Oklahoma high court sends education tax question to ballot

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – The Oklahoma Supreme Court says the signatures are sufficient for a state question on whether to impose a 1 percent sales tax hike to fund $5,000 pay raises for teachers and other education spending.

The state’s highest court issued the ruling Wednesday on the initiative petition being led by University of Oklahoma President David Boren, a former Democratic Oklahoma governor and U.S. senator.

Boren, who has led the state’s flagship university for more than two decades, has been a vocal critic of the Legislature’s poor state funding for education.

The court recognized the group gathered more than 300,000 signatures, which is more than twice the amount needed to place the proposal on the ballot in November.

If approved, the one-cent sales tax is expected to generate about $615 million annually.