Oklahoma Lawmakers Left Tax Cut For FY 2024

The 2024 fiscal year budget proposal that proceeds in the session’s final hours, shows that it doesn’t include changes to cut income and grocery tax, key areas of focus from both the House of Representatives and Gov. Kevin Stitt.

Oklahoma Lawmakers Left Tax Cut For FY 2024 (PHOTO: The Journal Record)

Tax Cuts Left Off Oklahoma’s 2024 Fiscal Year

In February, the House put forward multiple bills that would cut the personal income tax, including House Bill 1953, a bill that allows to decreased income tax rates for all tax brackets by 0.25 percent, but none were selected by the opposite chamber.

Journal Record News reported that the session has significantly fallen short, but House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka still pushes to eliminate the 4.5 percent grocery tax income tax cuts. McCall stated that the House still desires tax cuts as well as the governors but the state has not taken any action on it.

According to House leadership that the efforts to cut the personal income tax rate and eliminate the grocery tax probably will continue to the following year, as difficulties reaching an arrangement on education dominated the foreground for most of the 2023 session.

Stitt routinely implies the state’s $6.1 billion in savings and $1.2 billion in surplus as an assurance for the tax cuts to pass.

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Other Oklahoma Lawmakers Are Opposing The Proposed Tax Cuts

This year’s proposed tax cuts have opposed Senate leaders as they cited concerns about jeopardizing the sustainability of the 2024 FY budget.

State Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, chairman of the Senate Joint Committee on Appropriations and Budget, expressed that tax cuts are doubtful this year. Thompson said a 0.25 percent income tax cut amounts to $235 million, fully realized in its third year.

Thompson, who supported crafting the $12.9 billion general appropriations bill for FY 2024, directed back to Oklahoma’s budget that shortfall in 2018 as justification for not including tax cuts. He said tax cuts are generally included in the conversations he has with constituents.

Oklahoma Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat said McCall pointed out during negotiations that families being hit the hardest by inflation at the grocery store don’t pay the sales tax due to SNAP benefits, but he is receptive to looking at tax changes in the future.

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