Sunday, August 05, 2007
LOW TAX MYOPIA
Our shortsightedness in public policy becomes evident to some of us only when it rises up to strike us in the face, as it has now done with our failure to tax ourselves to pay for maintenance of bridges all across the country. Nowhere is this more evident than in Oklahoma where 27% of our bridges are classified as structurally deficient.
This should not be surprising, since Oklahoma has made tax limiting and tax cutting priorities for years. This self-destructive trend has been exacerbated by the republicans now in control of the House and the legislative process.
But it is the people of Oklahoma who are to blame. We elect representatives who will vote to contain or reduce taxes. We vote for those who promise to cut expenditures. We allow special interest campaign donors and lobbyists to control our legislators, as well as our congresspersons, in order to keep their tax breaks and lower tax rates. When any business mentions “new jobs,” we jump to give them a tax break.
Rather than raise “road user” (gas) taxes to finance roads and bridges, our legislature resorted to questionable mortgaging of future federal aid dollars to finance state bonds for road building. These payments now come off the top of current monies. When Oklahoma voters had an opportunity to vote for an increase in gas taxes to bring those up just below surrounding states, stupidly we voted the tax down.
Oklahoma tax policy is myopic. It is “penny-wise and pound-foolish.”
Our legislature voted a generous, state financed program of scholarships for high school students who take a college-prep curriculum -- without enacting a tax to cover its cost. So, this has been taken out of monies that should have gone to support college budgets, while regents have had to turn around and keep raising fees students pay.
The legislature authorized highly questionable bonds to pay for $500 million in new or remodeled facilities without enacting a tax to retire them as the constitution requires. Now payments for those bonds are being taken out of budget money which should be going for college operations.
We are financing new prisons in much the same fashion. Our prison crisis is brought about mostly by failure to enact sensible sentencing laws and to allow parole authorities to do their job. If people had to vote a tax on bonds to finance public facilities, as our state’s constitution dictates, then we might re-examine our penal laws.
Oklahoma cannot continue to be so myopic in its tax policies. We have to pay for what we use. We have to pay for public services. We must pay for infrastructure improvements as we go. Everybody should pay. We must limit the exemptions and privileges which are rampant in our tax laws.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
This should not be surprising, since Oklahoma has made tax limiting and tax cutting priorities for years. This self-destructive trend has been exacerbated by the republicans now in control of the House and the legislative process.
But it is the people of Oklahoma who are to blame. We elect representatives who will vote to contain or reduce taxes. We vote for those who promise to cut expenditures. We allow special interest campaign donors and lobbyists to control our legislators, as well as our congresspersons, in order to keep their tax breaks and lower tax rates. When any business mentions “new jobs,” we jump to give them a tax break.
Rather than raise “road user” (gas) taxes to finance roads and bridges, our legislature resorted to questionable mortgaging of future federal aid dollars to finance state bonds for road building. These payments now come off the top of current monies. When Oklahoma voters had an opportunity to vote for an increase in gas taxes to bring those up just below surrounding states, stupidly we voted the tax down.
Oklahoma tax policy is myopic. It is “penny-wise and pound-foolish.”
Our legislature voted a generous, state financed program of scholarships for high school students who take a college-prep curriculum -- without enacting a tax to cover its cost. So, this has been taken out of monies that should have gone to support college budgets, while regents have had to turn around and keep raising fees students pay.
The legislature authorized highly questionable bonds to pay for $500 million in new or remodeled facilities without enacting a tax to retire them as the constitution requires. Now payments for those bonds are being taken out of budget money which should be going for college operations.
We are financing new prisons in much the same fashion. Our prison crisis is brought about mostly by failure to enact sensible sentencing laws and to allow parole authorities to do their job. If people had to vote a tax on bonds to finance public facilities, as our state’s constitution dictates, then we might re-examine our penal laws.
Oklahoma cannot continue to be so myopic in its tax policies. We have to pay for what we use. We have to pay for public services. We must pay for infrastructure improvements as we go. Everybody should pay. We must limit the exemptions and privileges which are rampant in our tax laws.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
