Thousands Of State Employees At Risk Of Being Fired Due To Unpaid Taxes

A new report shows thousands of state employees are at risk of being fired for not paying their income taxes.

In fact, more than five and a half thousand state employees are at risk of losing their jobs because of this problem. The number of employees is up more than 25 percent this year compared to last.

State employees get essentially three warning if they're behind on their income taxes each year.

In 2003 a law was passed in Oklahoma, requiring automatic termination of the state employee if they receive a third strike.

According to the Norman Transcript, five agencies across the state have the most employees under the final non compliance list including OU, OSU, the Department of Corrections, Human Services and the OU Health Sciences Center.

However there are those who oppose the idea of terminating these employees who are on final non compliance. That includes the Oklahoma Public Employees Association executive director Sterling Zearley, saying in part, "We understand they should pay their taxes; they owe it. But why would you terminate them?" 

Zearley goes on to say that the association will be working with lawmakers in the future, to see a change in the process so that there would be no terminations.