“Step Up Oklahoma” budget bill was imperfect from the start.

(Oklahoma City) Yesterday, the Oklahoma legislature failed to pass a budget bill supported by the so-called Step Up Oklahoma organization that would have created punishing and unfair taxes on the wind industry, as well as raised several other kinds of taxes. Unfortunately, the bill did not solve the root cause of our budget challenge, the massive tax cuts given to the oil and gas industry back in 2014. Those tax cuts to millionaire and billionaire oil companies slashed the gross production tax on oil wells from 7 percent - the level it had been for many years - down to 2 percent or less.  Unfortunately, it has been our Oklahoma teachers who felt the brunt of the budget cuts, and state political leaders and their special interest masters put forward Step Up Oklahoma as the only path forward for more money for teachers and schools. Sierra Club supports a clean budget bill that does not contain punitive double-taxation on the wind industry, that brings economic opportunity to western Oklahoma, and that resets the oil gross production tax back to the 7 percent rate..

In Response, Johnson Bridgwater, Director of the Oklahoma Sierra Club Chapter, released the following statement:

“Oklahoma needs a budget bill that does not favor one industry at the expense of all Oklahomans. It is simply unacceptable to double-tax wind energy when it is already keeping 45 school districts OFF Oklahoma formula education funding, is saving family farms, and is paying more in taxes than any other business sector in at least 5 Oklahoma counties. And Oklahomans have made it clear: it is time for Oklahoma’s oil and natural gas industry to GO BACK to paying their fair share with a 7% gross production tax. This is NOT about caring for teachers; it is about doing the right things to truly fix our state. State leaders should get back to the capital, draft a clean budget bill, and help our teachers by asking oil and gas to pay their fair share.”