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'Energy Revenue Stabilization Act' Creating New Savings Account Headed To Fallin's Desk

oil pump jack
Paul Lowry
/
Flickr

A bill that would bank tax revenues to cushion the state budget during energy industry downturns awaits the governor’s signature.  

House Bill 2763, known as the Energy Revenue Stabilization Act, captures boom-time tax revenues and saves it in an account. If Gov. Mary Fallin signs the bill, it would siphon off above-average taxes on corporations and oil and gas production. The money could only be withdrawn by lawmakers and the Office of Management and Enterprise Services if finance officials declare a state “revenue failure.”

“If there’s a revenue failure, the OMES director could spend up to one-quarter of the fund, the legislature could spend up to one-quarter of the fund, and then for an upcoming fiscal year the legislature could spend half of the fund,” the bill's author, state Sen. David Holt, R-Oklahoma City said before the vote.

The state has seen multiple revenue failures this year, prompting officials to slash agency budgets across the board and take money from the state's Rainy Day Fund for schools and prisons.

“Our successors will quite possibly be — they won’t know our names — but they’ll be very grateful to us that we do this,” Holt said. “I think it’s an excellent response to the situation we found ourselves in this year.”

StateImpact Oklahoma is a partnership among Oklahoma’s public radio stations and produces journalism in the public interest, essential to an informed electorate. Help support informative, in-depth journalism with a donation online.

Brian Hardzinski is from Flower Mound, Texas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. He began his career at KGOU as a student intern, joining KGOU full time in 2009 as Operations and Public Service Announcement Director. He began regularly hosting Morning Edition in 2014, and became the station's first Digital News Editor in 2015-16. Brian’s work at KGOU has been honored by Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI), the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, the Oklahoma Associated Press Broadcasters, and local and regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists. Brian enjoys competing in triathlons, distance running, playing tennis, and entertaining his rambunctious Boston Terrier, Bucky.
Joe was a founding reporter for StateImpact Oklahoma (2011-2019) covering the intersection of economic policy, energy and environment, and the residents of the state. He previously served as Managing Editor of Urban Tulsa Weekly, as the Arts & Entertainment Editor at Oklahoma Gazette and worked as a Staff Writer for The Oklahoman. Joe was a weekly arts and entertainment correspondent for KGOU from 2007-2010. He grew up in Bartlesville, Okla. and studied journalism at the University of Central Oklahoma.
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