Carnuccio: Fortune Favors The Bold
Free Market Friday: Fortune favors the bold
By: Michael C. Carnuccio
It’s near the halfway point of the legislative session, a crossroads for Oklahoma’s future. Almost four legislative sessions since one political party gained control of the legislative and executive branches, both citizens and job creators reflect on what should have been, hoping for a course correction.
Politicians point to isolated achievements, like long-overdue workers’ compensation reform that nearly failed to happen or requiring state retirement benefit enhancements to be funded. But these issues were at crisis levels.
For every session thus far, lawmakers have chosen to be all things to as many as possible instead of choosing thorough and detailed work to restructure government taxing and spending to fit present and future economic competiveness challenges.
Huge promises of personal income tax relief have been shelved for personality disagreements and visionless efforts. Worse, hundred-million-dollar tax increases have been enacted and even larger ones are gaining momentum for this session. Revenue totals $1.5 billion more than during the recession, yet the last tax cut was passed and signed by a bipartisan government several years ago.
Transformational corrections reform, unemployed insurance reform, higher education reform, state employment and state health insurance reform, state regulation reform and bringing the delivery of common education services into the 21st century all wait.
Many lawmakers are listening to special interests and refuse to address the greatest threat to all core services: the astronomical growth, expansion and dependence on Medicaid in Oklahoma.