MuskogeePhoenix.com, Muskogee, OK

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November 18, 2009

State tax factors

If Oklahoma legislators consider eliminating tax breaks and exemptions this next session, they should proceed with caution.

As state revenues have slipped downward during this economic crisis, legislators have said the state may not be able to afford the hundreds of tax exemptions, credits and deductions that it offers. Oklahoma is not the only state that has considered suspending or revoking tax breaks. Many others are doing the same.

But developing a sensible tax structure is never the result of knee-jerk reactions to good or bad times, which is what happened in recent years in the state Legislature. After a few good economic years, the Legislature began lowering the state income tax rate, which many now contend only aggravates the shortfalls we’re experiencing.

Of the hundreds of tax credits and exemptions Oklahoma offers, we think repealing only one, the sales tax exemption on tickets to professional sporting events, is a no-brainer. Oklahoma collects sales taxes on groceries, so it ought to collect sales taxes on an extravagance such as attending professional sporting games.

And that should be the standard. Legislators should not simply go into the tax code looking for money. Rather they should look at its fairness and whether the incentives the code offers actually work to improve the state’s economy.

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