TABOR

Goodbye TABOR

When Oklahoma’s richest, most powerful business people come together with the state’s intelligentsia to form a quasi-political coalition, you know, well, you know pigs are flying and armadillos are directing traffic, right?

But a group of business people the Associated Press described as a “Who’s Who” of power brokers in the state filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging the TABOR initiative petition that would put a constitutional measure limiting the growth of the state budget on the November ballot.

Most educators and state educational organizations, from the Oklahoma Education Association to the Oklahoma Conference of the American Association of University Professors, have been outspoken in their opposition to the measure for months.

The new lawsuit claims the submitted petition is “deceptive and misleading” and does not include enough valid signatures. The protest was filed against the Oklahoma Supreme Court and Rick Carpenter, of Tulsa, who led the drive locally with out-of-state money.

Carpenter, a “right-wingnut” (see image above), says the lawsuit will have no effect on the petition’s validity, and that TABOR will be on the November ballot, according to local news account. The petition needs 219,000 signatures.

If the TABOR constitutional measure is approved, the state budget’s annual growth would be tied to the inflation rate and population increase. Any money leftover after this formula is applied would have to be given back to taxpayers.

The one state that has adopted TABOR, or the so-called Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, was Colorado. Voters there recently rescinded it because it had devastated that state’s educational systems and economy.

But the Colorado experience did not stop out-of-state elites from coming into Oklahoma and literally buying enough signatures to put the TABOR issue on the ballot. These people figured Oklahomans were so stupid, they could come in here and lie and manipulate, and no one would care,

But we did care, and we stood up. Meanwhile, Okie Funk and many others were wondering when the state leadership would stand up to really fight this issue.

How could they just stand by and watch the disgusting spectacle of out-of-state, ultra-rich, elites with nothing but an ideology and a whim destroy the state’s economy, educational systems, and infrastructure? How could they stand by and watch Grover Norquistand his crowd use Oklahoma as an experiment in their quest to transfer as much money as possible to the wealthiest people in our country at the expense of elementary schools.

On Wednesday, that all changed. The group of business people who serve as “protestants” (i.e. protestors) against the petition include Clifford Hudson, CEO of Sonic Corp and chair of the Oklahoma City School Board, Aubrey McClendan, CEO of Chesapeake Corp, J. Larry Nichols, CEO of Devon Energy, and Luke R. Corbett, CEO of Kerr-McGee Corp.

That’s right . . . Sonic, Chesapeake, Devon, Kerr-McGee.

And another protestor is Clayton Bennett, who is an extremely powerful, local businessman married to Louise Gaylord Bennett, a daughter of the late Edward L. Gaylord, the longtime publisher of The Daily Oklahoman. Louise Bennett assists her sister, Christy Gaylord Everest, in running newspaper these days, according to Wikipedia.

Count on The Oklahoman coming out against the petition soon, though its editorial page has leaned heavily in TABOR’s direction, criticizing those who spoke up against the lies of those people gathering signatures for two dollars a name. Its mantra then was that everyone should just step aside and let the petition go forward, so we could vote on it in November. As I recall, according to one editorial, people like me who spoke up were trying to stop American democracy or some nonsense like that.

Also, local civic leader G. T. Blankenship and Tulsa businessman John Brock signed on against the petition. Both are listed as trustees of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, a local, conservative think tank which has been highly supportive of TABOR. I wonder what OCPA leaders Max Nichols and Brandon Dutcher think about the lawsuit? So far there is nothing about it on the OCPA Web site.

Other local people of interest on the lawsuit include V. Burns Hargis, vice president of the Bank of Oklahoma, and Kirk Humphreys, Oklahoma City’s former mayor.

What is especially interesting about the lawsuit is that it pits some powerful right-wing business people against others in their camp who share their basic ideology and reality about the world. What is going on here? Is there a split among the cut-taxes-for-the-rich-no-matter-what crowd? It there trouble in Rich City, folks?

More importantly, what were the political tradeoffs on this deal, and how will these tradeoffs affect ordinary people like you and me? Are more tax cuts for the rich forthcoming this legislative session? Count on it.

Oh yeah, the lawsuit was filed by the Crowe & Dunlevy law firm, one of the most prestigious and powerful legal firms in the state.

What is encouraging about this lawsuit is that it means the rich and powerful in this state do have a breaking point when it comes to ensuring we provide our children and college students here a decent education. This is not the typical, conservative lip service about improving schools with assessment tests and school choice and vouchers and No Child Left Behind. This is real action.

So, my fellow Okies, don’t be surprised when you look up today and see the state’s pig-filled sky or when an armadillo waves you through an intersection that has a broken stoplight.

Sally Kern’s Christian Crusade Continues Onward

Okay, the bigwigs have come out against TABOR and The Daily Oklahoman has come out against the teaching of intelligent design in our science classrooms.

So when will the state leadership come against the continuing Christian crusade of State Rep. Sally Kern (R-Oklahoma City)?

Kern’s latest attempt to ensure Oklahoma becomes the first theocratic state in America is her “Student Freedom of Religious Expression in Schools Act.” Yes, you read that title correctly, and the bill did pass out of a House committee Wednesday.

House Bill 2428 would allow students at schools to pass out religious material, pray, express their religious viewpoints, and be absent from school for religious events. Of course, the bill says “religious” not “Christian” (wink, wink).

Everyone knows this is bill and others like it pending in Oklahoma and elsewhere across the country are part of the Christian right-wing theocratic agenda.

Can you imagine what it would be like at state high schools if this bill gets passed?

I picture students accosted in the hallways by religious zealots and teachers of all disciplines unable to present material that might go against Christian viewpoints.

I imagine large groups of intolerant Christian students intentionally excluding people of other faiths in activities. I see a group of students holding hands in a classroom praying loudly and openly before a test, daring the teacher to say something, anything that might be construed as anti-Christian.

Our schools will become freaky, religious enclaves in violation of basic founding principles separating church and state.

The bill lacks commonsense as well. It would create all types of problems. How can anyone support such a weird, murky measure that does not take into account its real-world ramifications? How will the bill affect high school classrooms, the hallways, the lunchroom, the parking lots, etc.?

In today’s volatile world of religious extremism and religious-inspired violence, the last thing we need is to add religious tension in our high schools.

Maybe we could just build a chapel in each state high school, pass a “Christian Students Do No Have To Go To Class Freedom Act” and allow students to spend ALL school hours praying and discussing the Bible, especially Genesis. Then we could create and build secular charter schools for everyone else. These schools would honor strict limits on separation of church and state. They would promote the study of science and math, English, technology, and other real academic subjects, not fundamentalist Christianity.

This is from Okie Funk’s “No Hyperbole Zone”: If Kern’s act passes and holds up in the courts, it could become impossible to get a real high school education in this state.

Religious moderates and secular people need to speak up. And where is the state leadership on this bill and on all the freaky religious legislation proposed by Kern and others? When will they truly come out against crackpots like Kern and say enough is enough? If Kern’s bill passes, then, really, so what if TABOR becomes law? Who wants to fund religious extremism in our schools, anyway?

The state’s conservatives recently launched an initiative petition drive to legally and forever ensure Oklahoma remains in the absolute bottom of national education funding.

The conservatives have brought their latest freak show, the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights or TABOR, here not because state spending is skyrocketing or there is major government waste but because they know they can manipulate Oklahomans with lies, distortions, and the hackneyed and untrue right-wing mantras about big government.

TABOR is about reducing the taxes of rich people. Repeat it. TABOR is about reducing the taxes of rich people.

The petition drive to place TABOR on the ballot needs approximately 200,000 signatures. The drive is partially funded, of courses, from conservative groups outside of Oklahoma. These groups have ideological connection to TABOR because they want to continue President George Bush’s massive ideological program to transfer wealth to the country’s richest citizens as the middle-class deals with stagnant wages and rising health care costs. TABOR is a part of this program on a state level.

If supporters garner enough petition signatures, Oklahomans will vote on a constitutional amendment that limits the growth of state spending each year to a formula that considers the inflation rate and population growth.

What the TABOR Republicans will say is that this is a good way to monitor and check government spending. They will say TABOR ensures government officials cannot spend more in terms of percentage than, say, an average family.

(Ironically, their iconic leader President George Bush is one of the most reckless spenders in American history.)

Here is what they will NOT say:

(1) TABOR has been a complete disaster in Colorado. It has wreaked havoc on the economy as educational funding has plummeted and the state became Oklahlomaesque in its treatment of infrastructure. The state was once known for its excellent quality of living. Now it is known for its stupidity in becoming the forerunner of the latest conservative tax cut fad. The state will consider rescinding some of the features of TABOR in an upcoming election but you will not hear that from those collecting signatures.
A recent Denver Post series on TABOR showed just how controversial TABOR has become in that state.
According to one article, “As a way to manage a growing state, TABOR is an unmitigated disaster, its detractors say.
“The amendment, they say, has left Colorado in a deep financial hole that jeopardizes the quality of life that once made the state the envy of the nation.
“’Even something as good as TABOR always has unintended consequences,’” said Republican Gov. Bill Owens, who has been accused of betraying fiscal conservatives by signing on to Referendums C and D. “’It works very well in a growing economy, but the challenge is you can't adjust for tough times.’"
Note this is a Republican governor talking about the “unintended consequences” of TABOR.
(2) TABOR does not allow for states to make up for severe “down” years in state revenues or to pay for big state projects with available cash. If a state goes through successive years of lowering budgets, it can then only grow its budget—when it can—by the formula percentage. It cannot catch up. It must then refund the extra money to taxpayers as schools and health programs and road maintenance projects suffer huge cuts. The bulk of those refunds will, of course, go to the richest people in the state. Even if provisions are instituted to eliminate this obvious flaw in TABOR, its dogma and philosophy would create unnecessary political and legal trepidation to do the right thing for schools during a major funding crisis.
(3) Oklahoma is absolutely the worst place for TABOR. It is a relatively small state with chronic funding problems for education and infrastructure. It needs flexibility in the budget process. It also experiences regular downturns in state revenues sometimes outside of national trends. This means that when the rest of the country is flourishing, Oklahoma could be laying off teachers and ignoring its infrastructure problems in a major financial crisis, compounding its problem of low population growth and sealing its “hick” status. Remember, the state lost a congressional seat after the 2000 U.S. Census. In addition, Oklahoma already consistently ranks in the bottom ten of states in terms of per student spending and teacher salaries. The state should at least move to “average” national educational funding before it considers such a radical, draconian tax-cut incentive.

It is proven nonsense now that today’s Republicans—these immoral, greedy neocons—are somehow more concerned with accountable and fiscally responsible government than Democrats. Under Bush and one-party Republican rule, the government is running staggering budget deficits as it rewards non-competitive war and disaster-relief contracts to administration cronies such as Halliburton. The financial corruption of the Bush II government will live in historical infamy as the Bushies plunder the national treasure.

Anyone concerned with education in Oklahoma should not only refuse to sign the petition but also work actively to defeat this proposed amendment if it makes it to the ballot.

Proposed legislation that ties the budget of state government to population growth and the inflation rate is apparently still on the political table in Oklahoma. The Republican-sponsored bill, modeled after the Orwellian-named Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights (TABOR) legislation in Colorado, would gut Oklahoma education, especially higher education.

The law has been a complete disaster in Colorado. Funding for higher education in that state has shrunk considerably and employment is way down. The economy there is in decline, children and the disadvantaged suffer, and the elderly try to make ends meet with reduced social programs. But, of course, that has not stopped The Daily Oklahoman, and many right-wing extremists in the state from supporting the measure. The bill, which would amend the Oklahoma Constitution, would require a vote of the people. It is sponsored by state Sen. Randy Brogdon (R-Owasso, brogdon@oksenate.gov, 405-521-5566).

Oklahomans would make a tragic mistake if they vote for this legislation if it does make it to the ballot. (There are some indications the bill is losing support.) Oklahoma is a small state with limited population growth. We even lost a congressional seat after the last census because of limited growth compared to the country’s average population growth. Under the proposed bill’s provisions, even a small downturn in the state’s economy might lead to, among other things, massive teacher layoffs, school closings, and higher college tuition. In addition, its impact on our state’s disadvantaged would be immeasurably.

This state desperately needs to invest our taxes in better education, not give our tax dollars to rich people. Keep in mind the filthy-rich power structure in the state—lead by its immoral mouthpiece, The Oklahoman—is always lying when it claims it wants to improve education in the state. No, what it wants is your hard-earned money through tax cuts for the super wealthy and higher gasoline prices so the state’s fat-cat oil executives can get even richer. (Look at the recent profits of oil companies in this country. It is obscene. Meanwhile, gasoline costs skyrocket.)

These TABOR Republicans, fueled by the right-wing extremist group, the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, are simply the most immoral citizens of Oklahoma today. Their aim is to redistribute wealth to the state’s and country’s richest citizens. Their clichéd rhetoric about less government or accountable government rings hollow and false. They do not give a hoot about this state or you or me. They do not care about your children and your grandparents.

These immoral rascals want your hard-earned money, and they will lie and distort to get it anyway they can. They treat us like rubes, and then laugh all the way to the bank. The money they steal from us is blood money.

The Oklahoma TABOR Republicans are a part of what we might call the “new immoralists” in our country today. Hiding under cultural wedge issues, these new immoralists work insidiously to hurt ordinary people with their draconian laws and policies that shift massive amounts of wealth to people like the Gaylord family or Oklahoma’s rich oil executives or the nation’s Wall Street bankers.

Under any known and recognized moral system, whether it be conventional religion or traditional philosophy, it is wrong to intentionally harm large masses of regular people so the super wealthy can get even wealthier. But that is just what the Oklahoma TABOR Republicans apparently want to do.

In addition, the Oklahoma TABOR Republicans are obviously philosophically aligned with those morally-challenged Republicans who now want to dismantle Social Security, so Americans will no longer have a secured retirement. They want to take the retirement money you pay into the system and give it to rich, Wall Street stockbrokers who will then give some of it (“some of it,” folks) back in the form of campaign contributions to the corrupt politicians running our country these days. They want you to have less and less, so rich people can have more and more. It really is that simple.

The new immoralists, these quasi-fascists, will bring our state and county to its doom if people do not wake up soon.