OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Despite a projected $170 million decline in revenue available for the Legislature to spend next year, House Speaker T. W. Shannon is calling for both an income tax cut and a permanent and generous oil and gas drilling tax incentive.
Shannon says any increases in state spending next year should be offset with cuts somewhere else and that government needs to ``live within our means.''
Shannon surprised many Republican leaders when he announced last week his plan to make permanent a tax incentive set to expire next year that drops the rate for horizontal drilling from 7 percent to 1 percent.
Governor Mary Fallin's Finance Secretary Preston Doerflinger says Shannon's 1 percent proposal is a ``non-starter'' for the governor, who supports a rate between 1 percent and 7 percent.
