Fifty-five percent of individuals filing Oklahoma tax returns would see either a decrease or no change in their state income taxes, according to Rep. Kevin Wallace’s figures.

Wallace, chairman of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee, is carrying legislation inspired by the Step Up Oklahoma plan that is fast becoming the focus of this year’s legislative session.

Initially, the plan was to raise the state’s top tax rate. While that would mean the rich would pay for a lot of the tax hike, it also would have hit a lot of middle-class taxpayers, too.

Wallace is working on a better alternative that focuses on eliminating loopholes and deductions used by the wealthiest taxpayers.

That’s killing two birds with one stone: The state gets more revenue, and the income tax system becomes more progressive.

The Step Up Oklahoma Plan includes several other tax increases, including an increase in the initial gross production tax rate to 4 percent. That also will fall most heavily on the wealthiest Oklahomans.

Those increases help balance a 6-cent increase in the fuel tax, which is important and defendable but will hit poorer drivers in their pocketbooks. (Some argue that the $1.50-a-pack cigarette tax hike is a tax on the poor, but we reject that. No one has to pay the cigarette tax. Cigarettes are not a necessity.)

In sum, the Step Up Oklahoma tax package is balanced, economically sound and politically attainable. Given the desperate condition of state finances, that becomes an unbeatable combination.