House Minority Leader Scott Inman said Thursday there’s a bipartisan budget deal at the capitol.
Hours later, Gov. Mary Fallin said that's not the case.
The Bipartisan Oklahoma Plan Inman announced consists of a $1.50 per pack cigarette tax, a 6 cent gas tax increase, elimination of the wind sales tax exemption, a sales tax on certain services, a 5 percent gross production tax on new wells and undoing income tax cuts for wealthy Oklahomans.
The plan would see income taxes for individuals making more than $250,000 and families making more than $500,000 go from 5 percent back to 5.25. Individuals making more than $500,000 and families making more than $1 million would go from 5 percent back to 5.5.
All told, the package totals $560 million in revenue.
"It's the only plan — the only bipartisan plan — that not only backfills the holes to prevent further cuts to mental health, health care and to DHS, but also allows us to invest in things like public schools and teachers," Inman said. "This plan would include a $2,000 across-the-board teacher pay raise."
In a news conference late Thursday afternoon, Fallin agreed stablizing the state budget, restoring health funding and giving teachers a raise were common goals, but she made it clear there is no deal right now.
"I hope that soon we can announce a budget agreement between all the different parties that have been having these very serious discussions," Fallin said. "But, for now, I just wanted to make it very clear that if there's only one person at the altar, there is no marriage."
Inman rebuffed that statement on Twitter a short time later.
"It was her proposal. She invited us to the altar. We said yes. If she is having cold feet, the people of Oklahoma are in serious trouble," Inman wrote.
The state's health, mental health and human services agencies were each in line for funding from the $1.50 cigarette tax lawmakers passed during the regular session. They lost that funding when the Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down the cigarette tax.
The proposed compromise would restore that lost funding, which would halt impending Medicaid reimbursement cuts by the Oklahoma Health Care Authority. McCurtain Memorial Hospital CEO Jahni Tapley said that’s what rural hospitals need, not lectures to be better stewards of their money.
"How can I be a better steward and make more conservative and wiser choices on how to use the $3,200 a day that my hospital loses because we provide Medicaid services?" Tapley said.
Inman said there's a reason he unveiled the plan before getting Fallin and House Republican leadership on board.
"We want the citizens who may have been watching for the last week or so, wondering, 'What in the world are they doing up there?' We want them to know that there really is hope. We want to give them something to rally behind," Inman said.
Lawmakers are supposed to return to the capitol Monday. There may be a push to get a budget deal done next week, as the building will be shut down the following week as part of ongoing renovations.
