With the key piece of Oklahoma Republican lawmakers’ plan to fix the budget apparently dead on arrival, House Speaker Charles McCall adjourned special session Wednesday.
Democrats and tax-averse Republicans weren’t in support of a new cigarette tax to fill a $215-million dollar budget hole. House Majority Leader Jon Echols says negotiations will continue. Adjournment just means the legislature won’t spend $30,000 dollars a day in official special session.
"What will continue to happen is committees will continue to meet without members getting per diem, without having the entire caucus in. We will continue negotations with the governor and with the Senate and with the minority party, and we will try to reach an agreement that can pass," Echols said.
McCall accused Democrats of "playing politics" by not supporting the cigarette tax. Minority Leader Scott Inman said thus far, the cigarette tax was McCall’s only gambit.
"This fiasco that happened on the floor of the House of Representatives today, this embarrassment on behalf of the Speaker — we're hoping that this means he's willing to finally come to the table and work with the governor, work with myself, work with [Senate Minority] Leader [John] Sparks, work with Sen. [Mike] Schulz to find a true bipartisan solution to the problems facing this state," Inman said.
Democrats are sticking to their guns and calling for a gross production tax increase aas part of any budget agreement.
"Our caucus has said all along, 'We think the gross production tax should be 7 percent on all wells,'" Inman said. "At the end of last year, they negotiated us down to 5 percent on new wells. That's where we're firm now."
McCall did not rule out a gross production tax increase.
"We want to make sure we have a very practical, a reasonable, realistic approach to that issue to make sure that we don't stop job creation in the state of Oklahoma, which aids in the economic recovery of our state," McCall said.
Inman said a "grand bargain" on the state budget must include at least the gross production tax increase, higher income taxes on wealthier Oklahomans, the cigarette tax increase and a fair adjustment to the gasoline tax.
