Oklahoma Politics: February 2018 Archives

If you're perplexed by all the wrangling and bickering at the State Capitol over budgets and taxation, here's an opportunity to hear specific facts and numbers from experts and analysts.

It's tomorrow, starting at 9 a.m., but there's still time to register and attend. Registration is $20.

I'm particularly looking forward to the breakout session on the school funding formula. Much of the public conversation about school funding fixates on state aid while ignoring the other taxes that are earmarked for common schools. This session is a chance to look beyond the oversimplified sketch to study a detailed portrait of school revenue in Oklahoma.

AFP Co-Hosts 2018 Growth and Opportunity Summit in Tulsa Saturday

Dr. Tom Coburn to headline conference

TULSA, Okla.--The 2018 Growth and Opportunity (GO) Summit is coming to Tulsa this Saturday, Feb. 24 at the DoubleTree Hotel in South Tulsa. The event will be headlined by a keynote address from former U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn.

"We are thrilled to have Dr. Coburn address this year's Growth and Opportunity Summit," said. AFP-OK State Director John Tidwell. "Things are moving quickly at the State Capitol and the GO Summit provides an opportunity for citizens and voters to learn more about what the state legislature is up to and how they can impact lawmakers when they engage on issues."

Among other learning opportunities available at the GO Summit, Oklahoma Council on Public Affairs Executive Vice President Trent England will give a lunch presentation on the Oklahoma Constitution, the longest state constitution in the country, and how the state can follow the law and best serve taxpayers. Rounding out the day will be a legislative roundtable with current members of the state legislature on the state budget "crisis" and what comes next for our state budget after the failure of the Step Up plan.

In between speakers will be breakout sessions that will provide a more detailed picture of issues that are being talked about at our State Capitol. These breakout sessions include:

• Hollywood Handouts: Even in Oklahoma Hollywood is gobbling up tax credits. Where is the money going and what to we do about it?


• Fact or Fiction: The Oklahoma Budget


• Occupational Licensing 101: I need a license to do that?


• Impacting your legislator: How to cut through the clutter and best communicate with your legislator.


• Healthcare and Medicaid Reforms: How we can audit and right size our system through common sense reforms.


• Inside the Oklahoma Education Funding Formula: What goes into the formula, what comes out and all the nonsense in-between.

The 2018 Growth and Opportunity Summit is presented by Americans For Prosperity-OK, Oklahoma Council on Public Affairs and Tulsa 912. For more information or to register for the conference please visit okgrowthsummit.com. Registration will also be available the day of the event.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin delivered her final State of the State address to the Oklahoma Legislature today. Unfortunately, she did not use the occasion to announce her resignation. Instead she endorsed a series of of tax increases that are being pushed by a group of well-funded tax-consuming entities.

Jonathan Small, president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, the state's leading free-market think-tank, issued this reaction to Fallin's speech:

Working Oklahomans are clawing out of the economic downturn. The budget gap has dramatically shrunk to less than $200 million. The most important thing for policymakers is to not increase in any form or fashion the personal income tax on Oklahomans. Lawmakers should also be wary of the impact their policy decisions may have on lower-income and middle-income Oklahoma families.

This session provides the Governor and lawmakers the opportunity to fulfill their campaign promises: to right-size state government (which is near all-time highs) and reform government structures. Medicaid enrollment audits, TSET reforms, ending Oklahoma's Hollywood and film production boondoggle that paid millions to Harvey Weinstein, ending crony capitalism to out-of-state wind energy companies and tribes selling tobacco, and initiation of performance and process improvement audits at every single state agency-all of these are better than simply raising taxes on Oklahomans. Pursuing these reforms will generate the savings and revenue needed to give every classroom teacher a $5,000 a year raise and protect Oklahomans.

You'll find discussions of many of these issues on the OCPA's blog.

Speaking of blogs, I've joined up with other conservative Oklahoma bloggers to call on our legislators to maintain the protections provided by SQ 640, which requires a vote of the people for most tax increases. We've seen too many examples recently of money wasted, fraudulently handled, spent on duplicative functions, or squandered on ineffective tax credits. Legislators should be putting the squeeze on bad management and bad policy in the state bureaucracy, not on Oklahoma taxpayers. While paid lobbyists will push to protect the tax-eaters at the State Capitol, Bloggers Organized for Oklahoma Taxpayers will be working to amplify the voice of the taxpayer in the ears of our elected officials.

Bloggers Organized for Oklahoma Taxpayers is a grassroots network of bloggers and writers dedicated to defending Oklahoma taxpayers against the onslaught of higher taxes and "reforms" that would strip taxpayer protections from the Oklahoma Constitution.

We pledge to be the voice for the working-class majority in Oklahoma who don't have lobbyists at the Capitol to counter the access of the powerful and influential who seek to undermine the consent of the governed.

While the mainstream media in this state pushes oligarchy-style schemes to make it easier for government to take more of Oklahomans' hard earned income, we will fight to stop these economically detrimental plans.

From articulating arguments against these ideas, to publishing important information and supporting elected officials who are defending the People, we plan to answer the call to defend Oklahoma taxpayers.

Stay tuned for more from BOOT as the legislative session unfolds.