Tax Cuts Consequences Topic

Oklahoma taxpayers are fed up.

Riding high on the oil boom of the late 2000s, the state followed the Kansas model and slashed taxes. But the promised prosperity never came. In many cases, it was just the opposite.

Around 20 percent of Oklahoma's schools now hold classes just four days a week. Last year, Highway Patrol officers were given a mileage limit because the state couldn't afford to put gas in their tanks. Medicaid provider rates have been cut to the point that rural nursing homes and hospitals are closing, and the prisons are so full that the director of corrections says they're on the brink of a crisis.

In her State of the State address Monday, Gov. Mary Fallin expressed the state's frustration.

"We have two clear choices," she said. "We can continue down a path of sliding backwards, or we can choose the second path, which is to say 'Enough is enough! We can do better! We deserve better! Our children deserve better, too!' "

Many of the tax cuts and subsequent revenue failures have happened on Fallin's watch. Now she wants to fix it, and she's gotten behind a large coalition of business leaders who have come up with a plan to raise taxes and enact reforms.

"It's math," said banker David Rainbolt, a leader of the group known as Step Up Oklahoma. "You can look at the problems we have and realize that there's not sustainable revenue going forward. This problem will occur over and over and over again in a commodity-based economy like ours unless we create revenue streams that create stability."

But there's a problem. When you pass a tax cut in the state of Oklahoma, it may as well be permanent. In the early 1990s, in reaction to a tax increase, voters passed a ballot measure requiring 75 percent of the Legislature to vote in favor of any revenue hike.

This year, that supermajority requirement has given the tiny Democratic minority in Oklahoma the power to derail any plan. And even though the Step Up scheme meets many of their demands, House Minority Leader Steve Kouplen thinks it's just not enough.

"A drowning man will grab any lifeline, whether it's a good one or not," he said. "One has been thrown to us. We think it needs to be tweaked, and we think some true compromise needs to take place to change it."

Democrats believe oil and gas companies have gotten rich while poor Oklahomans have borne the brunt of the cuts to state services. The Step Up plan, they say, doesn't do enough to protect the poor from paying to fix a mess they didn't make.

Rainbolt and the bipartisan business coalition that introduced the compromise plan say the state is in a mess and there is no easy way to fix it. They point to the fact that when they created the plan, business leaders from competing industries sat down at a table to find a solution and everyone had to give.

"We'd created something that no one in the room liked every part of but that everybody in the room agreed would move us forward." Rainbolt said. "We thought it was saleable to the Legislature, and it appears that it is."

But the spirit of compromise hasn't reached lawmakers yet. They're now in their second special session trying to pass a budget for the current fiscal year.

Lobbying is fierce for the Step Up plan, and leaders in the Legislature say they're hoping to vote on it next week. So far, the Democratic minority in the Oklahoma House of Representatives says it needs more work before it will vote in favor.

At this point, the gridlock continues.

2/9/2018 12:22 AM
At least they have the Sooners!
2/9/2018 8:35 AM
Oklahoma is where the Democrats threw the Cherokees into after they stole their land and raped their women and slaughtered their men and then killed as many as they could on a forced march.

As ugly and barbaric as the democrats are and have been in their history, this beats what they did to our Japanese citizens or the Africans they murdered as they shipped them chained in hell holes across the Atlantic.

So...I'm not so upset about the complaints of some modern day DemoNazi or his money concerns.
2/9/2018 7:41 PM

President Trump paints himself as the patron saint of farm hands and factory workers. Yet the people faring best under the Trump presidency are those more likely to be his peers and guests at the swanky Mar-a-Lago club than the “forgotten men and women” who helped elect Trump.

The average Wall Street bonus hit an 11-year high of $184,220 last year, according to new data from the New York State comptroller. That’s largely because profits at Wall Street trading firms rose 42% in 2017, to the highest level since 2010.

Public U.S. companies are on track to buy back a record $800 billion worth of their own shares this year, which would be a new record, according to J.P. Morgan Chase. That’s largely because of the new cash freed by the sharp drop in business tax rates Trump signed last December. Share buybacks generally boost the value of stocks—since they reduce the supply of shares—which is a boon for shareholders.

The tax cuts themselves are a windfall for the wealthy. The Trump tax cuts include rate reductions in virtually every tax bracket, but they provide much bigger savings for the wealthy than for anybody else. An average middle-income family will save about $930 per year in lower taxes, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Tax savings, meanwhile, will average $13,480 for those in the top 5% of earners, $51,140 for the top 1%, and $193,380 for the top one-tenth of 1%.

To spread the wealth around, nearly 200 companies gave out one-time bonuses earlier this year, most of them around $1,000. Yet most Americans say the tax cuts haven’t produced a meaningful improvement in their finances. In a February Politico poll, only 25% of registered voters said they had noticed an increase in their paychecks from the tax cuts, while 51% said they had noticed no increase. In a March CNBC poll, 32% said their take-home pay had risen on account of the tax cuts, while more than half said they saw no change.

Since the tax cuts do cut tax rates for the vast majority of Americans, the underwhelming reaction among workers suggests the tax savings for many are simply too small to make a difference. For workers earning between $25,000 and $50,000, as an example, the average tax saving is about $380 per year, or $7 per week. Not nothing, but not much, either.

Average wages, meanwhile, are rising a scant 2.6% per year.

Typical workers aren’t necessarily bummed out about a wealth gap that is large and almost certain to grow. Consumer confidence has been improving under Trump and is relatively strong in historical terms. The labor market is also strong, and job security is improving. The “quits rate,” which measures the portion of people willing to leave their jobs, has been rising steadily, a sign that people are confident enough in the economy to leave a known job for one that could be riskier. It’s now comparable to levels just before the last recession began in 2007.

Trump says some of his policies, including the tax cuts and new tariffs he is imposing on imports, will take time to benefit ordinary folks. But he doesn’t have that much time. Voters will render their first judgment on Trump’s policies in this year’s midterm elections, when they’ll decide whether Democrats should displace Trump’s Republicans in control of the House and Senate. Some Trump voters may feel they’re doing okay, and still regard Trump as a refreshing politician doing the best he can. But others seem likely to demand results accompanying Trump’s rhetoric lauding the working class. He’s got eight months to convince them.

3/27/2018 9:18 PM
Posted by DougOut on 2/9/2018 7:41:00 PM (view original):
Oklahoma is where the Democrats threw the Cherokees into after they stole their land and raped their women and slaughtered their men and then killed as many as they could on a forced march.

As ugly and barbaric as the democrats are and have been in their history, this beats what they did to our Japanese citizens or the Africans they murdered as they shipped them chained in hell holes across the Atlantic.

So...I'm not so upset about the complaints of some modern day DemoNazi or his money concerns.
3/28/2018 2:46 AM
3/30/2018 8:37 AM

McDonald's said it would contribute $150 million over the next five years toward college or trade school tuition for employees in a policy the fast food giant said was "accelerated" by changes to U.S. tax law, as the company joined other corporations in dispersing benefits tied to tax reform.

The company said nearly 400,000 U.S.-based employees would be eligible for the benefits, which serve as an expansion to McDonald's existing "Archways to Opportunity" education program. Under the plan, restaurant crew members are eligible for up to $2,500 per year toward tuition, up from $700 in the past. Store managers can receive as much as $3,000 per year, up from $1,050. The changes will also lower hourly requirements for the program from 20 hours per week to 15 hours per week.

3/30/2018 8:40 AM
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/boom-164-companies-give-bonuses-lower-fees-to-millions-citing-trump-tax-cuts

3/30/2018 8:41 AM
that's mighty white of em
3/31/2018 1:32 AM
I can't even read this thread. cccp and DougOut are blocked. Lol
3/31/2018 1:36 PM
Posted by sjpoker on 3/31/2018 1:36:00 PM (view original):
I can't even read this thread. cccp and DougOut are blocked. Lol


GET SOME GLASSES!
3/31/2018 2:35 PM
Posted by sjpoker on 3/31/2018 1:36:00 PM (view original):
I can't even read this thread. cccp and DougOut are blocked. Lol
3/31/2018 4:06 PM
3/31/2018 4:08 PM
3/31/2018 4:10 PM
3/31/2018 4:11 PM
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