House Floor Leader: Repealing HB1010XX won't kill teachers' raises

State Rep. Jon Echols, floor leader of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, explains in this recent interview why passage of SQ 799 will not impede the teacher salary increases approved this session. In a nutshell, the money for raises is already in the state budget, and the improving economy has brought in enough additional revenue ("we just had the largest collections in the history of the State of Oklahoma last month") to fund the raises, without needing the revenue generated by the taxes in HB1010XX. If the initiative petition for SQ 799 receives sufficient signatures, the House leadership plans to call the Legislature back into special session and make the necessary appropriations to ensure that the teacher.

Note that Echols wants to get SQ 799 on the ballot as soon as possible. He claims that those circulating the petition are OK with a special election, as are the teachers' unions, but I suspect a special election would work in favor of the unions, who could turnout their voters to a low-turnout election, while a high-turnout general election date would benefit the anti-tax cause.