OK Economy Doing Well, But Gov’t Still Faces Shortfall
Filed by Michael Cross in Feature, Local News, News, Politics.
December 19, 2011
The state Equalization Board is meeting on Tuesday to certify $6.5 billion for the Governor’s budget next year.
The amount to be certified is $114 million more than last year, but because of one-time expenditures, lawmakers could still face a $150 million shortfall.
State Finance Director Preston Doerflinger says there’s also a possibility of eliminating some of the personal income tax which this year makes up almost $2 billion of appropriated funds.
“Certainly make no mistake that’s a big part of what we utilize and fund state services, but I’m just not convinced that we can’t make strides in reducing the state income tax.”
Personal Income, sales and gross production taxes were all up from last year.
The governor will have to work from these numbers for her budget to be released at the state of the state address, but lawmakers will have different numbers from an equalization certification in February.
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