“They knew this day was coming.”
The effort of some critics in the legislature to eliminate or trim the wind industry tax credits will go before a House committee next week. Two such bills have been reassigned to the House Appropriations Committee.
One of the measures, HB 2246, by Rep. David Brumbaugh start trimming the tax credit until it reaches zero by 2021.
“They knew this day was going to come,” said Brumbaugh. “Let’s with this, but let’s deal with this in a way that’s incremental, it’s fair, it’s reasonable. But we’re saying there’s no free lunch anymore.”
The second measure is HB 2272 by Rep. Terry O’Donnell would create a $7 million limit to existing wind farms.
Both bills are opposed by Jeffrey Clark, president of the Wind Coalition.
“The concept of capping these incentives sends a message to investors in all industries that if the state of Oklahoma offers you an incentive to invest in the state, beware,” he said. “Wind tax credits are a very small part of the budget problem.”
The issue becomes more important as the legislature deals with the $878 million dollar budget shortfall. The State Board of Equalization declared the budget failure this week.