Post by Logan on Jun 5, 2016 19:35:16 GMT -6
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Knowing this year's legislative session would be tumultuous with a giant hole in the budget, Gov. Mary Fallin challenged lawmakers at the start of session to make structural improvements to the budget and put new, stable sources of revenue on the table.
She pushed for bold proposals like a teacher pay raise, a tax on cigarettes, school district consolidation, and modernizing the sales tax code.
"It will require hard work and important votes," the two-term GOP governor told legislators in her February State of the State address. "It will be the right thing to do for future generations of Oklahomans."
But when the gavel fell on the 2016 session last week, Fallin got very little of what she requested. A school consolidation plan met fierce resistance from teachers and parents and was derailed in the first few weeks of session. The proposed $1.50-per-pack cigarette tax died on the House floor when the Democrats locked up against it in an effort to trigger an infusion of federal funding through a Medicaid plan that Fallin supported. And a plan to broaden the sales tax to help pay for a teacher pay raise never even came up for a vote in a House committee.
Read more: newsok.com/oklahoma-governor-gets-little-of-her-requests-in-2016-budget/article/feed/1022654
She pushed for bold proposals like a teacher pay raise, a tax on cigarettes, school district consolidation, and modernizing the sales tax code.
"It will require hard work and important votes," the two-term GOP governor told legislators in her February State of the State address. "It will be the right thing to do for future generations of Oklahomans."
But when the gavel fell on the 2016 session last week, Fallin got very little of what she requested. A school consolidation plan met fierce resistance from teachers and parents and was derailed in the first few weeks of session. The proposed $1.50-per-pack cigarette tax died on the House floor when the Democrats locked up against it in an effort to trigger an infusion of federal funding through a Medicaid plan that Fallin supported. And a plan to broaden the sales tax to help pay for a teacher pay raise never even came up for a vote in a House committee.
Read more: newsok.com/oklahoma-governor-gets-little-of-her-requests-in-2016-budget/article/feed/1022654