Nov. 8, 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: State Rep. Emily Virgin
Phone: (405) 557-7323

House Dems Release Statement on Failure of House Bill 1054X

OKLAHOMA CITY — On behalf of the House Democratic Caucus, Rep. Emily Virgin released the following statement on today’s vote on House Bill 1054X.

“Since the beginning of this extraordinary session, Republican House leadership has told Oklahomans that they have the 75 percent of their caucus needed to raise revenue, and it was the Democrats who needed to come on board with their support. Today, after more than 80 percent of our caucus held their nose and voted yes for this far from ideal revenue bill, we found out this simply isn’t true. The House Republican Caucus delivered 48 votes or less than 67 percent of their caucus.

House Republicans have once again failed to deliver the leadership necessary to bring an end to this special session and give certainty to the most vulnerable of Oklahomans. Once again, Republicans have gone out of their way to provide false hope to teachers and state employees desperate for a raise, and continue to put the wants and desires of select oil and gas companies over the millions of Oklahomans affected by this body’s inability to fix the budget problem it created.

Throughout this session, we have heard many promises from Republican leadership, and time and time again, those promises have been broken. We have seen a committee chairman refuse to vote his own bill out of committee, and we have seen the author of a teacher pay raise bill refuse to support the bill needed to fund those raises.

This caucus stands ready to reverse irresponsible income tax cuts. We stand ready to make oil and gas pay their fair share. And we stand ready to bring an end to this special session.”

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