SQ 779: The Cloward-Piven Plan

SQ 779

By the Watchman

   Senator Boren has proven to be just another tax and spend liberal Democrat sitting at the most powerful chair in the City of Norman. A city well known for its liberal attitudes and t's liberal indoctrination at the University of Oklahoma. This year they have either failed to look at the effect of a proposal or they are following the Cloward-Piven plan to ensure the destruction of the economy of the State of Oklahoma. They are not alone in failing the citizens of this great state. We can add both chambers of the legislature and the greed for money and power they seek to the problem. A true tragedy will strike this state if State Question 779 is passed in November.

HOW THE CAR OWNERS ARE BEING SCAMMED BY THE STATE.

  WHO IS MAKING THE MONEY

THE WATCHMAN

There is an old saying in politics. If you want to know what’s going on all you have to do is follow the money. We citizens of Oklahoma who own a motor vehicle have just been scammed by the legislature and the Governor. Now they claim they didn’t raise any taxes and technically they didn’t. They did however cancel the tax cut that the citizens were supposed to get this year. Yet every single one of them up for election claims the mantel of being a Conservative. Most of them should pick up a dictionary and look the word up, because Conservative they are not.

The first item we need to bring up is this webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2015-16 ENR/hB/HB3208 ENR.PDF. This is the legislation passed this last session by the legislature and signed by the governor that changed the license plates for the state of Oklahoma. Now since now tax increase bills would be approved, they added a five dollar ($5.00) fee to the citizens to be able to change their plates and then made it a requirement. To put it mildly, this is an under the table tax increase and the legislators are hoping that you won’t notice. To their misfortune, this is also one of the bills we included in our 2016 Rino Index.

The next article of interest we found was this http://newsok.com/article/5516697. Now the state has had a contract with the 3M Company for a long time. With the change in the license plates comes a new contract with 3M. In short more of that five dollar ($5.00) increase is going into the pockets of an out of state company that contributes little to nothing to the economy of the state of Oklahoma. Did they even try to find an in-state vendor? Did they use a bidding process? None of this is known. This is a simple knee jerk reaction to fill a billion dollar plus gap in the budget at the expense of the tax payers. For a state that is technically in a depression, this is a poor attempt to reign in cost at the expense of the tax payers.

The next article of interest we found was this Oklahoma Tax Commission - Motor Vehicle. This is an

 Official site for the Department of Motor Vehicles. We included this page in this article because it is our understanding that we will have to start paying the additional five dollar ($5.00) fee almost immediately, but you won’t be able to obtain the new plate until January of 2017. Now if that isn’t running a scam we don’t know what is. These guys must have taken lessons from the Chicago School of Political Science.

The next article of interest we found was this Oklahoma House passes bill to require new motor vehicle license plates | News OK. This is the article reporting the passing of the bill. It’s not often that we agree with Democrats, but we do in this case. While the Republicans stand fast and insist on calling this a fee, the Democrats are correct in calling this a backdoor tax increase. They argue that changing the design of the plate makes it easier to detect unregistered vehicles on the road. That is a load of crap if we’ve ever heard one. The major cities in our state already use tag readers in some vehicles. Others can be found on traffic stops. Most can be seen in plain sight. We are not as stupid as you mouth pieces at the capital think we are.

We have to face it folks. We are stuck in the most corrupt government in the United States. You can count on one hand the number of Republicans in office who uphold the platform of the Republican Party. What is needed here is a State Constitutional Amendment that would place all tax increases and all fee increases to a vote of the people before they can go into effect. The same should apply to all new proposed Turnpikes.

What we are proposing are three Constitutional amendments to be driven by initiative petitions. If you know of someone skilled in writing these type of initiative petitions have them contact us. We can no longer live under the disgrace we call a government. We the unwilling led by the unqualified to do the unnecessary for the ungrateful. We have done so much with so little for so long that we are now qualified to do practically anything with nothing.

STATE QUESTION 781: PUTTING CRIMINALS BACK ON THE STREETS

  Government and the legal system move in mysterious ways. The state of Oklahoma has known for decades that they had an overcrowding problem in the prison system. Instead of doing the right thing and expanding the prisons themselves, they allowed the money of lobbyist to convince them to give contracts to private prisons at the tune of $95 million dollars a year. That in turn led to the increase in the incarceration of individuals for offenses that could have been handled in another way. It also led to a complete lack of training and rehabilitation of inmates in marketable skills needed to reduce the recidivism rate for the prison population. This is a clear indication that greed is running the government not the common sense necessary to maintain a Constitutional Republic.

  While they may have good intentions of saving money and easing overcrowding in the prison system, they fail to take into consideration that the money saved will be sent to the counties to cover the cost of the programs they are required by the passage of this law to establish. In addition they will still be under contract with private prisons for a certain amount of beds even if they are unable to fill them. That will still cost the state $95 million dollars a year.

  Last year there was a $1.3 billion dollar shortfall in the state budget. We do not recall any of the television or radio stations saying exactly why except for the lower price of oil. This article will tell you how much trouble we are in Oklahoma unemployment rate tops national average for first time in 13 years | KFOR.com. The headline says it all. By releasing these individuals with no known useful skills the crime rate in the state of Oklahoma is going to soar. The federal government has placed Oklahoma into an official recession. After six consecutive quarters of downturn in the state we are sitting on the edge of a depression. How in the world can we afford to put criminals back on the street? We would only be putting our law abiding citizens in danger again.

  The State Question we are talking about is well explained here Oklahoma Rehabilitative Programs Fund Initiative, State Question 781 (2016) - Ballotpedia. We urge you to open the link and read the article itself. It basically transferred what they call "calculated savings" and "averted cost" on a proportional basis to the counties. These funds can be claimed by privately run drug and mental health organizations. We can only see that the passage of this bill will prevent the Department of Corrections from returning to the legislature annually for additional funding to complete the fiscal year. There will be no savings from the Department of Corrections until such time as our State Legislature frees itself of the campaign donations from the private prisons and severs the contracts with them. This also fails to address those that are mentally disabled and being warehoused in state prisons instead of getting the help they truly need. Although well intentioned, it fails to address the overall problem with the corrections system and the lack of true rehabilitation for those that are incarcerated.

  The next article of interest we found was this Oklahoma 2016 ballot measures - Ballotpedia. We included this in this article so that you would be aware of all the State Questions on the ballot this November. This will allow you to do your own research and draw your own conclusions on each question. An informed voter is more likely to make the right choice.

  The next article of interest we found was this question. This actually goes into a little more detail about each question that made it onto the ballot in November. It will give you a head start on your own research.

  The next article of interest we found was dated August 22, 2016. It is the last group of State Questions to make the ballot State questions Oklahoma voters will see on the November ballot | KFOR.com. There were two initiatives that failed to make the ballot. One was for the lack of the amount of required signatures. The other was because the Attorney General changed the language of the title and the sponsor of the initiative appealed it to the State Supreme Court.

  The next article of interest we found was this Oklahoma state questions on criminal justice reform to be on November ballot | News OK. This is a news report announcing that the companion bill and this bill would both be on the ballot in November.

  The next article of interest we found was this State Supreme Court keeps its version of state question ballot titles - News - Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise - Bartlesville. Law enforcement had complained about the title of the State Question to the Supreme Court. It was taken into consideration and the Supreme Court decided to stick with the title they had originally agreed upon. Needless to say law enforcement wasn't happy.

  The next article of interest we found was this Oklahoma Group Begins Petition Drive For Criminal Justice Reform. This shows how in such a short period of time they were able to gather enough signatures to get their petition approved for inclusion on the November ballot.

  We find it interesting that this State Question and its companion, State Question 780 are very similar to the bill that former Speaker Kris Steele tried to get passed while he was the Speaker of the House. We also know that he pushed for this type of legislation in the House this year. We haven't been able to find a connection to the initiative drive and him however we do know he works for one of the companies that would stand to make millions out of this project. We would not be surprised to find the hands of David Prater involved either.

  We find this bill to be a well-intentioned but misguided bill. It's funded on an expected savings that just isn't going to be there until such time as the state separates itself from the private prison industry. It puts criminals out on the street that have no support system to back them. The county systems they talk about will take years and dollars to put in place and become functional. It is the recommendation of this group that this receive a negative vote at this time.

  We would like to see the Corrections Department truly give people a chance at a life when they are released. The Federal threat of intervention due to overcrowding has been neglected by the state for decades. Try teaching the inmates usable skills and have them expand the prisons. Then you're only out the cost of material.