Fight Signals Vulnerability on Fiscal Issues Faced with the impending shut down of the state government, Democrats have begun fighting amongst themselves. Senate President Pro Tem Mike Morgan accused his own Democratic governor of "playing politics" in the failure to pass a budget agreement in the regular session. Morgan said Henry's plan to cut $320 million in income and estate taxes disproportionately benefits the wealthy and does not provide enough money for essential state services. "This tax-cut thing is a political game. It's a ploy to get elected...I'm not interested in their political games. The Senate will not be dictated to." Earlier in the session, the Senate majority passed a $480 million income tax-cut bill out of committee. Now, Senate Leadership is looking to kill the bill that would return the nearly one billion dollar back to the taxpayers. With seven Democratic Senators facing term limits, this about face could be a political move to force a government shutdown. In the event of a shutdown, state Democrats will most likely take a page from the national Democratic playbook and try to shift the debate away from the skyrocketing state budget, which has become an increasing liability to both the Governor Henry and the Senate Democrats. The growth of state spending under Democratic leadership is sure to be a hot-button issue in this fall’s elections. Oklahoma's budget has risen from $2.5 billion to over $6 billion dollars in the last 10 years. During the same time, state government grew 30% faster than the private sector. Gov. Henry is particularly vulnerable, given that his budget for last year included an unprecedented 12% growth in the size of state government. Posted at 5/31/2006 11:06:00 AM