As one of the Oklahoma legislature’s leaders in forming a new state budget, State Senator Kim David, a Republican from Porter maintains a hike in gasoline taxes is necessary to funding good roads.
Interviewed for the State Treasurer’s monthly Oklahoma Economic Report, the Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee claimed that much of the coming gasoline tax hike will be paid by out-of-state drivers.
“It’s estimated that out-of-state drivers will pay approximately 40 percent of gasoline taxes,” she said. “Our gasoline taxes are among the lowest in the nation, and even after the increase, will remain so.”
She said increasing the fuel taxes is “essential to maintaining and improving our transportation infrastructure.”
In the same interview, Sen. David supported the resulting new state budget.
“The revenue package is more than adequate to sustain our budget and pay for things like a teacher pay raise and state employee pay raise.”
She said the Fiscal Year 2019 budget also will restore some cuts made in past year due largely in part to the national recession and a downturn in energy prices.