martin, vice-chair of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee, said \u2014 when compared to other state agencies \u2014 lawmakers don’t have as much say in how and where the State Regents for Higher Education spend their appropriation.<\/p>

While lawmakers might have have laid out ideas and “concepts” during a session on where higher education money should go, the state regents often “have a different idea,” Martin said.<\/p>

“That’s where some of the rub comes,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Joe Wertz \/ NPR StateImpact<\/p>\n

Economist Mickey Hepner talks with an audience member after the StateImpact town hall forum.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Our fourth panelist, Mickey Hepner, an economist and Dean of the University of Central Oklahoma\u2019s College of Business Administration, reaffirmed his long-standing opposition<\/a> to abolishing the state’s individual income tax, and talked about what economic policies offer the most return-on-investment when it comes to economic growth.<\/p>

Improving a state’s image \u2014 even if it means raising taxes like Oklahoma City did to renovate and expand an arena for its NBA team \u2014 is usually worth raising taxes, Hepner said.<\/p>

“It’s not usually about cutting taxes, it’s about enhancing the quality of life,” he said. “That should be the metric.”<\/p>

StateImpact Oklahoma\u2019s roadshow continues Tuesday, Jan. 31 in Stillwater.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our state budget roadshow continued last night in Oklahoma City.The legislative panelists answered questions about tribal tax compacts, water rights and the ongoing issues at the Department of Health Services.And like it was at Monday’s inaugural event in Tulsa, much of the talk centered on the debate about Oklahoma’s income tax.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":4003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[492,14],"tags":[274,118,214],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4001"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12065,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions\/12065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}