Our legislators face a deadline to end session by this Friday, May 27th, but they still haven’t produced a solution to Oklahoma’s massive budget shortfall. It’s all come down to this week when the key funding decisions will be made with huge consequences for Oklahoma families.
What advocates are doing this week when we #DoSomethingOK:
- Ask Governor Fallin to Veto SB 1604 that hurts 200,000 working families! The Legislature has approved SB 1604, which reduces or eliminates entirely the state EITC for some 200,000 families (see our statement). Governor Mary Fallin has until May 26th to sign or veto SB 1604. Click here to email the Governor or call her at (405) 521-2342. After normal business hours, you can call the Governor’s 24-hour phone line and leave a comment at (405) 522-8857. See this blog post for more information and talking points on the EITC.
- Keep asking your legislators and legislative leaders to protect the Sales Tax Relief Credit! We haven’t seen a bill make it through that would cut this credit, but we should keep legislators on notice since one could appear at the last minute. They have all these other options so they don’t need to take grocery money from children, seniors, and those with disabilities.
- Know what you will do if a budget deal comes out that slashes the services that matter to you. What will you do if the new budget plans to decimate funding for the arts, indigent defense, and Higher Education to “protect public education”. Are we okay with the legislature robbing Peter to pay Paul? Should we have to choose between those priorities when they obviously go hand in hand? How are you planning to insist that your legislators reject a bad budget? Make a plan! Speaking of plans…
- Plan to join us at the Capitol on Thursday, May 26th for the Let’s Fix This: For the Kids event. You can march with us from Douglass High School to the Capitol beginning at 9:00am, or you can meet us in the 4th floor Rotunda at 10:00 am. Oklahomans deserve to be treated better than what our legislators have given us this session. Bring your kids, bring your friends, and be there to meet with legislators and make your voice heard.
Upcoming events beyond the Campaign for a Better Budget:
We are all working hard to make things better right now. Once it’s done we’ll need to celebrate, commiserate, and plan for the future. Here are the two events we have planned so far:
Post Session Party! Central Oklahoma
Saturday, June 11 at 2 PM – 4 PM (Central Oklahoma location TBA)
Post Session Party! NE Oklahoma
Sunday, June 12 at 2 PM – 4 PM (NE Oklahoma location TBA)
Oklahoma is in a scary situation, but let’s not despair. Instead let’s decide to take action now that we can ALL see how bad things are but we still have some resources to work with. We are in this together!
