If you got this as an email, thanks for signing up for Together Oklahoma emails! If you are reading this as a blog but want the email, sign up here. You can find out more information about why Together Oklahoma enthusiastically affirms that “a budget is a moral document” and what we intend to do to about the ongoing state budget crisis at togetherok.org and at the bottom of this email.
There are ways for all of us to have an impact and I want to help you find the ways that work best for you. Starting today, I’ll be asking you to do just one thing each Thursday!
One Thing Thursday for March 23rd:
Contact your two state legislators and insist that they support fair and responsible options to raise new revenues and avoid more devastating budget cuts!
Now’s the time to contact your Senator and Representative — by phone, email, or in person, if possible — and insist that they support fair and responsible options to raise new revenues and avoid devastating budget cuts. Let your legislators know how you, your family, and community have been affected by budget cuts and what the impact of deeper cuts would be. They need to hear that this is an urgent situation and that they must take action.
Here are a few revenue ideas we encourage you to recommend when you reach out to legislators:
- Partially offset the income tax cuts of the past decade by assessing a high-income surcharge;
- Eliminate the capital gains tax break;
- Restore the 7 percent tax rate on gross production;
- Adopt combined corporate reporting;
- Raise the cigarette tax.
You can learn more about these revenue options, as well as several other proposals, on OK Policy’s website. You can also download a two-page fact sheet, “Revenue options for a better budget.” For additional suggestions on how to advocate for a better budget, please see this recent blog post from Together Oklahoma. If you want more tips on talking to your legislators you can find them here.You can find your legislators’ contact information here.
Thanks for taking the time to do this one thing. If you want more to do read on, and if not I’ll be in touch again next Thursday!
More about what individual TOK members are doing:
- Participating in TOK Chapters or building new chapters. There are TOK Chapters where members are working together to host events, carpools to the Capitol, small group meetings with legislators, and more. See how to start a chapter HERE.
- Connecting with fellow constituents. The two legislators who represent you also answer to the rest of the constituents in your two state legislative districts. You can connect with your district teams because constituent power is stronger in larger numbers!
- If you want to do more can fill out our Together Oklahoma membership form and one of our TOK leaders will connect you with more resources.
Together we are making Oklahoma better!
