House Bill 1955 finally took effect on August 29. This bill marks a monumental step forward for our great state toward providing much-needed financial relief for our constituents by eliminating the state’s 4.5% grocery tax.

House Bill 1955 offers immediate savings to taxpayers. The average Oklahoman will keep $105.79 annually, and $418 million will be retained by Oklahomans at a time when they need it to combat inflation and unemployment.

At a time when many states are looking to increase taxes, Oklahoma continues our progress of reducing taxes. This historic cut is the largest single-year tax cut in the state’s history. We can afford to do so thanks to years of good fiscal planning and stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

I am glad to finally see this bill take effect and return this money to our constituents. I am very happy to finally see a reduction in the grocery tax, but our work isn’t done.

House Bill 1955 is great progress, but it’s just the first step. The next thing we need to work on is an income tax reduction.

The House of Representatives has worked on this for several years. We have passed several bills to reduce income tax, but those bills have continually encountered resistance from the Senate.

It’s so strange that our Oklahoma Legislature has a supermajority of Republicans, but cannot reduce income taxes. Hopefully next session a majority of legislators can see the wisdom of the conservative principle of lowering taxes as much as possible.

It is high time that we gave back to our hardworking Oklahoma taxpayers some of their own money.

Rep. Jim Olsen represents District 2 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, which includes portions of Sequoyah County.