Governor says legislature set Oklahoma on path to eliminate state income tax

The governor said the legislature approved an immediate quarter‑percentage‑point cut to the state income tax and put Oklahoma “on a path to 0.” "We eliminated the state income tax," the governor said, adding that the reduction begins a gradual process modeled on Tennessee’s phased elimination.

The governor framed the change as a long‑term plan: “Now it might take us 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, but we kinda mimic what Tennessee did,” he said, adding that Tennessee completed elimination faster than some expected because businesses were drawn there.

Why it matters: the governor said phasing down the income tax will return revenue to taxpayers rather than expand government spending. He said the state has experienced excess revenue in recent years and chose to slow growth rather than cut core services. “We’ve collected too much money...let’s give a little bit of that back,” he said.

Details and caveats: the governor did not provide a statutory citation, an enacted timetable beyond the initial quarter‑point cut, or projections of revenue impact and said alternative revenue options such as new taxes had not been chosen. He said the state will aim to constrain spending growth to a formula tied to CPI plus population growth but did not identify a specific statute or constitutional amendment implementing that formula.

Public reaction and process: reporters asked whether the governor had considered offsetting the path to zero with new revenue sources such as a gasoline or grocery tax; the governor said he had not and reiterated a preference for returning excess revenue to taxpayers rather than creating new taxes.

Next steps: the governor described the change as a legislative outcome of the just‑ended session and noted implementation timing and detailed fiscal effects were not specified at the press conference.