By Senator Jay Paul Gumm, D-Durant
Hello again, everybody! As children, we all read the fable of Chicken Little, a frightened little bird who ran around yelling, “The sky is falling!”
While a children’s fable, it fits modern politics; it is easier to cause panic with wild charges than to engage in thoughtful discussion of an issue. Chicken Little jumped to mind when I read a column by the president of the Oklahoma Municipal League (OML) in a recent issue of “The Daily Oklahoman.”
The OML president wrote my proposal to end the grocery tax would harm cities and counties. He asserted that because local sales tax ordinances are tied to state law, cities and counties can only charge sales taxes on those items the state taxes. He said if the state stops collecting the grocery tax, they would have to as well.
That is no more accurate than Chicken Little saying, “The sky is falling.” My proposal allows local jurisdictions to continue collecting their grocery tax. At most, they would have to make minor changes to ordinances to keep taxing groceries.
Read more...Labels: OK Legislator's Blog, Sen. Gumm
Posted at 11/01/2007 08:59:00 AM
