Abolish State Income Tax?

For several months there have been discussions around the state by some who would like to abolish the state income tax. Some groups just say abolish it and let the chips fall where they may other groups promote what’s called a fair tax. I have to be perfectly frank with you, my friends and constituents; I am really, truly not sure about how I feel about the whole package yet. From a purely individual standpoint the less tax I pay the more I like it and I sure think that for most people it sounds wonderful when you say just abolish the state income tax. I also know from my ten years in the legislature that we have a train to run and it costs money and while the prospect of eliminating income tax sounds good I think it’s something we need to approach with great caution. While I agree that we’ve still got some waste and fat in state government we do have essential services like roads and education and basic government functions that have to continue. Probably my biggest fear is that if abolishing the state income tax created a vacuum and we found ourselves in a situation where the income stream wasn’t enough to take care of the basic functions of government that property taxes could go up considerably and if I had to choose between income tax or increasing the burden on land and property owners I would have to stay with the income tax.

I believe that the elimination of the income tax is an issue that everyone needs to brush up on especially those of us in the legislature that could be charged with making that decision. I started the process of learning about the issue last week when I attended a meeting in Oklahoma City where the featured speaker was a man named Arthur Laffer. Mr. Laffer was President Ronald Reagan’s top economic advisor when Reagan was President. He’s a very dynamic individual. He is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago and a noted expert on this topic. He made a lot of sense as he talked about comparisons between states that did have income tax and those that did not. He’s a firm believer that it is better for a state, economically, to not have income tax and again, while I might agree in concept, I still have many unanswered questions in my head as to how you get there like, are there casualties along the way and a host of other unanswered questions. It’s like many things we deal with, it sounds real good if you say it real fast. It’s an extremely weighty issue and I’m certainly going to do everything I can do to make sure I know as much as I can about it.

One of the groups that are putting a great deal of time and effort into this issue is the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. They are a conservative think tank, privately funded and have a very bright young staff that does thorough research on the issues that they address. The OCPA will be very aggressive in the promotion of abolishing the state income tax. If you would like to read more on their thoughts go to www.ocpathink.org where you will find a great deal of material. As I said earlier, I’m in study mode on this issue as we speak. I would love to find a way to decrease the burden on Oklahoma tax payers, there may be some merit to this plan but I would encourage you to study and read as much as you can from both sides of the issue and do your best to make an informed, educated decision. My goal is to provide you with as much of that information as I can and would also like to know your thoughts. Feel free to shoot us an email or contact me on facebook and we’ll do our best to inform you as developments occur.

If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:
Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is really quite as satisfying as an income tax refund. ~F.J. Raymond