Many of you who have known me very long and have followed my political career over the last ten years know that I generally tell it like it is at least to the best of my ability. I have made a conscious decision that may make some of you a little nervous. That decision was to become one of the principal authors of HB 3038 that starts the discussion of whether or not to phase out the State income tax. Now let me start this discussion with a statement that I want you to etch in your brain. You cannot raise property taxes in the state of Oklahoma without a vote of the people. You’re not gonna’ vote for that and neither am I. That being said, I feel like this discussion is going to occur whether we like it or not and I also know that if I’m gonna’ have any input on how this bill looks I have got to be in the room when it is discussed. You have my full assurance that if I smell a rat or if I see a booger or anything that would spook any of us I’m gonna’ be very vocal and furthermore, if I don’t like the direction that this discussion goes I will pull my name and vote against a bill that I think could be bad. I know that as this bill progresses there will be numerous changes and adjustments and I’d like to be present as those are made. I feel very strongly about this issue and I’m gonna’ quote some of my old friends, one of them said “a deal is only a good deal if it’s good for both sides.” Another one said “if you’re not in the room you can’t make a difference.” I think that it’s imperative that someone be in the room that’s not afraid to ask the hard questions. Now, my concerns are the same as many of yours. I know that to run this state it takes a certain amount of dollars and I know full well that we have to generate those dollars from somewhere. My favorite analogy is it takes a certain amount of diesel to run this train and the only way to run the train any cheaper is to make the train more efficient whether that’s a tune up or making the load lighter or whatever.
The school of thought behind the elimination or phase out of the state income tax is that more people and businesses will gravitate toward the state that’s more tax friendly and I know what you’re gonna’ say next. Texas doesn’t have an income tax but their ad valorem tax is through the roof and I think the same thing which brings us back to my initial statement. You cannot raise property taxes in the state of Oklahoma without a vote of the people. I know that you and I feel the same way about those property taxes. We have enough heartburn as it is with a county assessor’s ability to raise them up to 5% a year. That’s the reason that the 5% cap was put in place several years ago to keep rogue assessors from going crazy and jacking your taxes up. Many times that law was misconstrued as a requirement to increase property taxes but it’s intent was always to be a cap. My thoughts on the elimination of the income tax are that we will have to replace that revenue and my fear is that for that growth to occur that some economists believe will happen there will be some dips or bumps in the road along the way. Because if a major employer decided Monday morning that they were gonna’ move to Oklahoma and employ 500 people, a lot of time could pass between the time that decision was made and that major company actually came online and started producing whatever it is they produce and hired those employees. If you think that me adding my name as an author means that I’m totally sold on the concept or that I have in some way “drank the kool-aid” please don’t jump to any conclusions. I fully believe that this issue needs discussed and thoroughly vetted and again it will occur whether you are for or against and my goal is to be in the room to hopefully apply some common sense to a very controversial issue and in the end if I don’t like what’s coming or if enough of you don’t like what’s coming I will be totally out of it at that point.
If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov
And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:
A person doesn't know how much he has to be thankful for until he has to pay taxes on it. ~Author Unknown
Monday, January 23, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
The Chicken or the Egg?
As I was organizing my thoughts for this week’s article I was made aware of a situation on the Eastern end of my district that has caused a great deal of consternation for both sides who are involved in the issue. First, let me diagram the situation for you. On one side we have a three generation family farm who has been farming land Southeast of Lawton for many years. One farm that’s currently in wheat is right across the road from a neighborhood. The issue is that on this particular wheat farm the geese have moved in, as they do this time of year, and have begun the process of stripping the lush, green wheat pasture down to where it resembles a parking lot. Now, any of you who grow wheat in Southwest Oklahoma understand the goose problem all too well. It seems like a goose can eat more wheat than a 500 pound steer ever thought about. As a matter of fact, just by virtue of the way their beaks are set up they actually destroy the plant, unlike cattle that just bite off the green tops leaving the root system in tact so the plant can later produce a grain crop as well as providing forage through the winter. The bottom line is, as pretty as they are, geese cause a tremendous amount of economic damage to the area wheat crop. So far you’re probably reading this thinking what’s the big deal? Well, the big deal is the method this three generation farm family has found to save thousands of dollars worth of wheat and no, it’s not a scarecrow. It’s a goose cannon and I’ll bet some of you are already caught up and you know where we’re going next. The three generation farm family sets the propane cannon to go off every twenty minutes and viola, no more geese, cheap enough. A little ol’ five gallon tank of propane every week or so and problem solved, right? No, wrong. Everything’s good until the neighbors start complaining, and complain they do. So in a nut shell there’s the issue. Who was there first and does the landowner have the right to protect their crop from the destructive geese? I think we can all agree that if they were way out in the country it probably wouldn’t be an issue but where neighbors come into play it gets ugly fast. The classic battle lines are drawn and off we go. Someone in the neighborhood calls the police department and threatens to press charges if the cannon doesn’t stop.
Was the farm there before the neighborhood, probably? Who’s right, well I don’t know. It’s a pretty hard call but it’s not a new dilemma. Many times as municipal areas encroach on the farming areas somebody will sell a quarter or an eighty to a developer who will lay out streets and water lines and start building houses. Next thing ya’ know, people start moving to those developments to get away from traffic or crowded neighborhoods or a host of other things that people want to escape and move out to the peaceful country side where they can see something besides their neighbors fence. Never giving a thought to the fact that the reason they can see is because their next door neighbor is a farm. Many times that farmer may run a tractor well into the night and not only is there noise from that tractor as he makes his way around that field but there’s also dust and down here in this dry corner of the State there can be a lot of it. That’s usually the first complaint we get from new developments out in the country is, “what Mr. Farmer are you gonna’ do about the dust?” There in lies the rub. Who was there first? The farmer or the neighborhood and who’s right? I’m not sure if I’m smart enough to tell ya’ but I know it’s a problem. Dust and noise and some of those things that we know are just part of the process don’t bother me in the least. In fact, my wife Dede dreads weaning time because when we pin calves to wean them off their mothers I guarantee you calves will bawl for at least three nights. In fact she calls it “the bawling of the calves.” I can tell ya’ within a two or three mile radius of our place when somebody has weaned a set of calves. It kinda’ reminds me of the old saying about feed lots if you’ve ever been to the panhandle of Texas or Oklahoma the standard line if a city slicker asks “what’s that smell?” Some old timer will invariably say “it smells like money.” So I don’t know who wins this game of blink but I know it can manifest itself in many different forms and I know it’s a fight we’ll referee for many years to come.
If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov
And here’s something to think about as you go down the road:
Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place. ~Frederic Bastiat
Was the farm there before the neighborhood, probably? Who’s right, well I don’t know. It’s a pretty hard call but it’s not a new dilemma. Many times as municipal areas encroach on the farming areas somebody will sell a quarter or an eighty to a developer who will lay out streets and water lines and start building houses. Next thing ya’ know, people start moving to those developments to get away from traffic or crowded neighborhoods or a host of other things that people want to escape and move out to the peaceful country side where they can see something besides their neighbors fence. Never giving a thought to the fact that the reason they can see is because their next door neighbor is a farm. Many times that farmer may run a tractor well into the night and not only is there noise from that tractor as he makes his way around that field but there’s also dust and down here in this dry corner of the State there can be a lot of it. That’s usually the first complaint we get from new developments out in the country is, “what Mr. Farmer are you gonna’ do about the dust?” There in lies the rub. Who was there first? The farmer or the neighborhood and who’s right? I’m not sure if I’m smart enough to tell ya’ but I know it’s a problem. Dust and noise and some of those things that we know are just part of the process don’t bother me in the least. In fact, my wife Dede dreads weaning time because when we pin calves to wean them off their mothers I guarantee you calves will bawl for at least three nights. In fact she calls it “the bawling of the calves.” I can tell ya’ within a two or three mile radius of our place when somebody has weaned a set of calves. It kinda’ reminds me of the old saying about feed lots if you’ve ever been to the panhandle of Texas or Oklahoma the standard line if a city slicker asks “what’s that smell?” Some old timer will invariably say “it smells like money.” So I don’t know who wins this game of blink but I know it can manifest itself in many different forms and I know it’s a fight we’ll referee for many years to come.
If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov
And here’s something to think about as you go down the road:
Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place. ~Frederic Bastiat
Thursday, January 12, 2012
In the Cold Gray Light of Dawn
Now some people are gonna’ ask “where in the world is he going this week?” However, if you follow any bluegrass music you’ll know that’s a line from one if not several bluegrass songs. It fits kinda’ where we’re at in the old seasonal flow charts. We’ve really been extremely lucky the past few weeks to have some unseasonably warm weather instead of those old cold bitter gray days that we all know are coming. As in any weather discussion in this great state the wind is always part of the equation and of course on those dreary bitter cold days the wind can have a real bite. As an old cowboy friend of mine used to say on those cold days when they had to doctor wheat pasture cattle he’d say “it’d sure be a son of a gun a’ horseback today.” As you might imagine, and some of ya’ actually know some of my cowboy friends, I did clean that up to get it a little more G-rated. Unless things change drastically this winter has treated us pretty well up to this point, no major ice storms, yet, no snow, just a generally mild first little bit of winter. I t kinda’ makes me want to skip the whole works and go right into spring but just as I talked about back in August we knew it wouldn’t be hot forever and we know we got some old blue northers coming. It’s just kinda’ always that way and for the last nine years, in my life at least, that cold gray light of dawn has been the bell weather that leads us to the Capitol.
It seems that its always bitter cold when session kicks off, and each session develops its own personality kind of along in that February stretch, but as we get through that first thirty days or so there’s a faint light way down at the end of that tunnel that indicates spring is coming. Stock show season gets in high gear, political rhetoric heats up (I’m not sure that’s not the REAL cause of global warming) and you kinda’ know spring is on the way. As I’ve said many times there is a definite rhythm to the Earth, to the seasons, and to just about everything including legislative session. I’d like to think its getting a little easier to fan that bronc because we’ve been ridin’ em’ going on ten years but as with any living, breathing creature with a mind of its own it’ll have a jump or a pitch or a twist that you haven’t seen yet. There are parts of it that are as predictable as the sun coming up in the East and then there’s those unexpected ducks and dives that make you think “how in the world am I gonna’ stay on this sun fishin’ son of a gun?” We know what some of the tricks this year’s session is gonna’ try but we don’t know everything and that’s kind of what keeps it interesting. My prayer is that as I have gotten older and more experienced the bumps and bruises won’t be quite as bad and the Flim Flam Man won’t have quite as easy a time tricking me.
There’s a whole bunch of those young bucks standing by the chutes ready to saddle up in their brand new suits and spit shined shoes and they all think they can ride a tornado and for some of them that’s what its gonna’ seem like. But they’ll learn just like the rest of us learned, some faster than others, and they’ll gain that valuable experience. Some of them will score and some of them won’t and spring will come just like it always does and hopefully in the next four months or so, we can do some good things for the State, we’ll have a wetter spring and the world will keep turning. For now we’re staring out at the cold gray light of dawn and looking forward to spring and of course, session.
Now, for you older folks like me you’ll understand most of this imagery and for you youngsters out there there’s always Google when you read this and wonder “what the heck is that old timer ramblin’ about?” Hope everyone had a wonderful start to this New Year, hope the wood rack is full and the old diesel is plugged in. We’ll see ya’ next week.
If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov
And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:
Nothing beats experience for sweatin’ fat off the brain.~Author Unknown
It seems that its always bitter cold when session kicks off, and each session develops its own personality kind of along in that February stretch, but as we get through that first thirty days or so there’s a faint light way down at the end of that tunnel that indicates spring is coming. Stock show season gets in high gear, political rhetoric heats up (I’m not sure that’s not the REAL cause of global warming) and you kinda’ know spring is on the way. As I’ve said many times there is a definite rhythm to the Earth, to the seasons, and to just about everything including legislative session. I’d like to think its getting a little easier to fan that bronc because we’ve been ridin’ em’ going on ten years but as with any living, breathing creature with a mind of its own it’ll have a jump or a pitch or a twist that you haven’t seen yet. There are parts of it that are as predictable as the sun coming up in the East and then there’s those unexpected ducks and dives that make you think “how in the world am I gonna’ stay on this sun fishin’ son of a gun?” We know what some of the tricks this year’s session is gonna’ try but we don’t know everything and that’s kind of what keeps it interesting. My prayer is that as I have gotten older and more experienced the bumps and bruises won’t be quite as bad and the Flim Flam Man won’t have quite as easy a time tricking me.
There’s a whole bunch of those young bucks standing by the chutes ready to saddle up in their brand new suits and spit shined shoes and they all think they can ride a tornado and for some of them that’s what its gonna’ seem like. But they’ll learn just like the rest of us learned, some faster than others, and they’ll gain that valuable experience. Some of them will score and some of them won’t and spring will come just like it always does and hopefully in the next four months or so, we can do some good things for the State, we’ll have a wetter spring and the world will keep turning. For now we’re staring out at the cold gray light of dawn and looking forward to spring and of course, session.
Now, for you older folks like me you’ll understand most of this imagery and for you youngsters out there there’s always Google when you read this and wonder “what the heck is that old timer ramblin’ about?” Hope everyone had a wonderful start to this New Year, hope the wood rack is full and the old diesel is plugged in. We’ll see ya’ next week.
If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov
And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:
Nothing beats experience for sweatin’ fat off the brain.~Author Unknown
Thursday, January 5, 2012
REAP
We had a little get together out at the Meers fire department last week to take a look at the brand new brush truck that the they just received, made possible in part by one of those programs that I feel may be one of the single most important funds in the state. You’ve heard me speak of it before and if you live in one of the small communities in my district or any other small town in Oklahoma, your community has probably benefitted at some point from REAP funding. REAP stands for Rural Economic Action Plan and many of my urban counterparts sometimes express their displeasure at state money going to help a small community with a water tower or an upgraded sewer line or any of a host of other worthy projects funded by REAP dollars.
REAP dollars come to small communities in the form of these small grants and one of the things I hear urban legislators whine about is they have the misguided perception that somehow tax dollars generated in large metro areas are, in some twisted way, subsidizing life in rural Oklahoma. I actually heard one metro Representative say “why should we do that, why should our money go to subsidize a way of life that does not benefit us?” Now, after I took a chill pill and decided not to pick up a chair and pull a championship wrestling move on him, I regained my composure and explained to the smog breathing pavement pounder that many of our people in small communities in the state of Oklahoma spend un-told dollars in urban areas. I’m not sure, unless we had everyone turn in their zip code every time they spent a dollar, that you could ever really track how much money goes through the registers in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Lawton, Norman or you name it. Granted there are a lot more people in a concentrated area in those large urban settings but there’s an uncounted very large group of consumers across the state that travel to those metro areas to shop, eat out, buy large appliances, cars, pickups, fuel, and the list goes on. Many times in very small communities there may be only a small healthcare facility and more times than not there may be nothing of the kind so you can add Dr. visits to that list, all of which add to the sales tax in those large metro areas.
Probably the best two examples that come to my mind are major state livestock shows and state basketball playoffs. Having spent thirteen years as an Ag teacher I can tell you first hand that when we load the trailers with animals and tack we also loaded kids and more often than not, mom and dad and sometimes two sets of grandparents joined the caravan to go to Oklahoma City or Tulsa for state wide livestock shows and fairs. Generally they spend several nights in motel rooms, eat at least three meals a day in restaurants and you know without me telling you what happens when ladies get near a mall or sometimes just a Target. Checkbooks fly open; credit cards are dug out of purses and somebody’s fixin’ to shop because they just don’t have a lot of that available in the small communities that they live in. Those items are willingly purchased and they pay the sales tax and their little home communities get zero benefit. REAP funds are one of the only mechanisms for any of the sales tax generated to ever make it back to those communities. So, in reality, the urban argument that they are subsidizing life in rural Oklahoma is actually pretty weak. The other thing that kind of sticks in my crawl when the argument surfaces and it almost always does is that somehow we don’t need rural Oklahoma. Nothing could be further from the truth. You can’t grow a whole lot of wheat in a back yard and you can’t run very many cattle in a city park but you sure can in these wide open spaces surrounding these small Oklahoma communities that receive the crumbs in the form of REAP money. We live where we live because somebody has to feed ya’ and we’re glad you like bread and beef and cotton for your clothes and those fancy tasseled loafers are usually made of leather. So, will I fight to keep REAP funding in tact? You bet your Lexus I will because I know where you got the money to put in that grant. You got it from me and my neighbors when we came to town.
If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov
And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:
We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men. ~Herman Melville
REAP dollars come to small communities in the form of these small grants and one of the things I hear urban legislators whine about is they have the misguided perception that somehow tax dollars generated in large metro areas are, in some twisted way, subsidizing life in rural Oklahoma. I actually heard one metro Representative say “why should we do that, why should our money go to subsidize a way of life that does not benefit us?” Now, after I took a chill pill and decided not to pick up a chair and pull a championship wrestling move on him, I regained my composure and explained to the smog breathing pavement pounder that many of our people in small communities in the state of Oklahoma spend un-told dollars in urban areas. I’m not sure, unless we had everyone turn in their zip code every time they spent a dollar, that you could ever really track how much money goes through the registers in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Lawton, Norman or you name it. Granted there are a lot more people in a concentrated area in those large urban settings but there’s an uncounted very large group of consumers across the state that travel to those metro areas to shop, eat out, buy large appliances, cars, pickups, fuel, and the list goes on. Many times in very small communities there may be only a small healthcare facility and more times than not there may be nothing of the kind so you can add Dr. visits to that list, all of which add to the sales tax in those large metro areas.
Probably the best two examples that come to my mind are major state livestock shows and state basketball playoffs. Having spent thirteen years as an Ag teacher I can tell you first hand that when we load the trailers with animals and tack we also loaded kids and more often than not, mom and dad and sometimes two sets of grandparents joined the caravan to go to Oklahoma City or Tulsa for state wide livestock shows and fairs. Generally they spend several nights in motel rooms, eat at least three meals a day in restaurants and you know without me telling you what happens when ladies get near a mall or sometimes just a Target. Checkbooks fly open; credit cards are dug out of purses and somebody’s fixin’ to shop because they just don’t have a lot of that available in the small communities that they live in. Those items are willingly purchased and they pay the sales tax and their little home communities get zero benefit. REAP funds are one of the only mechanisms for any of the sales tax generated to ever make it back to those communities. So, in reality, the urban argument that they are subsidizing life in rural Oklahoma is actually pretty weak. The other thing that kind of sticks in my crawl when the argument surfaces and it almost always does is that somehow we don’t need rural Oklahoma. Nothing could be further from the truth. You can’t grow a whole lot of wheat in a back yard and you can’t run very many cattle in a city park but you sure can in these wide open spaces surrounding these small Oklahoma communities that receive the crumbs in the form of REAP money. We live where we live because somebody has to feed ya’ and we’re glad you like bread and beef and cotton for your clothes and those fancy tasseled loafers are usually made of leather. So, will I fight to keep REAP funding in tact? You bet your Lexus I will because I know where you got the money to put in that grant. You got it from me and my neighbors when we came to town.
If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov
And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:
We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men. ~Herman Melville
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