OKLAHOMA CITY — Things have turned so upside down under the Capitol dome that Republicans were begging Democrats to vote for a tax increase on Wednesday.
And the Democrats said no.
House Democrats have generally opposed all Republican revenue-raising measures this session, saying they won’t vote for anything that doesn’t include a general income tax increase.
But Wednesday was a tougher call. The Republican majority’s House leadership — and Gov. Mary Fallin — were counting on Democrat votes to pass House Bill 3210, a $1.50 per pack cigarette tax increase they say is needed to keep the state’s Medicaid program solvent.
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And Democrats, by and large, are defenders of Medicaid.
But, finding themselves in an unusually strong negotiating position, the minority House Democrats upped the ante by refusing to vote for anything that does not include expansion of subsidized health insurance for low-income Oklahomans.
And so the clock ticked for nearly two and a half hours until House leadership finally accepted at least temporary defeat around 6:30 p.m.
Because it involves a tax increase, HB 3210 would require 76 votes for passage in the 101-member House. Under ideal circumstances, the 70-member Republican majority needs a few Democrat votes to reach the three-fourths majority.
And these circumstances were not ideal.
The count got to 49 Wednesday evening before some Republicans, realizing that the Democrats weren’t going to budge, backed away. At the gavel, the tally was 40-59.
The House then recessed until 10 p.m. Wednesday, when it came back into session and immediately adjourned. HB 3210 could be brought back up later for reconsideration.
House Republicans bitterly denounced Democrats for refusing to vote for the tax, saying without it most of the state’s nursing homes and many of its rural hospitals will close.
Rep. Doug Cox, R-Grove, who is carrying the bill, urged voters to call these “locked up Democrats” and predicted that some Democrats would lose their elections because they voted against a tax increase — a suggestion some Democrats found ironic.
“Laughable” is how Minority Leader Scott Inman, D-Del City, put it.
“For the Republican governor and the Republican majority to stand up and say any rural hospital closing is our fault when they have cut $41 billion worth of income taxes, left $900 million on the table for health care, cut $400 million in gross production taxes, and refused to do the right thing when it comes to tax credits,” he said.
Inman pointed out that Democrats weren’t the only ones voting against the bill. At its 49-vote crest, less than two-thirds of the Republican caucus was ever on the tote board in favor HB 3012.
The tax would be expected to raise $180 million a year when fully implemented and would be used to head off Medicaid reimbursement-rate cuts so steep they could effectively end the program in many parts of the state because providers would no longer accept Medicaid patients.
In practice, budget writers would probably take money from other areas of government to soften the blow, but Republican leaders are adamant that the tax is crucial to making up a $1.3 billion reduction in general revenue during the budget year that begins July 1.
Fallin, a Republican, personally lobbied for the tax on the House floor before and during the vote and even tried to win over Democrats.
The minority party, though, remained solidly united against anything that does not include the so-called Medicaid rebalancing proposal initially embraced by Fallin and other GOP leaders but dropped because of opposition from conservatives, including the influential Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.
Opponents view the Medicaid rebalancing proposal as Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion in disguise.
