Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin vetoed at least two energy-related bills over the weekend that had been sent to her by the legislature including one that would have put more oil and gas money into a “Vision Fund.”
House Bill 1401 called for 5% of all receipts from gross production taxes on oil and gas to be put into the Vision Fund that would be invested by the State Treasurer. Under the measure, the amount deposited was to increase by 0.2% each subsequent year.
“While I believe that HB 1401 is well intentioned, it raises some significant concerns,” said the governor in her veto message to the House of Representatives. She said it did not set a cap on the percentage of total actual revenue that is to be diverted away from current apportionments and general revenue into the fund.
“Presumably, by not having a cap in place, future legislatures would see an ever increasing amount of monies being diverted into this fund and away from other funds, like the Energy Stabilization Fund, which currently receive monies from gross production taxes,” wrote the Governor. “Lastly, up to 5% of the monies in the fund may be used for debt service payments by local counties, municipalities, authorities, commissions, political subdivisions, or any other government entities within the state of Oklahoma. The state should not be paying for obligations that are not its own.”
Governor Fallin said she appreciated the efforts of the authors to find a creative solution to help the financial stability of the state.
“However, due to the potential problems that would inevitably arise from the bill as written, I have chosen to veto HB 1401.”
A second energy-related bill vetoed by the Governor was HB 1568 which focused on tax credits.
“HB 1568 is an inappropriate attempt to take an existing economic incentive and change it to a cash payment,” wrote the governor in her veto message. “The challenges we have experienced over the last several years managing the cost and cash outlay of the refundability of wind tax credits gives pause to acting on this measure.”
The governor said under the Investment Tax Credit program, a credit could only be exercised when the company owning the credit has tax liability. she said it would allow current credits to become cash payments.
“While there appears to be an attempt to build safeguards into the program, there are no objective standards and no metrics for adjudicating performance,” she added.
