| Updated: 1/15 11:27 am |
Published: 1/15 11:26 am
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Finance Secretary Preston L. Doerflinger announced on Tuesday that Christmas sales helped lift Oklahoma sales tax receipts to $172 million in December.
Those sales set an all-time record for any month and an increase of 12.1 percent over the same month a year ago.
"It's always a good thing to be riding on a wave of consumer confidence into a new year," Doerflinger said. "The danger of adverse repercussions from fiscal strife in Washington still lurks, however. Washington must somehow climb out of its long-time fiscal rut, stop kicking the can down the road and start solving our nation's horrendous debt problem."
The finance secretary said he is pleased Congress and the president, after briefly going over the so-called fiscal cliff, at least reached an agreement on taxes that staves off state and federal tax increases this year for the majority of Oklahomans.
"Their reluctance to make the hard choices on runaway federal spending, however, is perplexing," he said. "I worry that their dilly-dallying eventually will take its toll on the psyche of businesses and individuals who want to invest in our economy to keep our state and country moving forward."
Total income taxes for the first six months of the current fiscal year have increased 8.1 percent over the first six months of FY-2012.
