Post by pavel on Jan 26, 2016 17:25:24 GMT -6
THE top item on state Health Commissioner Terry Cline's legislative agenda for 2016 is to increase Oklahoma's excise tax on tobacco by $1.50 per pack. This increase would generate an estimated $182 million per year, with $120 million of that going to … teacher pay raises.
To be sure, the issue of teacher pay is far outstripping all others as the session gets ready to begin next week. Republicans and Democrats alike are looking for any way possible to increase salaries for Oklahoma's educators.
This ball got rolling in the fall with University of Oklahoma President David Boren's call for a 1-cent increase in the state sales tax. Backers are planning an initiative petition drive to put the question to a vote of the people in November. If approved, the increase would generate about $615 million annually, with $378 million going toward $5,000, across-the-board raises. Most of the remainder would fund higher ed and vocational education initiatives.
The proposal has drawn support from a wide variety of interests — a recent SoonerPoll of 1,000 likely voters showed 64 percent support for the Boren plan — but concern from other corners, including municipal leaders who fear the effects that such an increase would have on them. Others worry about a higher tax's toll on low-income Oklahomans.
Read more: newsok.com/teacher-pay-is-front-and-center-at-oklahoma-capitol/article/5474686
To be sure, the issue of teacher pay is far outstripping all others as the session gets ready to begin next week. Republicans and Democrats alike are looking for any way possible to increase salaries for Oklahoma's educators.
This ball got rolling in the fall with University of Oklahoma President David Boren's call for a 1-cent increase in the state sales tax. Backers are planning an initiative petition drive to put the question to a vote of the people in November. If approved, the increase would generate about $615 million annually, with $378 million going toward $5,000, across-the-board raises. Most of the remainder would fund higher ed and vocational education initiatives.
The proposal has drawn support from a wide variety of interests — a recent SoonerPoll of 1,000 likely voters showed 64 percent support for the Boren plan — but concern from other corners, including municipal leaders who fear the effects that such an increase would have on them. Others worry about a higher tax's toll on low-income Oklahomans.
Read more: newsok.com/teacher-pay-is-front-and-center-at-oklahoma-capitol/article/5474686