An opportunity for rural Oklahoma

The Rural Oklahoma Small Business Competitive Wage Tax Credit is a lifeboat for Oklahoma small business owners and their employees. 

Budget negotiations are underway at the Capitol, where there are two competing ideas between the House and the Senate. Federal CARES Act dollars kept Oklahoma’s economy above water the past year and has positioned Oklahoma to have a budget surplus. As you can guess, the competing ideas are about what to do with that money. Based on the two plans, that’s hundreds of millions of dollars.

The plans:

• The House of Representatives plan uses the surplus to provide tax credits to eliminate corporate income taxes. The direct benefit ultimately goes to corporate shareholders, most of whom live outside of Oklahoma. That’s a problem as most Oklahomans would oppose sending our tax dollars to stock investors in New York and San Francisco.

• The Senate plan puts the surplus in the bank, digging a proverbial hole and burying it in Biblical fashion. Undoubtedly, that keeps the surplus safe and secure. But as in the biblical story, we will miss the opportunity to be a good and faithful servant to the people by investing those dollars.

What is missing from the discussion is how this money could help the average Oklahoman. 

Oklahoma small business owners lose workers to larger corporations with deep pockets and border states with a higher minimum wage. These business owners see their margins and wonder how they will ever compete. Mostly, they can’t. As a result, Oklahoma workers are falling further and further behind the cost of living.

Spending this money on out-of-state shareholders or choosing to do nothing with it ignores Oklahoma problems. Fortunately, there are Oklahoma Focused solutions.

A new direction:

I am calling on state leadership to use this money to help increase pay for Oklahomans across the state.

Through the Rural Oklahoma Small Business Competitive Wage Tax Credit, rural small businesses that choose to raise their minimum hourly wage from $7.25 to $9.00 would receive a 100% tax credit to raise it to $11.00. 

In the second year, the tax credit applies to businesses that have increased their minimum wage to $10.00, bringing their minimum hourly wage to $12.00. 

In the third and final year, the tax credit adds a dollar to an $11.00 base to maintain the $12.00 hourly minimum.

We know a rising tide lifts all boats, but the problem is that many Oklahomans feel like they are drowning. The Rural Oklahoma Small Business Competitive Wage Tax Credit is a lifeboat.

Guest Column in the May 02, 2021, edition of The Oklahoman