Magna Carta News
Monday, February 02, 2004
Oklahoma House of Representatives
Mike W. Ray, House Media Division Director
January 30, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: State Rep. Dale Wells
Capitol: (405) 557-7304
Cushing: (918) 225-1698
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Vehicles purchased by totally disabled military veterans and by spouses of soldiers who die while on active duty would qualify for a state tax break proposed in legislation filed by a Payne County lawmaker.
House Bill 2143 provides that any U.S. military veteran who has "a service-connected disability rating of no less than 100 percent" would be exempt from paying the state excise tax on up to two vehicles he/she purchased during a calendar year.
The state Department of Veterans Affairs has counted 365,456 military veterans in Oklahoma, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reported that 44,720 of those Oklahoma vets receive compensation for service-connected disabilities. Not all of those veterans are completely disabled, but the precise number who are is not known.
Under House Bill 2143, also exempt from the state excise tax would be any vehicle bought by the spouse of a soldier killed while on active duty with U.S. armed forces.
The author of HB 2143 is Rep. Dale Wells, a Cushing Democrat who serves on the House Committee on Appropriations and Budget. Wells retired at the rank of Colonel in July 2000 after 34 years with the Army National Guard, and is a member of the House Committee on Veterans and Military Affairs.
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