The Dog & Pony Show They Call A 'Budget'

THE DOG AND PONY SHOW THEY CALL A BUDGET

KICKING THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD AGAIN

By the Watchman

Last night the State Constitutional mandate for passing a budget passed without so much as a whisper from the Governor. For many years now you have seen us expose the liberal leanings of a vast majority of our elected officials. Most of you have ignored the warnings and the proof that we have provided so far. The debacle at the Capital over taxes and the budget shortfall only serves to highlight our point. This article should be proof enough by its self that a tax increase is not needed Liberal Donor to Group Pushing Okla. Tax Hike Avoided Millions in Taxes - Washington Free Beacon. The individual here, George Kaiser has a deep rooted history of feeding off the middle class tax payers. He made millions from the Obama administration scam known as Solyndra while the middle class tax payers paid the bill. It truly seems that the two parties have switch roles. It is now the Democrats in office who are fighting the tax increases instead of the Republicans.

As we have witnessed for many years, politicians seem to feel that they know how to spend our money better than we do. We maintain that they know how to waste our money better than we do. The alleged budget shortfall they are complaining about and using to argue for raising taxes is a classic bait and switch. The state's budget is set by using a figure from last year's spending and guessing they can spend a little more this year. Only an imbecile thinks that way. All they needed to do was look at the reports from the State Treasurer's Office to see that the income for the state was down. What the shortfall is amounts to the difference to what is available to spend and what they want to spend on their pet projects. That is what they call a budget shortfall. The only thing we can be sure of is that these people have become adept in the art of boxing. They have learned the art of the duck and weave better than most boxers. They always seem to duck a question when one is placed to them.

One of the major subjects this session has been teachers' pay raises. Not once in any of the proposals have we heard a word said about the amount of cash that the individual school districts are holding in their savings accounts as an assist to funding these pay raises. We are sure you are surprised to hear of this, but you may see the funds by districts here Why Are School Districts Sitting on So Much Cash?OCPA - Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. Most school districts did not have to lay off a single teacher last year. Their greed got in the way and they stashed it into their savings accounts.

The next article of interest we found was this. This article is dated February 21, 207. It indicates that they are already directing agencies to plan for a $34.6 million dollar cut in their budgets. There is a side note from the Governor in this article that says "Our budget is broken and we have to fix it." She and her predecessors have had over a hundred and ten years to broaden the base of the economy of the state. Instead they are stuck on two items, oil and gas. They cater to them. They do whatever they want. The biggest reason is the lobbyist behind the companies and the financial backing they get for their campaigns. One industry has bought our state. That's disgraceful.

The next article of interest we found was this Although the group associated with this blog is for parental empowerment, which we hold no objection to, they make a very fine point in this article. We would urge you to open the link and read the article for yourself. There is even an ad made by a Gubernatorial Candidate in here that explains how many services they want to tax. Included in these taxes would be a tax on your funeral. Apparently they want you to leave as little as possible for the surviving members of your family.

The next article we found was disturbing to us. You can read it here Altus Times | Gov. Mary Fallin is picking winners and losers with proposed sales taxes. All of the tax increases seem to increase the taxes for small business while leaving the taxes for the large oil and gas business's alone. Lt. Governor Lamb was on the Cabinet of the Governor and was primarily concerned with the protection of small business. He resigned from the Cabinet because the Governor would no longer listen to the advice that he was giving.

The next article of interest only serves to show how much pull the oil and gas industry has in Oklahoma You can see it here The Okie » OKOGA Blasts Legislature's Efforts To Raise GPT Rate. Now this is a special interest group that lobbies for the oil and gas industry. Apparently they lobby for only the large operators in the state. While this group has been ranting and raving to law makers about not raising taxes, the smaller oil and gas operators in the state have stepped up to the plate and admittedly saying it would hurt them financially, they have volunteered to pay a higher tax on their wells. We are shocked and dismayed that not one single legislator that we are aware of has bothered to even say thank you, yet they stick to their guns about not raising their taxes.

The next article of interest we found was this Sooner Survey, May 2017 | Democratic Party (United States) | United States Government. Now we took into consideration that this came from the Democratic National Committee and the Oklahoma Democratic Committee, but it does bring out some very legitimate points. In part we'll quote "The current discussion about the state budget shortfall has created conflict, not just among Oklahoma Voters, but within individual voters as well. We still see large numbers of Oklahomans (65%) who believe that the primary response should be cutting government spending, while only 23% have a first impulse to raise taxes. Given this, it is no surprise that Oklahomans overwhelmingly reject a tax on services (17% support). We also have a growing percentage of Oklahomans saying taxes are too high (44%), up from 36% in 2014. After reading this report we all owe a margin of thanks to those Democrats in our State Legislature who are doing their best to stop these tax increases.

The next article of interest we found was this The Okie » UPDATE: Coburn's Budget Fix: Focus on Spending Reductions and Not Tax Increases. Senator Coburn offered what we would consider to be perhaps the best advice we've seen to date. He recommended that our legislature concentrate on spending reductions not tax increases. Despite that advice, our legislature has increased the size of government and created new commissions to investigate problems they aren't willing to tackle themselves. This amounts to a phony budget put together by a bunch of phony republicans. Being called RINO's is to give them a compliment.

The next article of interest we found was this Former Democrat Compares Pro-Oil & Gas Lawmakers To Judas | Need To Know Network. This is another special interest group that represents the smaller, vertical well producers here in Oklahoma. Though we wouldn't go as far as to call them Judas, we would call them Chambercrats. Those lawmakers who vote to protect the tax credits of the larger oil and gas producers are getting the help of the Oklahoma State Chamber of Commerce and are falling in line with what they want. We the People no longer have control of our own state.

The next article of interest we found was this Free Market Friday: The veiled budget – The Journal Record. This is a very important article for you to open the link and read. With all the doom and gloom comments being made by various agencies about not having the funds to do their work properly, the budget being decided at the capitol is only a small portion of what they get. This is another tactic they use to make people think that they can't get along without the extra cash or that services would be reduced because they didn't get a tax increase. This is pure nonsense.

There is only one group out there lobbying in the defense of those of us that will pay the taxes. You can see the article on them here The Okie » AFP Challenges State Leaders: "Where Are The Cuts?" They are the only one that asks the most important question asked in this time of financial shortfall. Where are the cuts? Neither the Governor nor any other elected official has bothered to pay attention to what the Oklahoma State Treasurer has been saying for the last three years. He has been saying repeatedly that revenue was down. What makes them think they can spend more money than they have when you have less revenue coming in? Simple elementary school math would tell you that you can't. We highly recommend none of these people appear on the television program "Are you smarter than a 5^th Grader." They would lose.

What we have here is by law a sitting Governor and sitting legislative body who are doing so without the consent of the people. They have been in violation of the Oklahoma State Constitution since 1994. By law we are required to have a State Constitutional Convention every twenty years. We have not had one since 1974. That is enough to call into question every law and regulation that has been put into place since 1994. Every attempt by a legislator to bring a bill up to force the compliance with the Constitution has failed to even clear committee. That makes them knowingly in violation of the law. Those are grounds for impeachment.

In conclusion we have a prime example of absolute corruption corrupts absolutely. Our elected officials are perfectly willing to raise the taxes on the average citizens by a billion dollars, but they refuse to cut the tax credits they give to the people who fund their election campaigns. They fail to pay attention to what they are being told about the revenue available to the state and go on and plan to fund their pet projects anyway. They no longer represent us, but they do the bidding of those who pay for their campaigns. This has got to change.

We call for a suspension of all state spending until such time as a State Constitutional Convention is held. We call for a work slowdown by all state employees, withholding the paycheck of elected officials and the per diem of all elected officials until a convention is called. We call for all future tax increases to be placed onto a state wide ballot for an up or down vote by the citizens of Oklahoma. We further call for the resignation of the Governor, the Senate President pro-tem, and the Speaker of the House. Their incompetence has led to this alleged shortfall through mismanagement and greed. This has got to stop.