(The Center Square) — Oklahoma House Democrats say they want to see $700 million originally set aside to attract business to the state used for inflation relief.
Back in April, legislators passed House Bill 4455 creating the Large-scale Economic Activity and Development Act, which would have provided a $700 million tax rebate package for Panasonic Energy to build an electric vehicle battery factory.
The company announced Wednesday it was picking Kansas as the site for the factory.
Virgin said the $700 million from the LEAD Act is a chance to give Oklahomans more relief at the grocery store and the gas pump.
"We absolutely should be using that money, that $700 million dollars, to provide relief to Oklahoma families during a time of record inflation," said House Minority Leader Emily Virgin, D-Norman in a news conference on Thursday.
She also said she’d like to see some of the money be spent on education.
"Education essentially remained flat last session. It did not receive much of an increase that wasn’t already appropriated to specific programs," Virgin said. "We have an opportunity to invest in education and other core services if Republicans want to have that conversation. But we have record savings at this point. This is not money that should be going into yet another savings account.
"These are Oklahoma taxpayer dollars and we absolutely should be using them in the wisest way possible instead of stashing them away."
When asked her thoughts about leaving the money in the LEAD Act fund for attracting another potential business in the future, Virgin disagreed with the notion.
"That’s a really hard sell to Oklahomans who really need this relief right now. It’s a hard sell to say we should keep that $700 million dollars just sitting there waiting for a company to maybe take advantage of it. We can take that back into general revenue now and if another opportunity arises in the future, we can have that conversation but there’s absolutely no reason to leave that money sitting there instead of using it for the betterment of Oklahoma," Virgin said.
How to provide inflation relief has been an ongoing debate for lawmakers.
In June the House passed several bills to eliminate the state grocery sales tax and reduce personal income tax. Gov. Kevin Stitt called lawmakers into a special session after vetoing bills that would have given inflation relief checks and reduced the tax on motor vehicle purchases.
At the time the governor said he respected the Legislature’s attempt to return money to taxpayers but believed the right way to do it would be providing a permanent income tax cut. Stitt did not immediately return a request seeking comment for this story.
via Oklahoma's Center Square News