Cloud control: Let’s get ‘cirrus’ about budget woes

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Since Oklahoma’s personal income tax cuts are blamed for every wisp of bad economic news these days, we might as well blame them entirely for the drain on a revolving account that feeds more than a quarter of education funding.

Heck, let’s even blame them for the 37 employees the city of Tulsa is laying off. Or for potholes, barking dogs and scary-looking clouds. OK, that last part was silly. But it makes about as much sense as the arguments decrying personal income tax cuts.

The education revolving fund is nearly empty, signaling more overcast days for schools. This fund is fed by a variety of sources, only one of which is the personal income tax. Sales taxes also go into the fund; they were off by $58.7 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2010. The sales tax rate hasn’t been cut, but collections have plummeted.

Another source for the 1017 fund is corporate income taxes, which brought in $37.3 million in the first quarter — less than the amount by which they dropped from the comparable period of 2009. Corporate income tax rates haven’t been cut recently, yet they’re clearly dropping.

Corporate tax collections fell by 52.2 percent; personal income tax collections dropped by "only” 16.6 percent. Yes, that’s 16.6 percent of a much higher amount than for corporate taxes, but let’s get serious. Whether a tax rate has been cut, kept the same or raised, collections have fallen.

Simply put, the economy today resembles a scary-looking cloud.