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Oklahoma Tax Commission asks for $31.2M as director touts faster service, AI collections
Summary
Executive Director Doug Linehan outlined improvements at the Oklahoma Tax Commission — lower phone wait times, reduced backlogs and new AI collections — and requested $31.2 million in appropriations for FY 2027 while proposing the legislature consider sweeping $40–50 million of agency cash balances to other priorities.
Executive Director Doug Linehan told the General Government/Transportation Appropriations Committee the Oklahoma Tax Commission is asking the legislature for $31.2 million in appropriations for fiscal 2027 and described a string of operational improvements aimed at speeding taxpayer service and reducing costs.
Linehan said the commission’s overhaul of its Taxpayer Resource Center, which went live July 1, cut average call wait times to about 10 minutes and reduced the abandoned-call rate from roughly 60% to 10%. "We completely overhauled it — people, processes, technology, and culture," Linehan said. He added the commission now has reporting that managers previously lacked, enabling better performance oversight.
On collections, Linehan said a $1,000,000 investment in an internal AI-enabled collections system (Gentax) reduced the share of work sent to outside collection agencies from 60% to 30% and produced about $25,000,000 in "no-touch" collections in the first year. "The taxpayer wins and we're much more efficient when it comes to our collections," he said.
Linehan also highlighted a significant reduction in backlog: business tax credits and refund items fell from about 17,000 to under 4,500 over roughly 18–20 months. He said waiver-request processing dropped from about 30 months to roughly 30 days after process and technology changes.
On the agency’s finances, Linehan described an operating environment with an approximate $100 million operating budget and said the commission holds $90–100 million in cash balances. He said the commission is requesting only a portion of its operating budget — $31.2 million this year — and told senators he had proposed that the legislature consider sweeping $40–50 million of idle cash to other uses: "I don't want to be viewed as somebody who's hoarding cash… I just want to keep enough cash to fund projects that will make us more efficient," Linehan said.
Committee members praised the agency’s results and pressed for details. Senator Sandra Guthrie called the request "a breath of fresh air" for suggesting unused funds be repurposed, and Vice Chairman Weaver asked whether the agency could reduce outsourced collections to zero; Linehan said the agency will continue refining the Gentax system and expects further reductions but could not promise a zero level.
Linehan named his senior team and credited large parts of the progress to staff and process changes. He said the parental choice tax credit rollout had technical problems in the first year when 30,000 people overloaded the system, but the second year went "very smoothly" after moving operations in‑house. Applications for the next school year start March 15, he said.
The presentation closed with Linehan reiterating that the commission will continue to prioritize taxpayer and employee experience. No formal appropriation vote was taken during the hearing; the committee held the item for consideration as part of its broader budget work.
