Okie TABOR Saga Continues

The Oklahoman and TABOR

As Okie Funk predicted a couple of weeks ago, The Oklahoman editorial page has come out against the initiative petition that could place a TABOR constitutional amendment on the ballot next November.

The newspaper did so after a group of prominent business people in the state recently filed a lawsuit to prevent the measure from making it to the ballot.

It will be interesting to see if the newspaper editorial board and business people also come out against State Rep. Ken Miller’s TABOR bill, another measure that would tie the state’s budget growth to the rate of inflation and population growth. This measure, if passed by the legislature, would also require voter approval.

Miller, an Edmond Republican, works as an economics instructor at Oklahoma Christian College. The college has been supported financially by the Gaylord family, owners of The Oklahoman, for years.

Obviously, one has to wonder if a political deal is in the works here.

Miller says his bill is different from the TABOR initiative petition, but it is extremely unclear how or why it is different, according to news reports. The inflation rate under Miller’s bill would be considered differently than under the initiative petition. So what? Big deal.

Meanwhile, The Oklahoman editorial “This Tabor too much, too early,” (March 5, 2006) made the point that TABOR “is the wrong approach at the wrong time.”

On November 2, 2005, five months earlier, I argued, “ . . . Oklahoma is the wrong state at the wrong time for such a measure.”

The newspaper editorial went on to add, “This is a much poorer state [than Colorado] that has some catching up to do in education, infrastructure, health care, corrections, social services and other functions.

On September 28, 2005, eight months earlier, I wrote that TABOR was bad for the state because “it is a relatively small state with chronic funding problems for education and infrastructure.”

Of course, I am not accusing the intellectual geniuses over at The Oklahoman of taking my or anyone else’s ideas, and I am sure they do not even know this humble blog even exists, right? But why didn’t the newspaper speak up earlier if it is so obvious now that TABOR is wrong? And why don’t the newspaper and the business bigwigs speak out against Miller’s bill?

The TABOR saga continues here in Oklahoma.

Sorry, No Birth Control For Oklahoma Women

Oh my, what will the right-wing religious folk do once abortion is illegal in this country? Well, the answer to that becomes obvious when you consider State Rep. Thad Balkman’s new bill that would allow pharmacists to decline to fill birth control prescriptions in Oklahoma.

Under Balkman’s bill, HB 2884, which has passed out of committee, “No pharmacist, nor any agent or employee of a pharmacist: (1) Shall be prohibited from refusing to provide contraceptive procedures, supplies, and information when refusal is based upon religious or conscientious objection.”

Balkman, the religious extremist from Norman, was also an early advocate of allowing the teaching of intelligent design theory, or neocreationism, in Oklahoma schools. It simply amazes me that Balkman represents a college town of all places. What an embarrassment for the University of Oklahoma and the state.

South Dakota recently banned all abortions even in cases of rape and incest. The law will obviously be challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court, and it may well be upheld.

But Balkman’s bill represents the next frontier for the fundamentalist, religious kooks. They will chip away at birth control until some state like South Dakota or Mississippi or Oklahoma makes it entirely illegal.

What will the Christian fundamentalists do once abortion and birth control is illegal? What other rights will they take from women?

Cutting Taxes For Rich People Is So Fun

Imagine a group of kids come together on the playground, compare the money in each other’s wallets, and then decide the richest kids in the group should have all the money in all the wallets.

Then the kids who now do not have any money in their wallets run around exclaiming it is a great victory for them as they do cartwheels and play kickball.

This is not an imaginary playground, folks. This is Oklahoma, the place where most of you who are reading this live and work and go to school.

We have a current House tax cut proposal that would reduce the income tax rate from 6.25 to 5.85. We have a current Senate tax cut proposal that would reduce the income tax rate from 6.25 to 4.9.

This comes on the heels of two straight years of cuts in the income tax rate and other tax breaks for corporations. As rich people get richer here, the middle-class get token tax breaks and higher college tuition, underfunded schools, and a dilapidated infrastructure.

All these cuts will come back someday and devastate Oklahoma when the economy turns, and it will.

But don’t worry, everyone, the rich kids on the playground will be just fine.