OK lawmaker, OpenSky caution against tax-cut triggers, symposium slides available for download
In advance of a new proposal to cut taxes in Nebraska using revenue triggers, an Oklahoma lawmaker who helped author a tax-cut trigger bill in that state spoke to some Nebraska media on Tuesday about the danger of such measures.
Experts helped Oklahoma lawmakers create an income tax trigger in 2012 that they thought would only allow the state to cut taxes in good economic times, said Rep. Leslie Osborn, a Republican member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
But the reality, Osborn said, was that the trigger failed to account for everything and left Oklahoma with a measure that was forcing tax cuts even as the state’s economy bottomed out.
“We thought we had picked the safest way, that there was no way that the trigger would occur if we were in any amount of a crisis,” Osborn said. “Guess what. We were wrong and the experts were wrong.”
Osborn and other Oklahoma lawmakers last year voted to stop another triggered tax cut as the state struggled amid major budget issues.
Osborn strongly encouraged Nebraska lawmakers not to follow Oklahoma in enacting such legislation, noting that she has spent much of her time since the tax cuts were enacted dealing with the consequences such as inadequate funding for K-12 education and other vital services.
“I am constantly trying to fix what I had a large hand in creating,” she said. (Hear the full call and selected clips here.)
On Wednesday, after Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts discussed his plan to cut taxes with triggers during his State of the State Address, OpenSky Executive Director Renee Fry also raised concerns about revenue triggers and tax cuts.
“At the end of the day, the tax cut proposal is a guaranteed income tax cut for top earners and corporations, and the triggers put Nebraska on the dangerous path that led to serious budget issues in Kansas and Oklahoma and caused lawmakers in those states to repeal tax cut triggers,” Fry said. “Given the fiscal uncertainty in the economy, demographic trends and federal tax cuts, the timing of this proposal is particularly irresponsible.”
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On a separate note, the slides used by OpenSky and Dr. Lucy Dadayan of the Rockefeller Institute at our Jan. 4 Legislative Symposium are now available for download.