Stitt Calls For Tax Cuts This Legislative Session

Governor Stitt has been calling for tax reform since his State-of-the-State in February. Today, he has a renewed push for tax cuts this legislative session.  

The governor said today, he will sign any tax cut that hits his desk.

“Oklahoma is in fantastic shape,” said Governor Stitt. “Our economy has never been better.”

In a presentation this morning, Governor Stitt showed how the state is doing financially, and the reasons behind his push for tax relief.

“Our base level expenses in our budget project is $9.6 billion- that's what we spent last year on base level expenses,” said Stitt.

But, the state is also sitting on a $6.2 billion dollar savings account, and has a $1.2 billion surplus.

“In other words our revenue over recurring expenses is $1.2 billion,” said Stitt.

With all of the extra money the state has, coupled with inflation prices, the governor is calling to give some economic relief to Oklahomans. He says the best way to do this is to give some money back to the taxpayers.

“We have plenty of money to do a tax cut back to the consumer,” said Stitt. “So the time is now to cut taxes.”

Something he has called for numerous times is cutting the income tax. He says that cut would cost the state $271 million this year. There’s also a bill passing through the legislature right now, that would cut the state income tax from 4.75% to 4.5%.

Stitt also wants to cut the corporate tax by .75%. He says this cut will cost $44 million.

The biggest thing he wants to change is completely eliminating the state's grocery tax.

“The most regressive tax we do in Oklahoma is the grocery tax, and we're one of only 12 states that taxes groceries,” said Stitt.

If the state were to eliminate the grocery tax, that would cost $351 million.

House Speaker Charles McCall is on board with the governor’s plans.

“Ready to move onto other things like tax cuts, economic development,” said McCall.

Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat says that lawmakers need to be cautious with how they spend this money.

“We have $1.1 billion over last year's authority, but we still see declining projections in the 3rd and 4th quarter,” said Treat. “That's one time money, so we would not want to do some ongoing expenses with that money,” said Treat.

The governor remains confident that with the billions in the state’s savings account, the surplus has more than enough to cut taxes, and provide some relief to Oklahomans.

“We have to get this done- after all it belongs to the taxpayers anyway,” said Stitt.