Taxation

Very Liberal Democrats File State Question 832 – A Big NO On The Ballot In June

Just recently I learned that SQ832 would be on the ballot during the Primary Election, June 16th, 2026.

This is a question that seeks to raise the MINIMUM WAGE as determined by the Federal Labor Commission-determined cost of living for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, not voters, through the Oklahoma Legislature. Currently, our state follows the Federal Minimum Wage, but this value may be increased beyond the minimum via state law, as has happened in other states – particularly those that make up the east and west coasts.

If the SQ is voted into law, the minimum wage in Oklahoma would immediately raise from $7.25 to $10.50/hour.

It is important to remember that while $7.25 is the current federally-mandated minimum, ANY employer in Oklahoma, can offer wages above that to their employees as it makes sense to their budgets, at any time.

Because an increases in minimum wage can cause large ripples in a state’s economy and simply ruin small businesses, I decided to put a bit of time into researching the people who signed their name to SQ832’s petition.

According to the filing, Kelsey Cobbs, of El Reno, and Dustin Phelan, of Salina, created the petition.

Kelsey Cobbs is the head pastor of The Federated Church of Weatherford.

Please note that Kelsey has a Master of Divinity with a concentration on Spirituality and Social Activism from Vanderbilt Divinity School.

I have two questions about Kelsey:

Does your church accept donations? Why is it then, that you can’t help the poor in your community? Why is it that ALL OF OKLAHOMA has to carry the burden you want carried yourself?
What did God say about the poor? “’When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the LORD your God.’” Leviticus 23:22. “If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.” Deuteronomy 7-11. It doesn’t say anything at all about the government forcing wages, or that the government should make sure there are none in poverty. Jesus told us that the second greatest commandment was to, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” Matthew 29:39. If we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, we can’t possibly be commanded to steal from others to give to others. We must INDIVIDUALLY, PERSONALLY donate money to churches and to organizations who help the poor. “I think the minimum wage needs to go up because the cost of everything has gone up, and it is time that wages people earn can actually help them make a living,” Cobbs told the Oklahoman.

Our next signer is Dustin Phelam. Dustin is an electrician and member of IBEW Local 584 who looks as though he might be making a bit more than minimum wage already.

He is also a Democrat who wants to begin the RURAL REVOLUTION today. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but I do know that Revolution is a Communist construct, so there’s that.

There is also a group involved, called, “Raise The Wage Oklahoma“, piloted by our old Common Core nemesis, Amber England. England worked VERY hard to make Common Core the law of Oklahoma and we fought her every step of the way until it was finally repealed from law in 2014.

Oklahoma Appleseed – a division of the George Soros-backed Appleseed Network – is also involved in the effort to increase the minimum wage.

Both Raise the Wage and Oklahoma Appleseed ask for donations. Let’s think…if you are REALLY invested in making sure people in poverty have their needs met, shouldn’t you be using the DONATIONS YOU’RE COLLECTING and GIVING THEM TO THOSE IN NEED?

Absolutely. This is how you know – IMMEDIATELY – that SQ832 is yet another scam to ruin the middle class, by attacking their businesses.

Do not be fooled. Share this information and VOTE NO ON STATE QUESTION 832 June 16th.

Also, check out this post from Oklahoma Grassroots!

March 23, 2026 0

According To Grok, Oklahoma’s Tax Credits Are Not, “publicly available in a straightforward way”

As many of you know, I’ve been hammering away for years about the massive number of tax credits/incentives our Oklahoma legislature is giving away so we can become a “Top 10 State” – whatever the heck that means. I’m not really sure, frankly, and according to the ways in which Governor Stitt is incentivizing businesses, it would be very hard to determine.

Look at Canoo, for example, and the Denmark deal for ‘green’ energy? How did Canoo’s bankruptcy help Oklahomans? How are deals brokered with other countries really going to help Oklahoma businesses, or help Oklahomans afford to be able to buy things from Oklahoma businesses to keep them going?

Recently, I decided to try and decipher all the tax incentives Oklahoma actually offers, so I started doing some basic internet searches. I always ended up back at the Oklahoma Commerce Department. On the website they do have a page for Business Incentives. On this page, you’ll actually find – make sure you’re sitting down – a SIXTY PAGE booklet that describes all the tax credits Oklahoma provides select businesses.

I say “select” businesses because do not forget – tax incentives don’t help ALL Oklahoma businesses, only SOME businesses – only those businesses that the Governor and his team ‘select’. And also don’t forget – the government only has the money they take out of our pockets – We The People are its only source of funding.

Because I think you might be interested, I’ve uploaded the booklet below so you can see it for yourself. There are SIXTY-SEVEN ways in which our Oklahoma government STEALS money from “We The People” and then redistributes it to ‘select/preferred’ businesses. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been offered even ONE way to get out of paying my income or the tax on the home I’ve paid for but the government could take if I don’t provide them a yearly check (aka property tax/ad valorem taxes). I guess I’m not a ‘select/preferred’ citizen.

So now you have an idea of how many tax incentives Oklahoma has for private businesses.

How much money would you say we spend on those tax incentives? Well…here comes GROK.

I’m a writer/researcher. I don’t like data centers and I don’t love the idea of AI, HOWEVER, it certainly does come in handy when search results are not forthcoming in a reasonable amount of time. Consequently, I asked GROK today, “What is the amount of money paid by the state of Oklahoma in tax incentives in 2024?” I’m posting GROK’s answer below.

Researching tax incentives

I’m looking into the user’s request about Oklahoma’s tax incentives in 2024. It’s a specific figure, so I’ll check official state sources or financial reports first.

Searching for “total tax incentives paid by Oklahoma in 2024”

What Is The Oklahoma State Income Tax In 2025?

The search shows Oklahoma offers various incentives like the Quality Jobs Program and film tax credits. Still, there’s no single total for all incentives paid in 2024.
It seems the state doesn’t publish a unified report summing up all incentives for that year. That explains why I can’t find a direct figure.
I’m thinking I need to dig deeper, maybe checking annual reports from the Oklahoma Department of Commerce or Tax Commission for more details.

Browsing okcommerce.gov for “total tax incentives paid in 2024”

The Oklahoma Department of Commerce website doesn’t have the info on their homepage. I’ll try searching for a specific report or section next.
Just found a document called “2024-OKLAHOMA-BUSINESS-INCENTIVES-AND-TAX-GUIDE.pdf” that might help. Let’s check if it has the total for tax incentives paid in 2024.

Browsing okcommerce.gov for “total tax incentives paid in 2024”

Hmm, the PDF doesn’t directly provide the total tax incentives paid in 2024 either. It seems to be a guide on available incentives rather than a report on expenditures.
From the web search, budget documents mention FY24 totals, like $12.8 billion, but that’s the overall budget, not tax incentives House Approves.
Another result talks about grocery tax elimination, reducing revenue by $418 million annually, but that’s a cut, not the total incentives paid Fiscal Year 2025.
The Oklahoma Tax Commission has publications, but no “2024 tax incentives report” is listed. Still, there’s a “2024 Summary of Tax Legislation” that might have details on incentive changes.

Browsing oklahoma.gov for “2024 Summary of Tax Legislation”

The browse result shows COPO documents for 2024, but no specific “2024 Summary of Tax Legislation” is listed in the provided content.

Searching for “Oklahoma Tax Commission 2024 Summary of Tax Legislation”

From the fifth web search, there’s a document titled “2024LegislativeUpdate.pdf” on the Oklahoma Tax Commission’s site. It might be the summary we’re after.

Browsing oklahoma.gov for “total tax incentives paid in 2024”

The “2024 Legislative Update” mentions the Parental Choice Tax Credit Act, but no total for 2024 tax incentives is given. It does say the OTC must publish monthly updates on payments claimed each year, though.
I’ve exhausted several avenues and can’t find a single figure for Oklahoma’s total tax incentives paid in 2024. I think it’s safe to say this info isn’t publicly available in a straightforward way.

And so, there you go. Oklahomans have no idea how much of their hard-earned dollars are going to fund business incentives in the state.

We do know, however, that Governor Stitt AND A WHOLE LOT OF HIS STAFF went to PARIS for the Paris airshow this year where they announced three new business deals; Kratos Defense and Security Solutions (I wrote about the 1.7 million dollars Oklahoma has given this HUGE publicly-traded defense giant, you should check it out), Dawn Aerospace (which is apparently working out a deal with Oklahoma Commerce and the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority (OSIDA), but Subsidy tracker has no idea what and it’s not found anywhere for public eyes according to GROK) and MST Manufacturing (which has so far received apparent COVID bailout dollars in the amount of $130,000, but doesn’t appear to be taking tax dollars for this new venture).

But it doesn’t stop there, my friend and amazing researcher herself, Nancy McDaniel collected the number of pieces of tax incentive legislation that were brought to the capitol this year. The list is SHOCKING. The ones below PASSED this last session:

SB44 (2025) Rader/Fetgatter – SALES TAX EXEMPTIONS to contractors with a tax exempt entity.

SB119 (2025) Green/Archer – REBATES for hydrogen industry.

SB234 (2025) Rader/Lepak – 50% TAX CREDIT for remodeling old buildings for rentals.

SB235 (2025) Pugh/Kerbs – Grow Your Own Educator GRANT program.

SB239 (2025) Wingard – This bill TRIED to repeal Oklahoma statute O.S. 68 (2021) Section 2357.32A which relates to TAX CREDITS on the sale of electricity generated by zero-emission facilities. There were two years remaining. The Senate Revenue and tax committee voted 5 to 5, a tie, therefore considered the measure as failed and the TAX CREDITS continue for 2 more years.

SB249 (2025) Thompson, K/Townley – Extends the expiration date for TAX INCENTIVES provided by the Oklahoma Tourism Development Act to January 1, 2032.

SB287 (2025) Pugh/Miller -TAX CREDITS for aerospace industry.

SB324 (2025) Thompson, K/Hill – TAX CREDITS for research and development with no specific industry named.

SB469 (2025) Boles/Woods – Oklahoma Emission Reduction Technology REBATE Program.

SB578 (2025) Coleman/Kelley – Quality Events Act – Extends GRANTS for 5 MORE years.

SB663 (2025) Pugh/Hill – The Workforce Coordination Revolving Fund may be used to create a workforce data integration system as well as provide GRANTS for critical workforce needs.

SB687 (2025) Hall/Caldwell, T – Broadband SALES TAX REBATE PROGRAM.

SB688 (2025) Hall/Hilbert – EXEMPTIONS OF AD VALORUM TAXES for payroll for manufacturing aerospace equipment.

SB713 (2025) Jech/Newton – TAX INCREASE FOR THE PEOPLE via bonds. A county can issue revenue bonds to purchase light mitigating technology for EXISTING windmills that do not currently have the technology. (If the windmill private companies are to pay for NEW wind turbines to have these lights, then they should also pay for THEIR EXISTING wind turbines to have them NOT tax the people through bonds).

SB987 (2025) Thompson, K/Osburn – Creates the Oklahoma Department of Commerce Board consisting of 9 voting members. The board must meet within 60 days of its creation, may create working groups to help carry out its responsibilities, and may accept GIFTS, GRANTS and DONATIONS from NON-GOVERNMENTAL SOURCES. (ARE THESE FROM LOBBYISTS???)

SB998 (2025) Green/Caldwell, T – Allows a utility to start recovering work-in-progress expenses prior to the commercial operation of a new, or newly expanded, natural gas facility. The Commission is required to permit a SPECIAL RATE for the recovery of such expenses. (the customers get screwed again with utility rate increases).

SB1150 (2025) Hall/Caldwell, T – Appropriates $15,000,000.00 from the PREP Fund to the Oklahoma Department of Aerospace and Aeronautics for the construction or upgrades to a primary commercial airport. There is a $15,000,000.00 impact to the state budget. (who exactly is benefiting from this?)

SB1438 (2025) Patzkowski/Kern – Rural Economic Development GRANTS. Raises the cap, from $150,000 to $350,0000, on certain Rural Economic Action Plan (REAP) grants administered by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.

HB1571 (2025) Lawson/Gollihare – Removes the expiration date for the Route 66 Commission who is responsible for funds awarding of GRANT funding for projects on the historic highway Route 66.

HB1727 (2025) Moore/Pugh – College SCHOLARSHIPS only for public teachers’ kids.

HB2019 (2025) Pae/Pugh – A TAX CREDIT for aerospace industry extended to 2032.

HB2260 (2025) Miller/Haste – Establishes 3 TAX CREDITS for civil engineers and their employers beginning tax year 2026. Qualified engineering businesses that employ a civil engineer will receive a TAX CREDIT equal to 5% of the compensation paid to an engineer until January 1, 2031, or 10% if the engineer graduated from an Oklahoma college or university. The TAX CREDIT is capped at $12,500 per employee, per year, and may claimed for up to 5 years. An employer can also CLAIM ANOTHER TAX CREDIT for up to 50% of the tuition reimbursed to an employee for up to 4 years of employment until January 1, 2031. Additionally, the engineer hired is eligible for a TAX CREDIT of $5000 per year, for up to 5 years until January 1, 2031.

HB2402 (2025) – Fetgatter/Murdock – INCOME TAX ABATEMENT for manufacturing of electricity from low grade heat.

HB2407 (2025) Fetgatter/Coleman – Oklahoma “Main Street” GRANT program.

HB2645 (2025) Hilbert/Paxton – HB2645 provides a $20,000 INCOME TAX CREDIT for doctors that practice medicine in a rural area for up to four years. A rural area is considered a city or town with a population of less than 25,000 that is at least 25 miles from the nearest city or town with a population greater than 25,000. The TAX CREDIT is available beginning tax year 2026 and is limited to $1 million in total claims each year.

HB2753 (2025) Caldwell, T/Howard – TAX CREDITS for Rural Jobs Act.

HB2767 (2025) Caldwell, T/Hall – Transfers $255 million to the ROA-25 Revolving Fund which was created to support industrial projects. The program is part of the Reindustrialize Oklahoma Act run by the Dept of Commerce to incentivize manufacturing companies to invest in Oklahoma.

HB2768 (2025) Caldwell, T/Hall – AMENDS the EXISTING Oklahoma Quality Jobs Incentive Leverage Act by increasing the maximum allowable investment for qualified establishments to $700,000,000.

HB2778 (2025) Caldwell, T/Hall – Creates the Teacher Recruitment and Retention Program, which exempts household income from being factored in when determining eligibility for the Child Care Subsidy Program for employees of child care facilities.

HB2781 (2025) Caldwell, T/Hall – Creates the Reindustrialize Oklahoma Act (ROA-25) investment REBATE PROGRAM. The program will be administered by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce (ODOC), run through July 1, 2045, and provide rebate payments to a manufacturing establishment that makes a capital expenditures investment of at least $2 billion in the state and creates 700 or more new direct jobs by year one of the rebate period. By year two, the jobs threshold is increased to 1000 and will remain so for the remainder of the rebate period. The establishment must also meet the program requirements under the Oklahoma Quality Jobs Program

HB2792 (2025) Caldwell, T/Hall – Makes changes to the Progressing Rural Economic Prosperity Fund to create a revolving fund and reappropriates to projects funds that were originally appropriated in 2022; a continuation of funds as several projects still have on-going expenses. The amounts for those projects are:

$25,000,000.00;
$1,000,000.00;
$20,000,000.00;
$20,000,000.00:
$20,000,000.00;
$22,350,000.00;
$14,000,000.00;
$4,000,000.00;
$22,500,000.00;
$5,000,000.00;

These ones below were brought to committee and thankfully VOTED DOWN: (notice this is a MUCH smaller list!!!)

SB119 (2025) Green/Archer – Creates an investment REBATE program for investments on property for the purpose of refining, manufacturing, and processing compounds or elements into hydrogen-based products. (NO senate floor vote).

SB236 (2025) Haste – Establishes an INCOME TAX CREDIT for employers required to comply with Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) requirements. Individual claims for the credit shall not exceed $50,000.00. The credit may be carried forward for a period of 5 years. NO vote in senate rev/tax committee.

SB241 (2025) Thompson, K – Appropriates $20 million from the General Revenue Fund to the Oklahoma Department of Commerce to provide a REBATE for capital investments in an establishment that refines, manufactures, or processes compounds or elements into hydrogen-based products. NO appropriations committee vote.

SB271 (2025) Rader – A repeat of HB2305 above. (Did not get a senate committee vote). Creates the Oklahoma Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Act. The measure stipulates that passive receivers of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) providing essential services shall NOT be civilly liable to the state for costs associated with the release of PFAS to the environment. NO senate energy committee vote.

SB820 (2025) Boren/Gise – Amends the Oklahoma Five Major Sports Leagues REBATE Program Act which expands eligibility to the Womens Nat’l Basketball Association, Womens Professional Fastpitch and National Womens Soccer League. This Act provides a REBATE PROGRAM similiar to the Oklahoma Quality Jobs Program with a maximum annual rebate of $10 MILLION per qualifying entity or establishment. NO house floor vote.

SB938 (2025) Kirt – Creates the Municipal Workforce Housing Development GRANT PROGRAM within the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency to provide financial assistance to municipalities for the purpose of increasing the availability of workforce housing. NO senate ecomonic development committee vote.

SB1501 (2024) Paxton – Income tax credit for geothermal. (NO senate floor vote).

HB2305 (2024) Rader/Pfeiffer – Oklahoma PFAS Act which said receivers of PFAS shall NOT BE LIABLE for the release into the environment. Also, that Oklahoma will accept other states’ PFAS. Oklahoma is not a toxic waste dump site! (Died in conference committee 5/30/24).

HB1848 (2025) Thompson, K/Schreiber – Committee substitute grants a TAX CREDIT to employers that provides a childcare subsidy to its employees or operates a childcare facility for its employees. The credit is equal to 30 percent of the subsidy amount or operating cost, limited to $30,000 per employer. The credit may be claimed for tax year 2026 through 2030 and capped at $5 million in total claims each year. NO senate floor vote.

HB2026 (2025) Archer/Haste – RENAMES the Oklahoma Aircraft Engine Testing Development Grant Program to the Oklahoma Aircraft and Rocket Engine Testing Development GRANT PROGRAM. (an EXISTING GRANT program). NO senate aeronautics committee vote.

Bottom line – this giving away money to PRIVATE BUSINESSES has to stop. Period. I don’t care if you’re a Republican or Democrat, tax incentives are NOT A PROPER FUNCTION OF GOVERNMENT.

If you’re a REPUBLICAN, however, and you’ve had anything to do with business incentivizing tax credits, you need to change your political affiliation. The Republican platform includes planks on our belief in the Free Enterprise system (which can’t exist side-by-side with tax credits for businesses of any kind) and our belief in SMALLER GOVERNMENT, which will never happen when new employees have to be hired to maintain and care for another system of tax dollar giveaways. Sadly, note that the same legislators appear to be running tax credit legislation and they are nearly all Republicans.

Please, PLEASE, share this information with anyone you know and ask them to contact their Senator and Representative (at the Oklahoma Capitol – you can find yours here) and tell them that – if they want YOUR vote – they need to stop authoring and/or voting for tax incentives for businesses of any kind. We’ll never be able to lower income tax rates or try to divorce ourselves of property taxes if the government keeps stealing from us to fund pet business projects. Period.

June 25, 2025 1

Questions And Answers With State Auditor And Inspector, Cindy Byrd

Cindy Byrd Oklahoma State Auditor and Inspector

Wednesday, March 19th at a special time – 10:00am – Michael and I had the privilege of interviewing Oklahoma’s State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd. Cindy is – hands down – one of my favorite interviews because SHE KNOWS HER STUFF! After being an auditor for over 20 years, she’s got the answers to pretty much any questions you can ask. I’ve pulled several short clips from the interview, but you’ll want to watch the full interview on our Rumble or YouTube channels.

We started talking about the Tulsa Public Schools audit that she just recently finished at the request of the Governor. She talks about that – how does Cindy determine what agencies to audit? Is it up to her? Early on she tells us that she doesn’t have the power to independently audit agencies or political subdivisions. At about 14 minutes in, she tells us who has the authority to have her audit – and that includes taxpayers!

As I mentioned, we didn’t just discuss the TPS audit, there were a number of questions that came in from viewers that Cindy was kind enough to take. Additionally, she had a number of points she was interested in making herself – like this one in the clip below.

Isn’t it interesting how the people who make the laws don’t seem to be terribly interested in the topic of how to make state agencies more transparent with taxpayer dollars? How frustrating! But it gets worse! Cindy tells us in the clip below that even if she finds that a person or entity is breaking the law, there are no laws in Oklahoma that actually hold ‘bad actors’ responsible for the gross mismanagement of tax dollars. How can that be? That’s flat crazy and something that an Oklahoma legislator needs to resolve NEXT YEAR for certain!

In this last clip, Cindy tells viewers not to give up hope! If we’ll report what we know, or think, to be wrong and if we’ll stand up and make our elected officials do what’s right – get Cindy’s office to audit – we’ll get the finances of our Oklahoma government back in order! She believes we can do it, but we have to be citizens active in the process, so stayed involved and educated!

March 23, 2025 0

Oklahoma Taxpayers Get Soaked By Canoo – And Other Taxpayer-Financed Violations Of The Free Market

In case you missed it, The Federalist ran an article I authored last week, “Oklahoma Republicans Are Helping Green Energy Cronies Scam Taxpayers Out Of Billions“. Check it out. I know both the Federalist and I would love that – but so will you. You may not know exactly how much of your hard-earned dollars are being GIVEN to PRIVATE companies in Oklahoma – but then, maybe you do and you’re just glad that Governor Stitt and his hand-picked Commerce Department staff is making sure that your kids have somewhere to work in Oklahoma so they can stay here after graduating college.

But wait. Is that really a reason for Republicans who love to use the expression ‘free market’ in their campaign literature, to GIFT private companies tax dollars.

Last Friday (2.7.25), in a special ROPE Report podcast at 1pm, Oklahoma Representative Jay Steagall was with me to talk about the ‘free market’ and Oklahoma tax incentives. Below is a clip in which Rep. Steagall and I make sure that everyone watching understands the concept of FREE MARKET ECONOMICS. What is that exactly? Watch below and find out.

So, is it appropriate for the legislature to appropriate your tax dollars, give it to another business which has the ability to make dollars on their own in the free market and then tell you that they’re doing it to create jobs? NO NO NO NO NO. I think you might get the idea.

In fact, last week, I wrote another article – this time for just the website – titled, “Gov. Stitt’s Commerce Department Gives Multiple MILLIONS Of Taxpayer Dollars To Paycom And Love’s Through Quality Jobs Incentives“. I think this should be required reading for EVERY TAXPAYER IN OKLAHOMA – and not just because I wrote it – because every taxpayer should know that their taxdollars are going to prop up private companies that can pay for their own cost of doing business.

We get our property taken from us and sold at auction if we don’t pay our property taxes. If we don’t pay our income taxes, the government seizes our bank accounts, fines us, or throws us in jail until we do.

And yet, MULTI-BILLION dollar privately held companies can use our hard-earned dollars to make more money whether we like it or not.

And here’s more about the Canoo debacle that you might not know.

Wow! How do you like THEM apples? Not only did Canoo soak Oklahoma tax payers for tax dollars as incentives to help them start a business that WAS NEVER GOING TO GET OFF THE GROUND, employees that more than likely didn’t even live in Oklahoma and were hired just in time to get state and local (Oklahoma City) incentives, got paid Oklahoma unemployment. I’m imagining that Canoo never funded their portion of their employees unemployment, but I don’t know for a fact.

Rep. Steagall has a bill to reduce Income Tax this year on a trajectory to complete removal. Governor Stitt has also said that he wants to remove Income Tax. Yet here’s the headline screaming from an article in the Oklahoma Voice last week, “Oklahoma legislative leaders hesitant to cut income tax“. WHAT? WHAT? Our ‘legislative leaders’ are Republican. Whatever happened to the Republican concept of smaller government and minimal taxation as tenets of the Republican platform? What about the other tenet of the platform – FREE ENTERPRISE!??

Please, contact your Representative AND Senator. Tell them you expect them to lower the state Income Tax with a plan in place to phase it out – THIS SESSION. And you might mention that one of the things they could do to afford it, was to QUIT GIVING BILLIONAIRES AND PRIVATE GREEN ENERGY COMPANIES our tax dollars – FOR A START!

February 10, 2025 1

How Oklahoma Property Taxes Are Calculated and Who/What Really Owns Your Property

The most important hour and half you will ever spend is the hour and a half I spent talking to former McClain County Auditor turned Oklahoma Senator, Kendal Sacchieri, about how property taxes are calculated and who really owns your property. You really should take the time to watch the whole live episode of the ROPE Report from yesterday, January 15th (2025). You can find it here on YouTube and on Rumble.

As a citizen of Oklahoma, I absolutely DESPISE the fact that if I don’t pay my property taxes, the county will take my home away from me, sell it and pay whatever taxes I owe. Seriously. I may have a title to my house, but it won’t matter one whit if I don’t make good on my tax bill every year.

Below is the breakdown on the property taxes for a home in northwest Oklahoma City, done by the Oklahoma County Assessor. The property tax bill below that is from the McClain County Assessor’s office. Kendal told me that if your property tax bill doesn’t look like the blue one, you should ask your county Treasurer to break down the county property taxes into mills so that homeowners can better see the distribution of their tax dollars..

Note which entity is FAR AND AWAY the largest tax? Now let me ask two questions; 1. Do you feel your property taxes are too high? and 2. Have you voted on YES on a school bond?

Keep these things in mind when you watch the video below.

Now, watch this video clip. Trust me when I say it will be THE MOST IMPORTANT 7 MINUTE VIDEO OF YOUR LIFE AS AN OKLAHOMA HOME OWNER.

If you’re not throwing things at your video screen and freaking out a bit after watching those clips, we can’t be friends.

Basically, what Senator Sacchieri said was, that you don’t own your own property because of a scam that allows public schools to get more and more and more money every year NO MATTER THEIR OUTCOMES. Can’t teach kids how to read? Get more money. Can’t teach kids how to write a paragraph that makes sense? Get more money? Can’t teach kids to count back change or figure the percentage of something? Get more money. THAT IS NUTS.

Unfortunately, we, as citizens simply haven’t understood the process of property taxation well enough to stop it in the past, evidently. Fortunately, we have the Senator to TEACH us the process. Now, that she’s educated us, we need to do several things.

We need to just drive our legislators crazy asking for a bill to put a state question on a general election ballot to remove the language from the state Constitution that allows counties to collect property taxes. The state has nothing to do with property taxes. Property taxes in Oklahoma are generated at the COUNTY level and go to the COUNTY entities you see in my example above. Once the language is removed, the county has no ability to FORCE property taxes.
Toward the end of the full video, Kendal and I talk about the County Excise Boards. This is an important thing for you to know about. The Excise Board is a group of people who meet after the County Assessor has turned in home valuations and the county entities have decided how much in taxes they must recoup to make their budgets. The decide whether or not the budgets proposed by the entities are sound and reasonable and how much the entity will be allowed to tax your property. They must hold public hearings on the budgets submitted, allowing citizen comment. You can find your Excise Board meetings through your county office. Here is the list of Boards and Commissions for Oklahoma County. In Kingfisher, after a multimillion dollar lawsuit against a football coach for ‘hazing’ (physical abuse), the school added the lawsuit burden to their budget, expecting the taxpayers to foot the bill. The Kingfisher Excise Board members rejected the budget, forcing Kingfisher to cut their budget to pay the lawsuit. This was HUGE. This kind of thing almost never happens, but then I would imagine there are few – if any citizens – that would go to a meeting to protest a budget that would increase their property taxes. Learn about your Excise Board.
Your School Board is VERY IMPORTANT. Go to these meetings. If your school proposes a school bond – PROTEST. They MUST have open meetings and they MUST allow citizen comments. If they won’t, band together and send out literature to the district warning residents of what a vote on the bond can do to their property tax rates. As my neighbors and I found out, it was much cheaper to band together to stop a school bond by creating a flier and splitting postage and copying costs and sending it out to district voters, than it was to have our property rates jacked up.

BOTTOM LINE: Citizens have the ability to stop property tax increases through the means above. We also have the ability to have our lawmakers act on our behalf by proposing legislation for a state question to remove the ability for counties to collect property tax. If we do neither, we simply can’t complain.

PASS THIS INFORMATION ON TO FRIENDS, FAMILY and NEIGHBORS!

Everyone needs to know this information!

January 16, 2025 1

OK Rep Jay Steagall; Your Home And Your Income Are Constitutionally Protected Property

Michael and I were happy to have Oklahoma Rep. Jay Steagall join us for our podcast on December 11th to talk about property taxes – and also his bill to repeal the state income tax.

The conversation was nearly two hours so thanks to Rep. Steagall for sticking it out with us! Also, thanks to all the people who tuned in to participate in the discussion – at one point, we had SO MANY COMMENTS I couldn’t get them all on! Certainly, it was gratifying to see so many people interested in the issue of taxation in a ‘red state’! We hope you learned a lot from the discussion!

Please watch the full video on our YouTube and Rumble channels to get the full effect of the discussion and read Jay’s income tax bill, which can be found here. The Oklahoma State House press release about the bill, “Steagall Files Bill to Eliminate Income Tax by 2035” covers a good chunk of information about it, so check that out as well.

In the clip below, Jay talks about the fact that property taxes are a concept enshrined in the Oklahoma State Constitution – something that requires a different level of action from authoring and passing legislation.

So, Oklahomans are going to have to lobby their legislators to write a bill that would remove the ability for a state entity to collect property taxes, then, we’ll have to vote on it as a state question on a general election ballot. Frankly, that seems much easier to me than to collect signatures for an initiative petition to put a state question on the ballot. As Jay says, our income and our real property, are ours, so I would think legislators would jump at the chance to make sure the Constitutional Rights of their citizens were protected – right?

Jay talks a bit about his income tax bill below. Obviously, Oklahomans should support Jay’s efforts to remove the shackles from the ‘results of our industry’, so please make sure to follow developments regarding the bill – and we will too.

My husband and I kept my mother’s home after she passed. Above is a photo of the apportionment for that home in Oklahoma City. Please note that the largest percentage of monies paid via the taxes on this home is for Oklahoma City Public Schools.

Part of the reason I’m so rabidly against property taxes – outside of the largest, most unfair issue, which is that I’ll never actually own this home if I have to pay ‘rent’ to the government every year to consider it my personal property – is the fact that OKLAHOMA PUBLIC SCHOOLS COMPRISE 53% of the entire state budget but yet the county ALSO taxes me for the school district in which the home resides. HOW MUCH MONEY DO SCHOOLS NEED?

Then consider this; at least three districts in Oklahoma – Kingfisher, Ninekaw and Wewoka – have been subjected to HUGE financial settlements resulting from situations in which school officials have been found guilty of essentially terrorizing students. Add to this the fact that Oklahoma public education has fallen to 49th in the nation. WHY ARE WE ENCUMBERING PROPERTY FOR THIS? REALLY? It’s horrifying.’

Interestingly, Kingfisher county Excise Board refused to encumber the property of Kingfisher Public School district residents to meet their financial obligation to the family of the boy who sued the head football coach for bullying. Instead, Kingfisher just let go 18 members of staff EXCEPT FOR THE COACH WHO WAS FOUND GUILTY OF BULLYING FOOTBALL PLAYERS.

Good for the Kingfisher County Excise Board! At least they put the oneness back on the school! But then, the school let go 18 positions and then kept the one that caused the other 18 to be let go.

Again…WHAT? Taxpayers are supposed to be able to lose their homes because public schools suck?

Truly, this is an issue of which ROPE won’t let go! Keep following! We’ll keep reporting on this nonsense in the REDDEST state…(insert eye-roll here).

December 15, 2024 0

Wind Energy Property Easements – Tax Scams As Well As Property Rights Theft?

Friday, November 22nd, Michael and I welcomed John Baca – a real estate attorney from Hughes County, Oklahoma – to the podcast to talk about some things he’s been seeing with the influx of wind energy leases in the county.

During the course of the conversation, John told us that over 42,000 acres of land in Hughes county has been leased to wind developers by a relative handful of residents – most of whom are absentee land owners and don’t even reside on the land they’ve leased. This is a problem because those land owners won’t have to see the ravaged landscape that has become their property, or have to listen to the horrifying noise they make, or put up with the light flicker that could drive a person insane. (And read this WELL-RESEARCHED, horrifying article I just read on wind energy and whale deaths on the eastern seaboard. Why are we allowing these supposedly ‘green’ activities to ruin our planet? Are we really this stupid?)

Listen to John describe that problem in the clip below, where he also talks about the leases themselves – they’re over 70 pages long, they have non-disclosure agreements (NDA) which prevents lease signers from providing information about the lease to anyone without getting sued (gosh, that’s transparent) and the easements granted to the wind generation company sign your property away to whomever the company chooses until eternity and their language is incomprehensible to land owners who otherwise might have previously worked with an oil and gas company. Just. A. Bad. Deal. All. Around.

In the next clip, John gets to the bottom line – conservation easements and wind turbine leases are creating a situation in which land owners are unable to use the land for farming and we’re all becoming less able to manage our lives self-sufficiently while wind turbine companies – that already get MASSIVE taxpayer subsidies – use the system even more efficiently to collect more taxpayer dollars.

In further researching the concept of conservation easements, I found this really great article that gives the pro’s and con’s of the practice. Apparently President Trump applied for (and got) a conservation easement for Mara Lago, yet it’s easy to see how this particular tax-shelter would create a HUGE set of loopholes allowing bad actors to take advantage of other people’s property.

In fact, ProPublica (yes, this is a liberal organization, however, liberal organizations actually watchdog ‘conservative’ issues unlike conservatives – who generally tend to love everything labeled with an ‘R’ just because it’s labeled with an ‘R’) did a series of articles on conservation easement tax scams that is quite informative.

An article from 2022 called, “The Tax Scam That Won’t Die“, seems to describe the issue John believes wind turbine companies are using to their advantage. Here is the relevant paragraph:

“The syndicated versions are different (conservation easements). Instead of seeking to protect a bucolic reserve for wildlife or humans, profit-seeking intermediaries have turned the likes of abandoned golf courses or remote scrubland into high-return investment vehicles. These promoters snatch up vacant land that till then was worth little. Then they hire an appraiser willing to declare that it has huge, previously unrecognized development value — perhaps for luxury vacation homes or a solar farm — and thus is really worth many times its purchase price. The promoters sell stakes in the donation to individuals, who claim charitable deductions that are four or five times their investment. The promoters reap millions in fees.”

Last year, Congress apparently had found a way to crack down on conservation easement abuse:

“During a June 22 Senate Finance Committee markup on retirement legislation, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., a longtime sponsor of the Integrity Act, identified the projected windfall from a clampdown on syndicated easements as a way to pay for a popular proposal enhancing benefits for disabled police, firefighters, paramedics and EMTs. That bipartisan legislation, months later, got added to the massive, must-pass government funding bill, where no single lawmaker had the power to strip it out.

A big concession sealed support for the deal: Daines and other backers agreed not to apply the law to transactions that date back to when the IRS flagged syndicated easements as abusive in 2016 (though the IRS can still pursue cases from back then). Instead the new limits apply only to transactions that occur after the law’s enactment. Along with a much smaller change exempting the measure from applying to historic buildings, this reduced the projected Treasury windfall to about $6.4 billion.”

This year, however, the US Tax Court “boldly declared the Treasury Regulation section 1.170A-14(g)(6)(ii) as invalid, citing non-compliance with the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) as the primary reason. This particular regulation had previously served as a cornerstone for the IRS in disallowing deductions claimed by taxpayers under the guise of conservation easements, imposing stringent conditions that required the easements to be perpetual.“

So, go figure – the government giveth, the government taketh away, then the government giveth it backeth. Phenomenal. Apparently, the taxpayer will continue to take it in the hind end until the practice is somehow done away with permanently.

In the meantime, neither this, nor Governor Stitt’s “more of everything” approach to Oklahoma energy, is helping regular land owners from getting screwed out of the pleasure of owning their own property (sorry, renting it from the government).

Again, contact your legislators about this issue too…

November 25, 2024 0

Norman’s TIF and Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s Ethics.

Friday’s live podcast on October 4th featured Whitney Mullica and Kelly Wilson from PikeOffOTA (Oklahomas For Responsible Transportation) to talk about a recent ‘win’ they had with the Norman City Council.

This year, the OTA – which is attempting to build a turnpike extension through the city of Norman (and numerous other places) – presented the Norman City Council with a contract in which they would provide Norman a list of items for the turnpike right of way.

PikeOffOTA researched the contract and found that no town with which OTA had signed a contract previously, came out getting what they expected. All, instead, were forced to pay for road repairs and other infrastructure issues created by OTA activity for which they hadn’t budgeted.

Kelly, Whitney and the group took their research to the Norman City Council, who, after a listening session, decided against signing the OTA contract – something that hasn’t happened previously.

After discussing this win, Kelly and Whitney showed more of their research on the OTA, which, as it turns out, is simply a glorified, Roosevelt-style works program for favored individuals and companies. Whitney and Kelly explain this thesis, below.

It’s maddening, but tolls don’t go back to simply repairing the roads, they are used as collateral for FURTHER BUILDING. Why does Oklahoma need so many toll roads? To keep paychecks rolling in – and not for the taxpayer.

As mentioned in the video, Governor Stitt has a PAC called The Turnaround Team PAC. Donations to this PAC have been made by people who have benefited from Stitt’s governance.

For example, David Streb, President of POE Associates, has donated $15 thousand dollars to the PAC, $5,000 each year from ’22, ’23, and ’24. The Hilliary’s of Hilliary Communications in Lawton – of which both Dustin and Edward have been appointed by Governor Stitt to the Regents for Higher Education and the State Board of Career And Technology Education, have donated a total of $50,000 over the course of 2020 to 2024. To name just a few examples.

This cronyism at the taxpayer’s expense must stop, but the only way this will happen is if this information is shared widely and people decide they don’t want to fund the bank accounts of OTHERS with their tax dollars and stand up against OTA in their cities and towns and work to have legislators dissolve the agency and return toll roads back to the citizens.

NORMAN TIF

At the end of the program, Kelly introduced Dr. Rogers – a professor of economics at OU – who explained what a TIF is, why it works and who is benefiting from the TIF.

This is yet another example of crony capitalism and economic development WITHOUT CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. She explains here.

As Dr. Rogers so eloquently explains, a TIF is a way for a project to garner funds that excludes the direct will of the people over how they intend for their tax dollars to be spent.

While it is true that the City Council has to pass the TIFF and the City Council is an elected body, meaning that their voice is SUPPOSED to be directly tied to that of their citizens, as it often happens, developers and others involved in the TIFF have the time and money to skew the opinion of Council members while the citizens may not even understand the ramifications of the issue at hand.

Raising the tax rate of any city or town must be done by a vote of the people. In the case of a TIFF, taxes aren’t raised, but diverted, leaving the people with no direct say on this type of financing at the ballot box. In the case of the Norman TIFF, OU – the benefactor of the TIFF – paid 65 OU students to be at the Norman City Council meeting where the vote was taken – making it seem as though the TIF had more community support than it did. Dr. Rogers argues that the community doesn’t want the TIF and the only way to determine that, is through an initiative petition to recall the vote and institute a public vote on the matter, an effort currently underway in the City of Norman.

Dr. Rogers doesn’t say that she doesn’t believe the Norman arena project should be undertaken at all, but that there were no alternative ways to fund the project explored before the TIF was voted into place. By circumventing the will of the people in the matter of how their tax dollars are spent in their community, the people lose control of their government and are stymied in their ability to control their fates. In a Republic this is wrong.

To find the full live video please see our YouTube and Rumble channels.

October 5, 2024 0

We Are Quickly Moving Away from A Rights-Based Society to a Value-Based Society

Jenni White, 4.12.24

After our interview with Julianne Romanello Wednesday morning, I felt it would be helpful to add a few links to allow people to further explore the premise of Rights-Based vs Value-Based governance.

At the outset of the podcast, we talked about property taxes and how, once the government taxes our property, we don’t own it anymore. This was arguably one of Jefferson’s biggest issue, which he delineated in the Declaration of Independence by the word ‘happiness’ in the phrase, “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Why equate property with happiness?

One of the reasons the pilgrims left England for lands undiscovered, was the very difficult ability to hold property in a monarchical system. If property rights had not been previously prescribed and legally noted, the King was often considered the owner of all empty lands because he was King by right of God and God provided him the land. This land could be (and was) given to various title-holding individuals depending upon the monarch at the time, usually consisting of Lords, Bishops, Barons, etc., while all non-title-holders were forced to rent land from the King (or the closest title-holder). In fact, even if you were found hunting on the King’s land, you could be fined or otherwise punished. It mattered not if your children were starving and you were unable to find food, all the game on the King’s property was the King’s, end of discussion.

If the King created another Baron in the place of the previous, a renter could be thrown off the property so it could be bequeathed to a new ‘owner’. Obviously, this kind of instability for the vast majority of the English population did NOT create happiness. Thus, one of the rights among men that the Founders desired to enshrine in the Constitution, was the right to own property for oneself; not merely rent it from the Crown, OR ANOTHER GOVERNMENTAL FORM. This stability then, could create happiness of the kind that provided safety and security as the phrase, “A man’s home is his castle” was meant to convey.

Today, however, Oklahomans – like so many other citizens of so many other states – no longer own their own property, but rent it from the King (state), placing us right back where we were when we started.

Why would I say such a thing? Because, as McClain County Assessor Kendal Sacchieri told us – property taxes MUST be paid, or we’ll be thrown off ‘our’ property so that ‘our’ property can be sold to the highest bidder and the taxes paid to the King (state).

What creates property taxes? Look at the illustration below prepared by Larry Stein, Oklahoma County Assessor. It can be found here, with more explanation for the expenditure of County property tax dollars.

You’re property is not your own because nearly 60% of it goes to government schools – government schools who also receive appropriations from the legislature, monies from parimutuel betting, the lottery AND MORE! As I’ve asked perpetually since 2010 – HOW MUCH MONEY IS ENOUGH FOR SCHOOLS TO HAVE – especially when their results are dismal and rare few pupils educated in public schools can read or do math! Here are a few of the other ways public schools get money from an 1889 Institute paper on School Finance.

Please, someone explain to me why our PROPERTY is being attached for government education that already is funded via the appropriation mechanism?

Career Tech and College Tech Centers are also appropriated funds by the legislature. Here are their budget requests for 2020.

PLEASE, someone explain to me why our PROPERTY is being attached for MORE government education that is funded via the appropriation mechanism?

County government gets the next piece. To me, this is actually legitimate government expense. The County provides road repair and many other SERVICES from which taxpayers benefit. This, could be paid directly to the County as a tax – much like the taxes paid to the state – instead of attaching our property.

Cities and towns should be funded via their own taxes – like those on delivered merchandize (Amazon, etc.) and sales taxes collected within their boundaries (which they already get!) – your property SHOULD NOT BE TAXED TO RUN CITIES AND TOWNS.

The City/County Library should be funded via voluntary donations. Period. Yes, it is important to have repositories of knowledge, but large corporations are welcome to donate these facilities – as are citizens. Our PROPERTY SHOULD NOT BE TAXED to provide disgusting books to minors – which they do.

The City/County Health Department is another item that should be funded privately. There are many indigent clinics run by non-profits. Healthcare is NOT a function of government, it is a function of private economy whether you like that idea or not. The main function of government in America is THE PROTECTION OF INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS. Healthcare is not an individual right and has never been throughout history until the last several generations. Additionally, we all know that government-sponsored healthcare systems became armies of tyranny during COVID. I don’t want my tax dollars used to support tyranny in any form and I certainly don’t want my property seized to pay taxes to a group of people who want to force me to bow to healthcare mandates we’ve since learned DID NOTHING or killed us.

TIFs are a type of property tax that indebt property owners for economic development. You can read more on that here. There is no way property owners should allow ANY form of ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT to attach their property. Back in the ‘old days’ developers shouldered the risk of their developments – but they also owned all the rewards. Today, the PUBLIC is made to shoulder the risk of PRIVATE development, yet our property is taxed without us getting any REWARD at all. In many cases, the TIFF is for an office building or industrial park. Not only do the taxed property owners not reap any reward from this development, but they don’t even get to USE the property they are financing. Most TIFFs are sold to the public as – here, we’ll develop this area to bring in businesses from which you can possibly get a job. WHAT? Not only is there NO REWARD for the taxation of our property, but we might not even be able to become employed by the businesses being brought in through the development? Who in their right mind would give someone on the street the use of their car for the PROMISE that they’ll put gas in it when (if) they bring it back, yet people in cities and towns across Oklahoma actually fall for this scheme and accept the taxation of their property through a TIFF consistently. WAKE UP! STOP IT!

And so, to wrap up my most extensive piece ever on property taxes, please read this twice or three times. Once you understand the argument – because I believe you will – share it with friends AND your legislators. Property taxes are INHERENTLY wrong and must be stopped if Americans (Oklahomans) are to have true freedom.

April 12, 2024 0

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