The task force charged with looking at the state’s system of tax credits and incentives will vote later this month on what to include in a final report to lawmakers and today, task force members talked about some of their ideas.  Rep. David Dank (R-Oklahoma City) who chairs the task force, laid out nine ideas he’d like to see included in any report.  They are:

• Any tax credit should benefit only the recipient (no transferring of tax credits)
• No tax credit or incentive should be introduced in final days or hours of session
• Any future tax credit needs to be wrapped in clear and accurate fiscal analysis
• Any future credit needs to create or save jobs, that’s the only legitimate reason for a tax credit
• Look at all alternatives before we utter the words ‘tax credit’
• State Auditor should be required to audit every tax credit
• No more open-ended tax credits (in other words, a limit on how much can be awarded every year)
• All future tax credits need to be subject to sunset provisions
• Each project or separate credit needs to be subject to examination and personal approval

Dank says the task force isn’t anti-business and doesn’t think all tax credits are bad.  But he went on to compare some tax credits to “the huckster who took a bucket of manure, put a layer of honey on top and sold it as a bucket of honey” to taxpayers.

Task force members had some disagreements on a couple key issues.  State Treasurer Ken Miller says he’s not ready to “throw the baby out with the bath water” when it comes to transferability of tax credits.  He says if lawmakers decide that a credit should be given in order to bring about a result like new jobs, what difference does it make who actually gets the credit?  But Senator Mike Mazzei (R-Tulsa) made the point that the insurance industry is a big buyer of tax credits which they use to reduce the amount of tax they pay on insurance premiums.  That insurance premium tax is a source of funding for the firefighters pension system which is currently underfunded.

Miller also questioned whether it was necessary to have the State Auditor perform audits of the tax credits every other year when they were going to sunset in three years anyway.  He said he’s not opposed to giving that job to the Stae Auditor’s office, but he’s not convinced, either.  He says if it ends up growing government, that cost has to be factored in.

State Auditor Gary Jones, also a member of the task force, says he welcomes the responsibility, but added it would most likely require more funding to pay for it.  He says that could be done by taking a fraction of a percentage of every tax credit as an administrative fee.  Jones added that who is receiving and buying tax credits should be transparent, including subject to the Open Records Act.  He added that every credit needs to have a goal in terms of jobs saved or created so that any audit can determine if a credit is effective or not.

The task force will have its last meeting on November 30th at which time members will vote on recommendations to make to the House and Senate.