Do the people who represent you have questions you can answer?
When I helped deliver your sign-on-letter to Halt the Tax Cut , at the Capitol last Tuesday many of the legislators asked me three questions:
- “I agree with you but what can I do if most of my colleagues don’t get it?”
- “Isn’t Halting the Tax Cut a revenue bill that requires a supermajority to pass?”
- “How did we have a $5 billion budget when I started as a legislator and now we have a $7 billion dollar budget but there is a shortfall and not enough funds to cover services?”
Here are the answers and I implore you to share these with your legislators while there is still time to make the best decisions for this year’s budget.
- “I agree with you but what can I do if most of my colleagues don’t?”
- Well, there are two issues here. One, we can’t have all the legislators saying this and not actually have a majority to do something. Someone has to be the brave one to stand up and admit that we need to pay our bills before we hand out tax cuts. Two, part of why we hired you to be legislator is because we felt confident that you could discuss and debate with your colleagues and make some great decisions for the future of our state. Here! Have some Halt the Tax Cut talking points.
- “Isn’t Halting the Tax Cut a revenue bill that requires a supermajority to pass?”
- Interestingly enough when this tax cut was passed last year it was challenged in court on the basis that it was a “revenue bill” and some thought it should require a supermajority to pass. The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that no, the revenue bill supermajority rule only applies to new taxes or tax increases. Now the same folks who passed it want to say it IS a revenue bill this time. Well, It can’t be “not a revenue bill” last year and “yes, a revenue bill” this year unless something really fishy is going on! Here is the full blog post explaining that situation.
- “How did we have a $5 billion budget when I started as a legislator and now we have a $7 billion dollar budget but there is a shortfall and not enough funds to cover services?”
- The simple answer is increased cost of living, more people, other public policies that have been enacted cost more money, and we’ve lost some of our federal matching dollars because our state GDP went up. Go us! We should be able to pay our own bills, according to the federal formula, but we CHOOSE not to because some legislators passed a tax cut that practically nobody even wants while we are having this budget shortfall.
If you’ve contacted your legislator you’ve probably heard one or more of these questions/excuses. So now you know how to answer and we hope you’ll get back to them right away and let them know what you know!
Also, feel free to let us know if you hear other questions and answers that need some clarification at info@togetherok.org
On to other fun stuff!
The Forgotten Fourteen Contest
This contest, to see which of the Forgotten Fourteen senate districts can become the most engaged in halting the tax cut, has been pretty fun so far! In addition to learning more about several senate districts in our state I’ve learned that some folks don’t contact their legislators because they figure “my legislator already agrees with me and will do the right thing”. I have two responses to that:
- One, legislators are under a lot of pressure and even if they agree with you they may not vote your way unless they know you care specifically about Halting the Tax Cut!
- Two, when a legislator gets up to debate on the floor they often use brief stories from their constituents to explain to their colleagues why these things matter. Help them make the case that we need to pay our bills before we have any more tax cuts that only benefit a few Oklahomans! Let them know you’ve got their back!
The budget deal still hasn’t come through so keep encouraging your friends and colleagues to contact their legislators to Halt the Tax Cut and pay our bills first!
Here are the Forgotten Fourteen rankings this week:
- 1st Senate District 28 – Jason Smalley (Chandler, Seminole or Stroud)
- 2nd Senate District 06 – Josh Brecheen (Durant, Coalgate, and Madill)
- 3rd Senate District 03 – Wayne Shaw (Stilwell, Chouteau, Grove)
- 4th a three way tie between:
- Senate District 13 – Susan Paddack (Ada, Paul’s Valley, and Holdenville)
- Senate District 32 – Randy Bass (Lawton, Medicine Park, and Cache)
- Senate District 42 – Jack Fry (Mid-West City, Del City and Oklahoma City)
- 5th Senate District 05 – Joseph Silk (Broken Bow, Heavener, and Antlers)
- 6th Senate District 31 – Don Barrington (Fredrick, Duncan, Lawton, and Walters)
- 7th Senate District 20 – AJ Griffin (Guthrie, Perry, and Marland)
- 8th Senate District 07 – Larry Boggs (Krebs, Wetumka, and Wilburton)
- 10th Senate District 38 – Mike Schultz (Hobart, Altus, and Weatherford)
- 11th is a tie between:
- Senate District 26 – Darcey Jech (Elk City, Cement, and Watonga)
- Senate District 18 – Kim David (Coweta, Wagoner, and Fort Gibson)
- 12th Senate District 14 – Frank Simpson (Ardmore, Sulpher, Lone Grove and Tishomingo)
There was very little change in the rankings from our update from last week. That means that we ALL have to go outside our comfort zone and start asking other people to use the simple online form and contact legislators. A budget deal will be reached any moment. Please share this call to action now!
