Oklahoma Tax Dodge: Oklahoma Observer's Hamilton Hits State Legislators

Arnold Hamilton, editor of The Oklahoma Observer and a columnist for Urban Tulsa Weekly, has a few choice words for Sooner State lawmakers in this week's issue of UTW.

It's not a pretty picture.

Hamilton's column takes a realistic view of the state's revenue problems, which include declining corporate tax collections and transferable tax credits, which, as Hamilton reports, are seen by some legislators "as a license to loot the state treasury."

The result: Massive cuts in state spending, including cuts to schools, human services, prisons and so on. Such cuts will not be painless, Hamilton points out, and they will affect ordinary people, including seniors and veterans. 

Hamilton hits the Republican legislators directly:

Oklahoma is 50th in overall tax burden, but Republican legislative leaders long ago concluded it is better politics to mislead citizens into believing we're overtaxed than to rally them in support of social compact that attempts to create a rising tide for all, not just the privileged few.