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Less than 24 hours after Oklahoma Taxpayers Unite(OTU) legally began the process of blocking the state's largest tax increase in state history(HB1010xx), a candidate for governor who inaccurately claimed to be the group's 1st pledged candidate, now says he will vote to implement the new taxes.
Tulsa businessman-turned-politician, Kevin Stitt, told KFAQ's Pat Campbell Show that he wants the referendum to fail. He said something to the effect of; "I'm not going to vote to repeal it because that's looking backwards.."
The tax increases on gasoline and many other consumer goods was set to begin quickly, but OTU's filing yesterday with the Secretary of State's office now effectively freezes the state from beginning the increases in tax rates.
An unsuccessful veto referendum vote will now effectively raise taxes on Oklahomans. Stitt is now among those calling for that increase to happen. Stitt is also claiming to be the first candidate to sign the OTU pledge. That claim is also false. Stitt actually created his own document and signed it. He claims his own pledge card is the official OTU document. What is true is that Stitt's volunteers intercepted a working draft of OTU leaders. Stitt treated his intercept as OTU's official adopted publication. Stitt also over-simplified the pledge he agreed to. He says "the pledge focuses on a switch to consumption taxes." While the final version of the OTU platform has point #4 discussing consumption taxes, the other 6 points focus on limited govt. reforms, and proper oversight. |
Kevin Stitt now says he will vote to implement the massive new taxes of HB1010xx
Stitt has previously expressed to voters an openness to raising sales taxes if surrounding states have higher rates.
This effort of Stitt's to mischaracterize the OTU pledge, has disappointed the OTU leaders. Ronda Vuillemont-Smith expressed disappointment with Stitt's words just minutes after the interview, when Pat Campbell interviewed her. |
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Sooner Politics
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