Tax Credits/Giveaways

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

Oklahomans Denied Substantive Tax Relief While Providing “New” Private Defense Contractor Kratos $1,728,394.00 In Subsidies From 2019

Today, a press release from Senators Kristin Thompson and Todd Golihare, “Thompson, Gollihare Applaud New Kratos Facility in Bristow; Senators Highlight Major Aerospace Investment and Job Creation in Rural Oklahoma” was sent to Oklahomans. Since it was not posted to the Senate media page, I’ve copied and pasted the message from my inbox below.

Thompson, Gollihare Applaud New Kratos Facility in Bristow
Senators Highlight Major Aerospace Investment and Job Creation in Rural Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY – Senate Economic Development, Workforce, and Tourism Chair Kristen Thompson, R-Edmond, and Sen. Todd Gollihare, R-Kellyville, today celebrated the announcement of a new Kratos Defense & Security Solutions facility coming to Bristow. The advanced manufacturing site will produce tactical jet engines for U.S. defense systems and is expected to bring dozens of high-quality jobs to Creek County and surrounding areas.

“This is a major win for Oklahoma,” said Thompson. “We’ve made targeted investments in research, development, and workforce to attract exactly this kind of advanced industry. The Bristow facility strengthens our national security footprint while delivering real economic opportunity to our communities.”

As Co-Chair of the Senate’s LEAD Committee (Legislative Evaluation and Development), Thompson has championed policies that support high-tech growth sectors like aerospace, defense, and advanced manufacturing — aligning long-term economic planning with real-world job creation.The 50,000 square-foot facility — expandable to 100,000 square feet — will house up to five production lines for Kratos’ GEK-series engines and include on-site test cells funded in part through state incentive programs. Kratos plans to begin hiring in late 2025 with full operations expected by the end of 2026.

Senator Gollihare, whose district includes the Bristow area, emphasized the regional impact:

“This is a big win — not just for Bristow, but for our region, for the state, and for the country,” Gollihare said. “We’re talking about high-quality jobs and cutting-edge manufacturing right here in rural Oklahoma, supporting our local economy and strengthening America’s defense capabilities. I’m proud to support projects that deliver for our communities and for the nation.”

The announcement was made at the Paris Air Show, where Oklahoma aerospace officials joined Kratos executives to highlight the state’s growing role in defense manufacturing. For more information, contact: Senator Kristen Thompson (405) 521-5592 or kristen.thompson@oksenate.gov

Since my reporting on Canoo and it’s detrimental effects on Oklahoma, I’ve been concerned about the use of Oklahoman’s tax dollars as business ‘incentives’. Consequently, I did some basic research on Kratos.

Kratos is an enormous, publicly-traded, investor-owned, company headquartered in San Diego, California, devoted to six areas of defense contracting; C51SR Systems, Defense and Rocket Support Systems, Microwave Electronics, Space, Training and Cybersecurity, Turbine Technologies and Unmanned Systems. It has international offices in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Norway, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the UK and trades in the $40/share range. It also has offices in the US in Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Texas, Virginia – and now (?) Oklahoma.

Just this year (January), the Pentagon award[ed] Kratos a megadeal worth nearly $1.5B for a new hypersonic testbed. Kratos’ press release announcing the ‘award’ said, “Kratos is honored to receive the largest contract award in our company’s history, a testament of the value Kratos’ employees and team bring both to our Company and United States National Security,” Eric DeMarco, president and CEO of Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, said in a statement. “This programmatic milestone underscores our unwavering commitment to making upfront investments for rapidly developing, and being first to market with affordable, mission-critical solutions that meet the evolving needs of the warfighter.”

Unfortunately, a few things cropped up in my research. Let’s start with this: though the good Senators use the wording, “celebrated the announcement of a new Kratos Defense & Security Solutions facility coming to Bristow“, Oklahoma has been doling out tax dollars to Kratos since 2019 to the tune of $1,728,394. Here are the credits in chronological order:

If Kratos is a NEW business in Oklahoma, why are there tax credits go back to 2019? Why was there no mention of them previously having had an office/manufacturing plant in Oklahoma before – either in the Senators’ press release or on Kratos’ website?

Here’s another issue. Kratos works out of locations in 10 other states. Not one single state – excepting Maryland ($126,414) – has given Kratos any kind of tax break at all according to the Subsidy Tracker website.

Kratos was the recipient of a $689,876 federal grant in 2019 tagged to their facility in Colorado, however, for, “SOUTHERN RESEARCH INSTITUTE LIFE MODELLING OF CRITICAL STEAM CYCLE COMPONENTS IN COAL-FUELED POWER PLANTS”.

According to Google Maps, this is the building currently housing Kratos in Bristow:

Exterior view of Kratos Defense & Security Solutions facility located in Bristow, Oklahoma.

This building is also the site of Consolidated Turbine Specialists LLC.

A Google Maps screenshot featuring the location of Consolidated Turbine Specialists, LLC in Bristow, Oklahoma, showing the building and surrounding area.

According to a Bristow News article published Wednesday, March 17, 2021, “In 2019, Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc., a California based company, purchased the parent company of Consolidated Turbine Specialists, aka CTS, which was originally founded in 2012.”

Interestingly, Consolidated Turbine Specialists LLC was given ‘grants‘ – Quality Job Incentive Payments – from 2019-2022 in the amount of $345,432, during the same time period Kratos was ALSO receiving Quality Job Incentive Payments from Oklahoma. While the Kratos ‘grants’ during that time period were given for “unmanned arial systems”, no specific category is listed for the Consolidated Turbine Specialists’ ‘grants’.

A table displaying subsidy records for Consolidated Turbine Specialists LLC, detailing locations, subsidy sources, years, values, and types of subsidies received in Oklahoma from 2019 to 2022.

These businesses have been sharing the same space from 2019 and until – according to Kratos’ press release – the new building can be built in Bristow. Whether or not the ‘grants’ were for different reasons, this looks a whole lot like double-dipping. If Consolidated was merged with Kratos in 2019 – then, according to the idea of a merger – these two entities became one entity. Why would Oklahomans give double Quality Jobs ‘grants’ to one company?

But that’s not the only issue. Why are we – under a REPUBLICAN governor and a REPUBLICAN legislature – superseding the FREE MARKET by giving out so much money in SUBSIDIES?

Many of Oklahoma’s elected officials commented on Kratos’ announcement, but Governor Stitt was in Paris for the Paris Air Show when the announcement was made. He said, “This is a big win for American workers, for our military, and for every Oklahoman who believes in freedom, innovation, and strength. Kratos could’ve gone anywhere in the world, but they choose to continue investing in Oklahoma because it is the best place to build, grow, and do business. Oklahoma is proud to be a hub for national defense that is leading the way in rebuilding America’s industrial base and powering the technologies that keep our country safe.”

I wonder if Kratos didn’t go anywhere else in the world because Oklahomans have given a publicly-traded company with a billion and a half dollar contract with the federal government (also our tax dollars) over a million dollars ALREADY to do business in our state?

The President and CEO of Kratos said, “Kratos is truly honored to expand our presence in Oklahoma with this new, state-of-the-art propulsion production facility in Bristow. This new Kratos investment reflects our continued commitment to delivering high-performance, affordable jet engine technology to support the Department of Defense and our allies and answers the rising demand for propulsion systems for cruise missiles and CCA-type aircraft, while being targeted and optimized for cost reduction. The Bristow facility will play a critical role in accelerating production of the GEK family of engines, including the GEK800, and strengthening America’s industrial base in this decisive era. We thank Governor Stitt and the State of Oklahoma for their partnership in helping us build the future of high-performance propulsion right here in the heartland.”

So, if that’s the case, and they are CONTINUING to produce jet engines and nothing was said about unmanned arial systems having been a course of manufacture in Oklahoma, that the double-dipping theory might hold some water? Yes, it could also be that the CEO of a HUGE investor-held corporation with multi-billion dollars in contracts is very untethered to the day-to-day business of all their companies, but then, why is he CEO?

At the bottom of the Kratos press release is a required statement from the SEC about the fact that, since this is a publicly traded corporation which is telegraphing doing business in a way they can’t be certain of, investors must consider the statement “forward looking”. In other words, don’t make a stock purchase solely based on this announcement because Kratos might not be able to undertake the actions they’ve described. Seriously. Think on this.

Yes, Bristow may get a brand new Kratos building and yes, they may get new jobs from this business proposal – but then, they might not.

Kratos has to use the term “expected” in terms of their plans, but then they also indicate that Oklahoma will CONTINUE to give them further Oklahoma tax dollars to meet their expectations.

So why wouldn’t investors (like Markwayne Mullin?) want to invest in Kratos? What’s the downside? Oklahoma’s government will rob Oklahomans to make sure Kratos makes its projections for its investors.

Or, maybe not. Maybe, like Canoo, Governor Stitt will dig into the pockets of Oklahomans and the jobs WON’T materialize, nor the building in which to house them. But by then, our Governor will have left his position, and possibly the state – along with big holes in the pockets of Oklahoma tax payers and an uneven playing field for Oklahoma businesses.

*An email to Senator Kristin Thompson was sent regarding information in this blog. She did not return the email before this article was published. If she does respond at any point, I will add her response below.

June 18, 2025 1

A Discussion About Oklahoma Homeschool And Other Education Legislation

Wednesday, March 5th, Michael and I talked to Jana Belcher and Robert Scott – both Homeschooling parents who have been heavily involved in lobbying the legislature to remove homeschoolers from the Parental Choice Tax Credit voucher legislation. It was a really great conversation and covered much more than just homeschooling. Please find the full live video here on our YouTube channel and on Rumble as well.

For years, trying to fight this tax credit, so many of us have said that private schools will just raise their rates once the tax credit comes online. If more students come to the school, more teachers and instructional materials will be necessary, raising the price. And not only that, it just gives a school a good excuse to raise rates. In the clip below, Robert gives an example of exactly that happening.

In the clip below, Robert talks about the data bill we’ve been warning about. Though we didn’t talk about the specific inclusion of homeschoolers in the database, years ago when Julia Seay, Lynn Habluetzel and I were studying data collection and trying to stop implementation of a State Longitudinal Database, we had found information indicating that there were fields in the database for collecting data related to homeschooling – which concerned a whole lot of homeschoolers.

And finally, in the last clip I pulled from the full video, Robert shows us that every individual who files for the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit has their name and the amount of their tax credit listed in the Oklahoma Tax Commission, Tax Credits database online. There is no address or phone number listed, just the name and the amount of the tax credit, but the point is, anyone can look you up to see your ‘award’.

Below is a PDF of Robert’s slide presentation. Please share this information with friends and family – and especially homeschoolers who want to take this government handout.

March 7, 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

Gov. Stitt’s Commerce Department Gives Multiple MILLIONS Of Taxpayer Dollars To Paycom And Love’s Through Quality Jobs Incentives

Granted, in a recommended appropriation budget of 10,060,793,526 for 2024, a million dollars here and a million dollars there, isn’t that big a deal – it’s chump change.

But then again, every dime of this money is taken by force from a working citizen of the state, ostensibly to provide services to the taxpayer – not to enrich the multibillion dollar corporations of billionaires – even ones that make Oklahoma their homes.

Let’s take Paycom, for example. Paycom is an online payroll company created by Oklahoman, Chad Richison. Here is a bit about Mr. Richison from Forbes.

As you can see, Mr. Richison is personally worth over 1 billion dollars. Here are a few articles about Mr. Richison that pop up in a simple internet search:

Meet the highest paid CEO in S&P 500, Paycom’s $211M man

The billionaire CEO of Paycom just paid $26.5 million for a beachfront Malibu mansion that took 12 years to build and blends into the rocks. Take a look inside.

Paycom CEO Chad Richison donates $10 million to UCO for stadium upgrades

Unfortunately, Mr. Richison is also a liberal who is not at all shy about announcing his thoughts on state policy. For example, during the COVID nonsense, Mr. Richison wrote a letter to Governor Stitt complaining about a lack of leadership on COVID and that further restrictions must be made on business and movement in the state.

Also in 2020, Mr. Richison wrote a letter to OU saying that he was pulling his advertising because the University was essentially racist and didn’t have adequate training to establish an understanding of ‘racial equity’. Not long afterward, OU became a bastion of DEI training. But that’s not all.

In yet another letter written to the Regional University Board of Reagents, Richison criticized their pick for UCO’s University President, former Republican Lt. Governor, Todd Lamb.

Why then, has the State of Oklahoma Commerce Department given Paycom Payroll over ELEVEN MILLION dollars in taxpayer funds during the years of 2024 and 2023 and, beyond that, why has it been granting them funds since 2009?

The information above is from a very useful website called, “Subsidy Tracker” by “Good Jobs First”. If you click on the hyperlink on the left side of the spreadsheet (which can be found here), it tells the origin of the subsidy. Note, on this page, apparently Texas is providing subsidies as well, though very limited. Overwhelmingly, Paycom’s incentives are Oklahoma based.

Note, the origin of the subsidy is the “Quality Jobs Incentive” program. Though the money is dispersed through the Oklahoma Tax Commission, the Quality Jobs Incentive Program is a product of the Oklahoma Commerce Department (OCD). Here’s what the website says about the program:

The Oklahoma Quality Jobs Program serves as an incentive for companies to expand or relocate jobs to Oklahoma by providing a rebate of a portion of newly created payroll in the state. The program induces the creation of well-paid full-time jobs and promotes economic development. Companies may receive benefits during the first three years of participation while working to achieve the required payroll threshold for full qualification.

How are these grants dispersed?

The agency – in this case Paycom – that wants one of the many taxpayer subsidies dispensed though the OCD, must fill out a request. Then, at some point, the OCD Incentive Approval Committee calls them in for a meeting during which the asking business may speak. After that, the Committee adjourns to an Executive Session during which they decide how much of a grant to provide the business.

There are several problems here other than the glaringly obvious:

Who is on the Incentive Approval Committee? Internet search turned up no answers, but a concerning Frontier article – Committee approves request for state jobs incentive money by company founded by Gov. Kevin Stitt. This article states that the Committee consisted (when the article was written in 2020) of Department of Commerce Executive Director Brent Kisling and Oklahoma Tax Commission Chairman Charles Prater – both of whom were directly appointed by Governor Stitt. The third board member was Dan Ross, director of capital assets for the Office of Management and Enterprise Services.
The article mentioned above, also points out the lack of transparency in this process – all of the grants given out through the Quality Jobs Incentive Program are done so through Executive Session of the Committee. The only way to find out how much any company gets is by going to the Oklahoma Tax Commission website and scrolling through the yearly Excel files housing the HUGE number of tax dollar giveaways supported by Oklahoma citizens.
On the website where agendas are stored for the various taxpayer giveaway committees, the only agendas for a program that was created in 1993 (according to the Frontier article), are from 2024 and January 2025. Even then, five months of 2024 agendas are missing. Why?
Every agenda must be scoured to find out the names of the businesses going to the OCD with their hands out asking for taxpayer dollars. There is no searchable list, so each agenda must be read individually – if it’s available for inspection on the website.

Obviously, taxpayer dollars are being provided to certain private businesses and the taxpayer – the people funding these ‘grants’ – have to go through quite a process to find out how much of their dollars are going where. How very transparent. But then, the Frontier article is about how Governor Stitt’s mortgage company was receiving grants from the Committee he peopled to make decisions about how to give away state taxpayer dollars.

Unfortunately, this is the same for Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, Inc. According to Subsidy Tracker, Love’s has a large number of ‘grants’ given it by the state of Oklahoma for both 2023 and 2024. In fact, the taxpayers of Oklahoma have given Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS – $8,074,378 to be exact.

Tom and Judy Love, who together founded the Love’s dynasty here in Oklahoma, have both recently passed away (Tom in March of 2023 and Judy in November of 2024). Both Tom and Judy were tremendously generous with their self-made billions in their home state.

A story in the Oklahoman published just before Judy died, listed her as the second wealthiest self-made woman in America, pegging the Love’s net worth at over 10.2 billion dollars. It also provided a long and varied list of their philanthropy in Oklahoma, including Positive Tomorrows, the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. The Loves were also famous for their support of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

According to Forbes, the estimated revenues of the Love’s stores across the country is 24 billion dollars. Last April, Love’s announced that it would be making a billion dollar investment in updates to their facilities.

Love’s has benefited from tax credits, TIFs, grants or rebates from the states of Nebraska, Colorado, Mississippi, Virginia., Iowa, Illinois and Ohio. All of these subsidies have been a mere fraction of the 8 million dollars provided by their home state of Oklahoma, however.

In 2022, a subsidiary of Love’s, the Musket Corporation, received a $10,800,000 guaranteed loan from the federal Import/Export Bank.

Love’s is on the Quality Jobs Program Incentive Approval Committee agenda for the Regular Meeting of the Committee September 19, 2024 10:00am, along with Paycom. Again, their ‘grants’ were warded via the Committee in a closed door Executive session.

One last piece of information collected by the Oklahoma Commerce Department, indicates that neither Love’s, nor Paycom is in the top 10 hiring companies in Oklahoma. Which begs the question – why are so many millions given to both multiBILLION dollar private corporations for ‘quality jobs’? Paycom is number 25 and Love’s is even lower at 31. Consequently, taxpayers are paying for job recruitment and retention for two billionaire corporations of Oklahoma billionaires that aren’t even top 10 employers in the state.

The number of tax dollars being dolled out to private businesses via incentives by Governor Stitt’s administration is staggering – and we’ve already reported on the unbelievable amount of tax dollars being given to wind generation companies doing business in the state. One only has to go out and look at the Excel spreadsheets of them on the Oklahoma Tax Commission website and scroll through name after name to get the scope of this Santa Claus list.

Just this week, Governor Stitt has announced that he wants to reduce and eliminate the Oklahoma income tax. That’s wonderful. No citizen of America – let alone Oklahoma – should be forced to give their hard-earned wages to their government to be redirected to private entities and other nonsense that doesn’t benefit them directly. Oklahomans should applaud that idea.

It is a cause for curiosity, however, as to how this miracle can occur until Oklahoma stops handing out the millions upon millions in tax-payer funded incentives for private business we continue to shell out on the back of the Oklahoma taxpayer, yearly.

January 31, 2025 3

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

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

How The Grift Of Economic Development Hurts YOU – And Sucks Up Farmland

After the video we posted with Julianne Romanello about the Grift of Economic Development (YouTube, Rumble), a comment was posted to the Facebook livestream by a neighbor who lives nearby. It was such an eye-opener, I felt I had to reproduce it on the blog in its entirety. Thank you Lisa O’Brien for the comment below:

This is absolutely true. My eyes were first opened to this by watching the movie, “Walmart: the High Cost of Low Price”. We had no Walmarts in the Bay Area at that time, so I always wondered what this magical place was like. (Hey, we had Trader Joe’s and IKEA. We were doin’ fine.) I learned so much from that documentary, mostly how one large corporation can destroy a small town in under a month.

It became a struggle for me to support capitalism for quite some time.

In my own small town in the Bay Area, I saw this as well. I lived in an actual “diverse” area filled with “ethnic” restaurants run by immigrants straight off the boats of the countries they fled. I watched those wonderful businesses fold one by one, crushed by the weight of California’s tax- and litigation-happy governance. Some survived for a surprisingly long period of time, but none survived forever. Unlike Walmart.

Fast-forward to our life here in OK: when we moved to an unincorporated area near the Guthrie/Edmond border (but not Guthrie. Or Edmond. Or Arcadia), there were cows grazing off the exit from I-35. You could drive the miles it took to get to our house without ever seeing another car. Ever. I know this, because I made a grand gesture of 𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 every single time we’d exit off the freeway. Never another car. Ever. What a delightful and refreshing change from the traffic of California! Just look at them COWS, everyone! Woot!

Today, nine short years later–and truthfully, it was happening 5 years ago–we are often backed-up while exiting that same exit off I-35. The new Diamond cloverleaf roundabout fancy exchange we were promised (to be finished in 2020!) to help alleviate traffic has, shockingly, not happened. Not even a little bit.

But you know what DID happen? Sit down–this will be so surprising! We got a new school. There are 𝘴𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 new “planned communities” with names like “Babbling Brook Havens” and “Lonely White Pine Estates” and “Mountain Meadows Fancy-House Place” or whatever where fields and cows used to exist. Yet another Dollar General went up, even though there didn’t appear to be a need for it. An OnCue was built where once stood an old, abandoned house; the perfect backdrop for an amazing photo shoot. There are new fast-food restaurants, many of them, with plans to build 𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘹𝘦𝘴 in the same space as the fast food places, ostensibly to ensure no one has to walk far to become as unhealthy as ever.

They cut down an entire wooded area on the NW side of the freeway, and that blighted eyesore has sat there for several years now, not providing shelter for critters or oxygen for anyone.

And still–no Diamond Cloverleaf to lessen the burden of traffic. My husband has to leave 15 minutes earlier than he did in 2015 to arrive at the same time.

I’m seeing the exact results of what this video discusses right before my eyes, at this very moment in time. While I’m grateful we have our little spot in an area that backs up to someone else’s acreage–thus decreasing the chance we may be staring down the barrel of yet another Taco Bell anytime soon–I am no longer as complacent or naïve as I was 9 years ago. And that makes me so sad.

August 21, 2024 0

The Grift Of Economic Development And The New World Order

We humans are an essentially stupid lot.

We all carry models in our head that direct the way we perceive and process information. This is nothing new or odd. It’s called Confirmation Bias and it leads to thinking like, “Hey, I’m a ‘nice’ person, therefore other people are ‘nice’ people too”, “my lawmaker is my neighbor, he waves to me on Sunday as he goes to church, he has to be conservative like me”.

People functioning inside their confirmation bias look outside their window, see the thin veneer of public behavior we call society, see it functioning mostly as they expect and worry not about tomorrow. Consequently, when information comes to their attention that describes things beyond their confirmation bias, like the ‘The Great Reset‘, they think it’s nuts – misinformation, slippery slope, utter nonsense. That simply would never happen – and yet Confirmation Bias is one of the reasons so many Jews were murdered before Hitler was stopped – good people believing that mass genocide simply COULDN’T happen.

A thinking person has only to review the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the UN (Agenda 2030 pushed by Klaus Schwab and his friends) to realize that the whole thing is a pipe dream. No group – not even the UN (snark) – is going to end world hunger, or poverty – or any other of the ‘goals’ suggested by this document – they’re all completely impossible in a human, fallen world. Unless, a group of people who want to believe in these goals so badly, contrive ways to force human beings – through treaties, laws, rules and the like – to exhibit behaviors they deem necessary to bring about their goals.

For example; human beings as a rule are not terribly altruistic – they’ll put money in the plate at church, but many wouldn’t think about working at a food pantry or a homeless shelter. This is why socialism – altruism through the use of the currency of others – must be forced. The thought is, “Well, you won’t pay for your poor neighbor’s healthcare bill on your own, so there is a moral imperative for me to force you to do so” whether that’s a government or a world leader.

Let’s look at another example; #7 on the UN’s 2030 list is ‘affordable clean energy’. Solar panels cost an arm and a leg, they’re mostly manufactured in China with parts that come from all over the world that are cost ineffective to recycle, forcing most of them into the – wait for it – very green, nonpolluting landfill (snark). Consequently, the GOVERNMENT, which has the power to fine you, put you in jail or otherwise coerce you – not private businesses which do not have that power – take taxpayer dollars and subsidizes the use of solar technology while creating rules and laws that force the use of this technology at the detriment of the economy and the liberty of humans to make choices for themselves.

Hopefully, you see my point. I think many of us had our eyes opened to this fact during the plandemic.

So, let’s put aside our confirmation bias on the topic of economic development (much of which the Chamber of Commerce has propagandized into us for decades) and listen to a clip from the really great podcast Michael and I did with Julianne Romanello last Wednesday (when is a podcast with Julianne not great, though, really) 8.14.24. The whole podcast was devoted to a discussion about Economic Development activities – especially in small towns – and how the quest to bring more jobs/people to the town can have a rather opposite effect than desired.

Like so many other things, people are conditioned to believe that the idea of Economic Development is a good thing. Of course people want to be able to make a liveable wage – and beyond – in the place where they live. They also want their children to grow up and find work near the family. People also want places to shop and eat and parks to enjoy and all the things that make life – especially in a small town – awesome. These are VERY sensible desires!

But there’s a dark underbelly to economic development models we need to know about.

In the clip below, Julianne talks about the cynical-yet-truthful way in which economic development actually works and how it can play right into the Global Agenda.

In the clip below, Julianne talks about how small towns LOSE their local shared values and so many of the things that made them great when economic development becomes more about supporting outsiders than those who live in the town. In this model, the town gets nudged into a sustainable model, which, of course, drives the town – and everyone in it – down the Global Agenda road.

At the end of the podcast, Michael shared a story about his hometown of Guymon, Oklahoma. It’s truly a sad warning to other towns who desire ‘economic development’ for the creation of “more jobs”.

Please listen to the entire podcast either on our Rumble or YouTube channels. The discussion was very enlightening and one you might want to share with your City Council person or elected official. We truly do have to stop thinking that progress is always the best course. Sometimes just staying where we are is better for us and our development all the way around because progress can march us closer and closer to a new world order.

Pay attention to what the City Council and Economic Development Associations are doing in your town – as well as the local Chamber of Commerce. Be prepared to push back if you see warning signs that someone or something is set to benefit from the development of the economy more than town’s residents. The best defense is ALWAYS a good offense and that starts with knowledge – the kind you can only get from attending your City Council and EDA meetings!

It’s up to all of us to save the AMERICAN way of life for our children and grandchildren.

August 16, 2024 0

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