Tulsa World
BY WAYNE GREENE World Senior Writer
Saturday, December 31, 2011
12/31/2011 7:01:17 AM
OKLAHOMA CITY - A legislative task force studying state tax reform is calling for a gradual 0.5 percent reduction in the state's top individual income tax level and a 1 percent cut in the corporate income tax rate.
But to keep the state treasury from losing money, the income tax cut would come at the cost of some tax benefits that are popular with Oklahomans.
The wide-ranging task force report includes several other changes in state tax law, and envisions a day when the state would have no income tax - but it pairs that idea with a proposal to eliminate all tax preference items and incentive programs and carry out a review of the state's sales tax base.
"The nonpartisan Tax Foundation has rated Oklahoma's overall tax structure number 30 out of 50 states when assessing our job creation environment," the report says. "We can and must do better to shift our tax code away from special interest groups who benefit from obsolete and ineffective tax preferences and toward hard-working Oklahomans who deserve to keep more of their hard-earned income." FULL ARTICLE
Posted on
Sat, December 31, 2011
by John Cox