OKLAHOMA CITY: The Latest on the Oklahoma Legislature’s efforts to fill an estimated $878 million hole in the budget: Oklahoma Senate Republicans have passed a revenue bill to generate an estimated more than $500 million through a combination of cigarette and fuel tax increases and the elimination of energy industry tax incentives. The GOP-controlled Senate voted 36-9 on Monday for the bill with 36 votes needed to meet the three-fourths threshold required for a tax increase to pass. Three Republicans and all six Democrats voted against the bill. It includes a $1.50-per-pack cigarette tax increase, a 6-cents-per-gallon fuel tax increase and elimination of tax incentives for the wind and energy industries. The bill’s passage comes after the House earlier in the day failed to pass the cigarette tax increase and suggests legislative leaders and the governor have yet to reach agreement on how to close an estimated $878 million hole in the budget as House leaders say a fuel tax won’t pass the House.
A proposed tax increase on cigarettes that was a key piece of a budget deal between House Republicans and Democrats has been rejected with bipartisan opposition, a vote that will likely send budget writers back to the negotiating table with less than two weeks before the end of the legislative session. House members voted 63-34 on Monday in favor of the $1.50-per-pack tax increase, 13 votes short of the 76 needed for a tax increase to pass the House. Fourteen Democrats joined 20 Republicans in voting against the bill. House Democratic leader Rep. Scott Inman and some of his Democratic colleagues have insisted they wouldn’t support a cigarette tax increase without a plan to raise the gross production tax on oil and natural gas.
