Daily Oklahoman Offering Bad Analysis

United for a Fair Economy (UFE) recently offered a simple solution to the budget shortfalls that the Oklahoma state legislature has been facing for the past few years.  Their solution is to flip the percentage of the tax burden currently being paid by the most disadvantaged to the most advantaged.  I blogged about this and endorsed the idea when UFE offered their solution.

Today the Oklahoman, Oklahoma's  leading newspaper, says UFE's "Flip It to Fix It" is a bad idea.  The Oklahoman says, "In pushing this program, UFE pays only lip service to economic equality. The real goal is to increase the size of government" and lambasts the plan for increasing the taxes of those earning between $48K and $79K from 8.2 to 9.5%.

The Oklahoman is offering an abysmally bad analysis.  Nothing in UFE's report talks about increasing the size of government.  The report offers a solution that would enable lawmakers to maintain woefully underfunded services that are being cut back or eliminated for lack of funds. 

While record numbers of Oklahomans are on food stamps, programs to prevent child abuse are being cut, teachers are losing their jobs, corrections officers are being furloughed, and state parks are being closed, the Oklahoman continues to provide a smokescreen for the callous disregard that the most advantaged Oklahomans have toward the disadvantaged in this state.

Being in  that  $48K-$79K middle class tax bracket, I know that these figures reflect earnings after subtracting all the tax deductions available for real estate and vehicle taxes, home mortgage interest, medical and dental expenses, charitable contributions, unreimbursed job expenses, tax preparation fees, losses from casualty or theft, political contributions, and other miscellaneous deductions.  I don't think it would be unreasonable at all for persons in my tax bracket to pay 1.3% more in taxes to protect kids, care for the disabled, maintain our schools, pay state employees, and keep our state parks open.

If the facts were known, I am confident that a majority of middle class Oklahomans would be more than willing to pay their fair share in taxes.  Unfortunately, they will never know the facts as long as they trust the Oklahoman to do their analysis for them.