House members plan on moving on bills that could potentially end the statewide teacher walkout at the Oklahoma Capitol, a lawmaker told KOCO 5.
Rep. Jon Echols, R-Oklahoma City, said House leadership plans to vote on bills Wednesday in committee. The question, however, is will those bills be enough to end the walkout?
“We expect votes to start happening tomorrow at the earliest,” Echols said.
He said the bills most likely will center around ending tax credits for wind energy and placing a tax on Amazon third-party vendor sales. The two are projected to bring in tens of millions of dollars.
“What we’re hearing from teachers is they want to make sure there’s a commitment to continue to move forward with the formula,” Echols said.
Democrats are pushing for House leadership to take up bills that include ending the capital gains exemption and restoring cuts to income taxes.
“I think we’re trying to wait out the teachers, and I think leadership is cognizant that this is a public-opinion game,” said Rep. Cory Williams, D-Stillwater. “They want to keep the teachers out and the public opinion to go against the teachers.”
House leadership said it’s unlikely they would take up the capital gains bill or restore income tax cuts for high earners.
