GOP Leader: Senate Democrats Preparing to ‘Flip-Flop’ on Death Tax, Income Tax

- Republicans seek tax relief to bring ‘jobs, people, and investments’ to state

State Senate Democrats are sending signals that they are about to flip-flop on key measures that would eliminate the death tax and cut the state income tax, Senate Republican Leader Glenn Coffee said Thursday. Both bills passed the Senate with strong bipartisan support earlier this year.

“Senate Democrats are sending clear signals that they are preparing to flip-flop on tax cuts,” stated Coffee, R-Oklahoma City. “This would make the national Democrat party’s flip-flopper-in-chief, John Kerry, very proud.”

On March 10, SB 2022, a GOP-authored bill to reduce the state’s top income tax rate from 6.25% to 4.9%, passed the Senate on a bipartisan 35 to 11 vote. SB 334, a GOP bill to eliminate the state’s death tax, passed the Senate unanimously on March 2.

But now leaders of the Democrat-controlled Senate have begun characterizing these GOP proposals as “tax cuts for the wealthy.” This false description sends a clear signal that Senate Democrats are preparing to flip-flop on tax cuts, and are planning to engage in class warfare to attempt to defeat the bills when they come back to the Senate from the House of Representatives.

“Senate Republicans favor meaningful tax relief for Oklahoma taxpayers because of our desire to attract jobs, people, and investments to our state. But Senate Democrats are about to flip-flop on tax relief because they place a higher priority on big government than they do on taxpayers. Senate Democrats are just playing election-year games with Oklahoma taxpayers,” Coffee said.

Coffee noted that Oklahomans start paying the top state income tax rate when they make about $10,000 in taxable income – far from “rich” – while thousands of family farms and small businesses could benefit from the elimination of the state’s death tax, especially in rural Oklahoma.