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

GET ON OUTTA’ HERE

As we approach 2012 we see the turning of a page and the start of a new year. It seems like every year at this time we always look forward to a new year but I have to admit that when I hit that half century mark at my last birthday I kind of hesitate rushing the calendar. It seems like 50 got here pretty quick and I sure don’t’ want to hurry too fast toward 60. I have to say this year has been a tough rascal in a lot of ways and I don’t care if we see another drought like we experienced last year. As always, I try to stay optimistic and hopeful that a new year provides new opportunities and hopefully some better weather scenarios and a chance to get back to some semblance of normal, whatever that means. It’s a time when people make resolutions and plans to do things better or different or to make improvements in their personal lives or their jobs or their family situations or a host of other things that just need tweaked or changed or improved upon. One thing that may look better as we approach the New Year is that the State’s budget may have improved a notch or two. We’re by no means flush with cash but the economy has improved and although the Governor and State Treasurer are cautiously optimistic it does give us some hope that we can maintain and not make other budget cuts. Sometimes you measure success in inches instead of miles. This year may be an “inches” kind of year but at least we are going in the right direction. Another positive that we haven’t seen in a while is simply water. I made a run into North Texas last week to meet my sister and swap gifts that had to go South and one thing I noticed as I crossed the Red River, there was a lot of water standing.

They seem to have some wheat pasture just like we do but their tanks still need to catch some runoff (they call them tanks in Texas instead of ponds). Up here we have ponds and down there they have tanks, I’ve never quite figured that out but that’s another article. It’s no different than here at home. There is wheat pasture and some moisture and it does give you hope. That’s the point of this weeks article, that there is hope, there is always hope. Another old saying that I like is “that which does not kill us makes us stronger.” I think in a lot of ways we’ve been tempered by the heat figuratively and in a lot of real ways too. We come out of tough times tougher.
That’s just how it is.

I think the holiday season for me is a chance to step off the treadmill for a day or two and recharge and kind of reevaluate where I am. There’s plenty of hustle and bustle and activity but the focus is a little different and it does give us a moment to step back and broaden the view finder and maybe look at the big picture and I know that little bit of time always helps me, especially as I prepare to shift gears and head toward session in February and the realignment that has to occur in the Armes’ household for me to do what I do as a State Representative.

There were definitely some bright spots in the past year. We got our oldest daughter Katy out of college at OSU and she is now gainfully employed. We did make it through the drought and managed to hang on to a handful of cows. Our youngest daughter Kelsey is a senior in high school. She’s the president of the Cache FFA and has been accepted to OSU and is extremely excited about the next chapter in her life and for the most part we’re healthy and employed. So 2011 wasn’t a total wreck by any means but it had some pretty sizeable speed bumps, the kind that can do some damage to the old suspension system but nothing that can’t be repaired with a little elbow grease, a couple gallons of optimism and the right set of tools. So 2011, get on outta’ here and don’t let the door hit ya’ in the rear. 2012, come on in here and let’s get to work.

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:
Once you choose hope, anything's possible. ~Christopher Reeve

Major Mystery Solved

I know that typically this time of year you would expect some type of Christmas story and actually, if you’ll bear with me, this will have a Christmas twist. The story starts with me making what I thought was going to be a quick up and back trip to Oklahoma City to pick up some items from the Capitol to allow me to complete my Christmas circuit. I left about mid morning Saturday to make this simple run, little did I know that through the magic of Christmas I would learn the answer that has eluded many of us for years. The question was “why do guys who live in major metro areas drive big jacked up four wheel drives”? It’s an easy answer for those of us in rural areas who must traverse muddy roads, pull trailers, haul cattle and many other day to day chores that often times require four wheel drive and sometimes fairly high GVW’s. Most of us in the farming and ranching business wouldn’t dream of owning a two wheel drive pick up. I can’t tell you the last time that I owned a pickup that wasn’t a 4x4; it’s just not worth it. The mystery remained. Why did the city guys feel the need to drive those kinds of rigs with all the draw backs there are like the inability to park in a multi level parking garage, not to mention poor fuel economy and a whole list of other things that would seem to steer them toward a smaller vehicle, more suited to maneuvering the urban jungle. Now let’s rewind to my Saturday trip to Oklahoma City. As I said earlier, I had to make a stop at the Capitol and needed one more item to fill a Christmas order so, being a country boy, I made a tactical error and decided to make a quick stop by Penn Square Mall. Rookie mistake to say the least. I’m used to wide open spaces, plenty of room to move around and I found Penn Square Mall to be a polar opposite of that scenario especially given that it was “Black Saturday”. I’m quite certain that 94.6% of the residents of Oklahoma City were at that very location at that very moment. It is one of those deals where once you’re committed by turning into that parking lot, you’re there and there’s no way out. Well, of course, as fate would have it I made that commitment and what an adventure it was! I heard all manner of horns as impatient Christmas shoppers in the true Christmas spirit loved thy neighbor and indicated that love by laying on that horn to try to force traffic to move in a situation that was seemingly impossible. As I sat in the line just trying to navigate around the perimeter of the mall, I discovered the need for four wheel drive in the city. It was so simple it’s a wonder I haven’t already figured it out. It’s simply so they can park. It has nothing to do with “man status” or testosterone or any of the things you’d think but a four wheel drive allows you to not only jump curbs but to climb small hills and park on grassy areas that I’m sure some mall architect intended to be used for beautification and to provide some green space around the sea of pavement. But I’m here to tell ya’, the urban cowboys can park those rigs in some pretty unconventional places when necessary. Grassy knolls and buffer strips were utilized in every way shape and form and I’d say the parking was maxed out. I saw some people parked in some places that I wouldn’t have even tried on my Yamaha four wheeler. I can just imagine the white knuckles of some of the wives as their macho urban husbands jammed it down in four wheel drive, jumped the curb and headed up the hill and it would probably be pretty un- Christian to repeat anything that was said inside the cabs of those pickups and SUV’s. Kinda’ like the old phrase “hold my beer and watch this” but park they did and I’m sure they shopped till they dropped and the mystery of the urban four wheel drive was solved. Man cards were maintained and missions were accomplished.

I hope that this Christmas season finds each of you well and I hope that you find time to enjoy your families and enjoy the laughter of children and the excitement in their eyes. It’s a magical season and a time to make memories. Merry Christmas and best wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

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:
Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice. ~Author Unknown

I’m Not Ready

About a week ago we seemed to have plunged into a deep freeze. We had a pretty decent fall it just seems like it’s never long enough. I actually had a real estate auction around Indiahoma when the black jack trees were really showing off. I didn’t get to go to Colorado and look at aspens, didn’t even get to go down to Eastern Oklahoma not that I would’ve. I think those kind of trips are reserved for retirement years but we did have a little fall color in Western Comanche county and I got to enjoy it as I ran back and forth preparing for the auction. Just like you can’t hang on to those colors neither can you hang on to those really nice temperatures. It seems like if I’m not careful I totally miss the best part of the year I’ve always got great plans to stop and smell the roses but its sure tough for me to do especially when I get busy. I was certainly ready for summer and the historic drought to get its tail on out of here but I don’t think I’m ready for old man winter to come blasting through the door either. I spend a great deal of time outside and I know I’ll get used to it but the older I get the tougher it is to get acclimated. I’m sure at my advanced age its probably poor circulation. It sure seemed like the last few days that the cold has really had a bite of course with no grass and limited hay it always causes stress for a cattleman even though at my place we are almost all hat and no cattle we still have a few and they can plow through a round bail a lot faster than I’d like. I just picked up a couple loads of hay from one of my neighbors and paid more than I’ve ever paid in my life for any type of forage and I was honestly glad to have it. Does it sound like I’m whining, yeah maybe it does and I shouldn’t because really all in all things look pretty good. We’ve had a little rain; still need some more but have had some I think I may have enough hay located to maybe get a few old cows through the winter. Had a pretty good fall auction run and so far everyone is healthy I’m just not ready for the bitter cold and I hope mother nature will ease up on us a little bit and not throw us in to those sub zero temperatures that we saw last year.

The weather cooperated very well Saturday night for the huge Cache Christmas parade. Lots of folks turned out to celebrate Christmas small town style and it was great to see the city park packed with families, kids, and floats, everyone enjoying a small town Christmas festival. I have to say hats off to Laura Folland, Jennifer Holland, David Dorrell and the Masons for putting together quite a successful event. They all stepped out on faith knowing that it might not turn out so well but it was a great event and brought lots of people out. It will be a flurry of activity from here on through the holidays. I hope all of you can spend some time with your families and keep in mind the reason for the season. In the meantime I’ll be outside as much as I can trying to get acclimated to this cold. As an old buddy of mine said the other day, “don’t lighten up, tighten up.” Good advice.

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:

Never worry about the size of the Christmas tree. In the eyes of children they are all

Abolish State Income Tax?

For several months there have been discussions around the state by some who would like to abolish the state income tax. Some groups just say abolish it and let the chips fall where they may other groups promote what’s called a fair tax. I have to be perfectly frank with you, my friends and constituents; I am really, truly not sure about how I feel about the whole package yet. From a purely individual standpoint the less tax I pay the more I like it and I sure think that for most people it sounds wonderful when you say just abolish the state income tax. I also know from my ten years in the legislature that we have a train to run and it costs money and while the prospect of eliminating income tax sounds good I think it’s something we need to approach with great caution. While I agree that we’ve still got some waste and fat in state government we do have essential services like roads and education and basic government functions that have to continue. Probably my biggest fear is that if abolishing the state income tax created a vacuum and we found ourselves in a situation where the income stream wasn’t enough to take care of the basic functions of government that property taxes could go up considerably and if I had to choose between income tax or increasing the burden on land and property owners I would have to stay with the income tax.

I believe that the elimination of the income tax is an issue that everyone needs to brush up on especially those of us in the legislature that could be charged with making that decision. I started the process of learning about the issue last week when I attended a meeting in Oklahoma City where the featured speaker was a man named Arthur Laffer. Mr. Laffer was President Ronald Reagan’s top economic advisor when Reagan was President. He’s a very dynamic individual. He is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago and a noted expert on this topic. He made a lot of sense as he talked about comparisons between states that did have income tax and those that did not. He’s a firm believer that it is better for a state, economically, to not have income tax and again, while I might agree in concept, I still have many unanswered questions in my head as to how you get there like, are there casualties along the way and a host of other unanswered questions. It’s like many things we deal with, it sounds real good if you say it real fast. It’s an extremely weighty issue and I’m certainly going to do everything I can do to make sure I know as much as I can about it.

One of the groups that are putting a great deal of time and effort into this issue is the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs. They are a conservative think tank, privately funded and have a very bright young staff that does thorough research on the issues that they address. The OCPA will be very aggressive in the promotion of abolishing the state income tax. If you would like to read more on their thoughts go to www.ocpathink.org where you will find a great deal of material. As I said earlier, I’m in study mode on this issue as we speak. I would love to find a way to decrease the burden on Oklahoma tax payers, there may be some merit to this plan but I would encourage you to study and read as much as you can from both sides of the issue and do your best to make an informed, educated decision. My goal is to provide you with as much of that information as I can and would also like to know your thoughts. Feel free to shoot us an email or contact me on facebook and we’ll do our best to inform you as developments occur.

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:
Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is really quite as satisfying as an income tax refund. ~F.J. Raymond

Black Thursday? Really?

I guess I’m continually amazed at the competitiveness that retailers show in vying for consumer dollars. I’ve heard my entire life about how holidays have been commercialized and I think it’s been a natural evolution but to use an old cliché that has been used around the Christmas holiday for many years, “remember the reason for the season”. And yes, maybe I should stamp “old fashioned” across my forehead but it seems that we do lose site of the reason.

Black Friday has become a pretty nationally recognized shopping day and I guess it makes sense for folks to hit the ground running to get a jump on the Christmas frenzy but it sure seems like we are pushing the envelope when the sharks start circling Thanksgiving Day. National attention was brought to this Black Thursday concept when a Target employee expressed his displeasure at that National retailer when Target decided to open Thanksgiving night. Thanksgiving has been a traditional day of family and it seems unreasonable to expect retailers to require employees to miss that family time when there are so few opportunities, especially for working class Americans, to spend quality time with their families. I was amazed at the film footage showing the mobs lined up to get into stores across the country. People camped out or otherwise entrenched to get a jump on other shoppers in order to get bargains on anything from flat screen TVs to computers or a large variety of consumer goods that the retailers so effectively use as “bait.” It’s like throwing chum over the side of a boat and watching the sharks circle.
I guess the sad part is that we fall for it as a society and we push and shove and scratch and claw.

I even heard my minister address the new term “competitive shopping” as she told of a situation in a large city where a mob was pushing and shoving and a lady in the middle of that mess pulled out a can of pepper spray and sprayed the entire crowd surrounding her, sending several to the hospital. I guess she knew how to clear a room. I personally would rather have poison ivy all over my body than to go into any store on Black Friday. It’s just not my thing. Some people enjoy crowds and enjoy being in the center of a mass of humanity, I don’t. I can think of a host of other surgeries or tortures that I’d rather have. I actually think a root canal might be better. I fear sometimes that I might make a good hermit. I’d hate to take a perfectly good, quiet holiday and turn it into a rugby game by trying to shop and I’m not Ebenezer Scrooge. I like the holidays, the lights and the music and the festive atmosphere but I’m a little tougher to bait and I’m certainly not gonna’ get in the mob scene to save a hundred dollars on anything. To each his own and some people thrive on that and this is America and we do have the freedom to choose. But I’m certainly not gonna’ choose to have to fight a bunch of people for any amount of savings. I’ll have plenty of stories to tell without having to tell stories of getting maced or pepper sprayed because I was in the middle of some mob.

So, I hope if you braved the Black Thursday or Black Friday crowds, you got what you were after and I guess no matter what this ol’ timer thinks, Wal-Mart will continue to put up Christmas decorations at Halloween. I just don’t want to see Thanksgiving Day turned into a shopping day, I mean after all, what would we eat? I’ll take turkey and dressing over a food court any day of the week. I don’t think there’s anything you can put on a corndog to replace that day of family togetherness.

If you would like to contact me while I am 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:
Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice. ~Author Unknown

Got a Match?

Since I will be dressed in camo this week and hopefully concealed from the deer and maybe even politics, here is a reprint of one of my old favorites that if you have not seen, I hope you will enjoy. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

What ever happened to strike anywhere matches? I happened upon this little clandestine plot and I am not sure who is responsible but I think it could be the commies or maybe even terrorist, or at the very least those forces within our government that think we are too stupid to make our own decisions. Who ever is responsible I would like to take them to task.

As a young child I remember my great uncle, who kinda served as my grandfather in my formative years, always striking a match on the seat of his pants. If you are old enough to remember black and white TV then you remember the pose, you hike your leg and reach around and strike that wooden kitchen match on the seat of your britches. They are called friction matches, they have the little white sulfur tip and you can strike them anywhere. You didn’t have to have the box or anything like that. A pill bottle full of these little wonders could be kept in the tool box or by the burn barrel or just about anywhere. Who out there doesn’t remember the little tin box on the wall in Granny’s kitchen? It held a whole box of these little wooden wonders and it was gravity fed. They just fell to the bottom in the little tray, always at the ready to light the stove or the pilot light on the floor furnace and I don’t remember anybody’s Granny being in any kind of jeopardy because of this ignition source. High cholesterol from all that fried chicken was more of an issue but I don’t ever remember an obituary where a kitchen match was the culprit. Kitchen matches were so common and so simple, but I challenge you to try to find them and I think you will see what I mean. I think that you will be surprised how scarce they have become. I know you are probably thinking," My goodness Don, get a life" but here’s how I got to this point.

The conversation occurred quite by chance as a bunch of guys were gathered at a friends house watching Texas Tech beat the stuffin’ out of our beloved O-State Cowboys. As the score became more lopsided the conversation veered towards what it should be this time of year, deer camp. This same group used to make an annual pilgrimage to Southeast Oklahoma during deer season and sometimes we even hunted. But the camp and the camaraderie were what we really enjoyed. My friend Rod Smith asked "has anybody seen any strike anywhere matches lately?" and we all said "well sure, you can get them anywhere" and he said "No, no you can’t. I’ve looked at the dollar stores, Wal-Mart and even the grocery store; I think they have been taken off the market." Well friends and neighbors, in the twenty-first century you know what we do…we Google it. So when I got home the first thing I did was do a quick little search for strike anywhere matches. Interesting what you find out when you Google. Apparently this is not a local problem, this may be global. There is an entire chat room devoted to this very subject, with people from all walks of life bemoaning the difficulty of finding this very common household product. There is even talk of these matches being outlawed in some states. You guessed it, liability issues. I hope I don’t find out that the office of Homeland Security has determined in its infinite wisdom, that the strike anywhere match is now to dangerous too be sold on the open market, but I think it has.

I don’t remember if the terrorists used these in 9-11 or not but I kinda doubt it. There is even talk in these chat rooms about these matches having Hazmat designation, which means they are considered hazardous material, which I believe boarders on the insane. I remember as a child we used to make stink bombs out of an ink pen, a simple bobby pin and one of these matches. I don’t believe anybody ever died or lost an eye or had any kind of permanent scars from the lowly friction match but I do remember an upset teacher or two. But, somebody somewhere in a big fancy office, who probably never lit a match on the seat of their pants, decided for us that these were too dangerous for the American public.

Now I know that I should use this space to discuss this week in Oklahoma politics but I can’t let this go without at least a little rant about big brother protecting us from ourselves. I challenge you to go shopping, and try to find these matches. I did find a source at a small hardware store, I bought the last three boxes and told them to order me a case and I would buy them all. And I think I will keep them under lock and key and hope my name hasn’t been flagged by the secret agents in the U.S. Government or the "double naught spies" that ‘ol Jethro used to talk about on the Beverly Hillbillies. I bet ‘ol Jed Clampett could light a match on the seat of his pants. I promise I am not going to over throw anything, I just want to light my burn barrel with friction matches in a little water proof pill bottle that I keep down by the shop.

The funny thing is, some would argue that they have been replaced by the these new fangled long stemmed lighters but I am here to tell you whoever designed that little gem is an idiot, they light about three times and then you throw them away. But I am sure that we are much safer. But I promise you we went backward not forward, kinda like "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it." I know this seems like a little thing but I think it shows how silly we can get when we start having discussions on safety.

Notice I didn’t tell you where my source was, it’s my own little honey hole, like a secret bass pond or a secret grove of trees where the big buck hangs out. You can torture me, but I ain’t talking. So if you find any strike anywhere wooden matches you better buy them before the government totally outlaws them, for your own good. My goodness what’s next, the round toothpick? God help us. Kinda makes me want to eat paste and run with scissors just to make sure I am still alive, I am such a rebel.

If you would like to contact me, while I’m at the Capitol, please don’t hesitate to call 800-522-8502 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 800-522-8502 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or send an email to donarmes@okhouse.gov .

And here’s a little something to think about, as you go down the road:

"The sky never falls all at once – it’s always a little at a time." -Don Armes