Extorted Teacher Tax Referendum About to Launch
The largest tax increase in state history, the first tax increase in 28 years to gain the required 76 votes in the House of Representatives, is facing a referendum vote sometime this year. The new group led by former U.S. Senator Tom Coburn is in the final planning day of writing the petition and applying for the time frame for gathering the needed 40,000+ signatures from registered voters to place the extorted teacher taxes on the ballot.
These taxes were raised in a last ditch effort to prevent a teacher strike, not a good idea in our minds to give in to extortion and union thugs, but they raised over $600 million dollars on gas, diesel, cigarettes and other tobacco, and a hotel tax which was repealed a week later after the hotel lobby generated enough pressure on the legislators.
The House refused to allow the Senate to send the bills back through the House as hours after the vote enough citizen pressure had been applied to remove many of the 76 votes that passed the bill initially. This was sprung upon the House members with an hour's time to read, no notice as usually required, not even any discussion in the GOP caucus.
The House and Senate leadership is terrified of this new group who want nothing more than to let the people vote on these taxes. If the majority of voters support these taxes they will pass. It will really be a referendum on the school system and if people don't believe we are getting our money's worth it will fail. Win or lose it will prevent other groups from attempting to extort money at the Capitol.
The donor classes that own the politicians do not want this school funding crisis to be solved of course. They passed this largest tax increase in state history and provided an average $6000 pay hike but the funding is stripped away in the second year and that allows House and Senate leadership to come back to the trough for another round of tax increases "for the kids". Meanwhile bills that would immediately provide more money than these extorted teacher taxes sit bottled up by House and Senate leadership because they would solve the problem for years to come and eliminate this tax hike vehicle. Wind energy subsidy bills remain locked up too so that the corporate welfare continue and hundreds of millions in tax dollars flow back to those that hired lobbyists in previous years.
This isn't an initiative petition for writing new law, this is just a vote to approve or reject a tax increase so there are fewer signatures needed and a much less onerous procedure. We the voters simply take over and act like the Governor, either approving or rejecting the new law. We will have a few months to gather around 40,000 signatures and once they are certified by the Secretary of State the governor has to set an election date at a statewide election. That could be the primary election, the run off election, the general election, or a special election set by the Governor. Fity one percent wins and it will drive turnout so expect Mary Fallin to play games and avoid the general or primary election for the vote.
We cannot stress how important this is. Eviscerating the extortion outcome at the Capitol will prevent the teachers from striking again and prevent other state employees from deciding they are in charge as well. It also teaches a lesson to other state teacher unions; extortion might work but it can be rolled back too.
They have a no tax pledge for candidates and they are NOT allowing just anyone to sign it. For instance gubernatorial Kevin Stitt grabbed a copy online and signed it but the group isn't accepting the pledge as Stitt has openly advocated for higher taxes as seen in this video.
Please visit the website for the new group and volunteer and donate toward the costs. You can also sign up on their Google Documents spreadsheet so they can contact you to sign the petition once it is ready or to volunteer to help organize others in your area. Your information will be kept confidential and used only for this purpose so you won't get spammed if you give your info. You can find out more at their website at this link.
