AP: Attorneys argue over the Oklahoma Legislature’s decision to move more than $100 million in fuel tax and other revenue from a state transportation fund
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June 22, 2011
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 22, 2011
Attorneys wrangled Tuesday before a state Supreme Court referee over the constitutionality of the Legislature’s decision to transfer more than $100 million in fuel tax and other revenue from a state transportation fund to help shore up a $500 million hole in Oklahoma‘s state budget this year.
Oklahoma City attorney Jerry Fent, who has repeatedly challenged the way the state raises and spends revenue, has filed a lawsuit arguing the fund transfer was unconstitutional, because it violates a provision of the Oklahoma Constitution that says “no tax levied and collected for one purpose shall ever be devoted to another purpose.”
“We sent restricted excise tax funds to a fund with no restrictions at all, except the pleasure of the Legislature,” Fent said. “I’m protesting the unconstitutional transfers that need to be stopped.”
Feet and Oklahoma Solicitor General Patrick Wyrick presented oral arguments before Referee Greg Albert, who will submit a report to the state Supreme Court.
The court will consider the report and either issue a decision or call both parties back for additional arguments.
Wyrick, an assistant attorney general for the state, says the transfer of the transportation funds was “perfectly constitutional” and that he expects the Supreme Court will agree.
“What the Legislature did here was simply transfer existing tax revenues between funds in order to balance the budget,” Wyrick said. “The Supreme Court, since at least 1969, has recognized that is something that’s perfectly constitutional. The Supreme Court has been consistent in that regard, and there’s really not even a constitutional question.”
Wyrick says the constitutional provision cited by Fent was modified by the balanced budget amendment, approved by voters in 1941, that authorizes lawmakers to transfer funds.
Before adjourning the 2011 Legislature last month, lawmakers agreed to divert $101.7 million from the transportation fund to help close a $500 million budget hole and balance a $6.5 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Lawmakers also approved a $70 million transportation bond issue to close the Department of Transportation‘s funding gap and help it maintain its eight-year road and bridge construction and maintenance plan.
Fent’s lawsuit names Gov. Mary Fallin and other state officials as defendants. In a statement, Fallin’s communications director, Alex Weintz, said the governor and her staff thoroughly studied the legality of transferring the road funds before the budget agreement was finalized and are satisfied that the arrangement is legal.
“Furthermore, any money taken from the transportation fund in the FY 2012 budget is replaced with funding through a transportation bond and additional long term funding,” Weintz said. “The governor has said repeatedly that protecting and improving our transportation infrastructure is a priority, and that is reflected in this year’s budget agreement.”
The state imposes a 16-cent per gallon tax on gasoline and a 13-cent per gallon tax on diesel fuel, revenue that is deposited in the Transportation Fund and other funds dedicated to improving the state’s road and bridge infrastructure.
The gasoline tax raised more than $302 million in the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to the Oklahoma Tax Commission‘s website. The diesel tax raised about $108 million.
