OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin's proposal to add the state's 4.5 percent sales tax to various services currently excluded from the tax would generate an additional $769 million for cities and counties and about $934 million for the state, according to documents obtained by The Oklahoman through the Open Records Act.
The list of items that would be added to the tax rolls include doctor visits, legal fees, funeral services, insurance purchases, cable television, utility bills, child care, nursing home services and homebuilding services.
"Funeral directors from across the state have already contacted us and said we're against this," said Brian Douglas, an Ardmore funeral home operator and president of the Oklahoma Funeral Directors Association.
"The state funeral directors will fight it all the way through."
Fallin's proposal would also expand the state sales tax to a number of building trades that are now exempt, including electricians, plumbers and roofers.
"We're concerned where this is heading," said Rusty Appleton, executive director of the Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association.
"This would make housing much less affordable," Appleton said. "There's no way a builder can absorb this. If his costs go up 8 percent, the cost of a home will go up 8 percent, and that can make the difference on whether the customer can qualify to buy the home."
Oklahoma City attorney Garvin Isaacs, a past president of the Oklahoma Bar Association, said he would approve of legal services being taxed if the money goes where he believes it is most desperately needed, such as to courts and educational services for children.
"There are courthouses that have had to continue court cases — I'm talking about murder cases and personal injury cases — because they didn't have enough money to pay the jurors," Isaacs said.
Doctors have unanswered questions about the plan, according to Wes Glinsmann, the Oklahoma Medical Association's director of state legislative and political affairs.
"Obviously, in a health care setting you have the additional wrinkle of third-party payers, and if you are going to tax it, where does that tax burden fall? Does it fall on the patient, on the provider, on the insurer? Also, what does that mean on Medicaid patients, things of that nature," Glinsmann said.
Fallin's proposal would eliminate the state sales tax on groceries, resulting in an estimated annual savings of $350 to $676 for a family of four, although cities and counties would be allowed to continue taxing groceries.
Oklahoma City Manager Jim Couch said the proposal would be good for Oklahoma City and other communities in the state but said he has doubts about whether it will pass the Legislature.
"When people find out whose ox is being gored, it's going to be hard to do it," Couch said. "I hope she's successful."