Secession would bankrupt Oklahoma

[AllOut]

Ok so...
What we are paying in federal income tax just goes towards state income tax instead and the money is made up for. What we are all paying in taxes right now stays the same and all of the Ok residents $ stays in state. What's the big deal?

 

[Jack T.]

Sure. Until about 80% of the companies in the U.S. move their headquarters to Oklahoma because of our lower tax rate.

 

[cjjtulsa]

Ok so...
What we are paying in federal income tax just goes towards state income tax instead and the money is made up for. What we are all paying in taxes right now stays the same and all of the Ok residents $ stays in state. What's the big deal?

You beat me to it. How many dollars are siphoned in Federal taxes from Oklahoma? And for those that get pukie over teaming up with Texas: remember, Texas has a seaport. Yes, we have the port in Catoosa, but engaging in trade by barge is a whole lot tougher than just being part of a confederation* that has large sea ports.

*I'm sure we wouldn't be the only state to want to link up with Texas.

 

[Old Fart]

Well we still like to wave our Redder than Red posters.

 

[rhodesbe]

So here are some notes your comments have spurned:

Oklahoma's State Budget in 2012 was about $6.5B (http://ballotpedia.org/Oklahoma_state_budget)
Oklahoma received 43.3% of that amount as federal money, or about $2.8B
However, Oklahoma paid about $27.1B in Federal Tax that same year (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_tax_revenue_by_state)

If I'm looking at this right, OK could clearly remain solvent on it's own current tax revenues if fed payments ceased. Of course, the situation would not remain equal, as we surely recieve some benefits (ie: road projects, social security, farm entitlements, medicare/medicaid) that don't show up in any of these numbers.

 

[Jestik]

You also forget the federal jobs and companies that would go bye-bye if we seceeded.

This Union is here to stay.

 

[crrcboatz]

Texas is a far more financially sound state than Oklahoma. That said even they have the sanity to disregard the few wacko s that propose secession. You guys are in la la land. Please consider starting a thread that has merit not idiocy.

 

[rhodesbe]

You also forget the federal jobs and companies that would go bye-bye if we seceeded.

Yes, this is a good point. The economic impact would be significant considering the most of the biggest employers in the state are federally bankrolled or significantly use federal funds to operate.

 

[rhodesbe]

Texas is a far more financially sound state than Oklahoma. That said even they have the sanity to disregard the few wacko s that propose secession. You guys are in la la land. Please consider starting a thread that has merit not idiocy.

Listen dude, read the thread first.

 

[AllOut]

So here are some notes your comments have spurned:

Oklahoma's State Budget in 2012 was about $6.5B (http://ballotpedia.org/Oklahoma_state_budget)
Oklahoma received 43.3% of that amount as federal money, or about $2.8B
However, Oklahoma paid about $27.1B in Federal Tax that same year (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_tax_revenue_by_state)

If I'm looking at this right, OK could clearly remain solvent on it's own current tax revenues if fed payments ceased. Of course, the situation would not remain equal, as we surely recieve some benefits (ie: road projects, social security, farm entitlements, medicare/medicaid) that don't show up in any of these numbers.

Ok so we paid $27b and only got $2b in return.
So there is $25b we as a state pay that goes elsewhere.
Which means technically our personal income tax as a whole could drop about 90% and we'd still be $ ahead.