OCPAC e-mail - Barresi at OCPAC, Blair on Glen Beck & Taxes vs. Fees

[Charlie Meadows]

Members and friends of the Oklahoma Conservative Political Action
Committee (OCPAC)

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ TIDBITS

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, May 15th, 2013, will be held at
the Character Inn Conference Center, 520 West Main Street in downtown
OKC. You do not have to be a member of OCPAC to attend nor do you have
to eat, though the cost of the room is part of the meal. It is a $10
buffet meal that also includes the drink and taxes. Our speaker this
week will be State Schools Superintendent, Dr. Janet Barresi. Over the
past 2 years we have had Jenni White of ROPE (Reform Oklahoma Public
Education) and Ginger Tinney, Executive Director of POE (Professional
Oklahoma Educators) speak at OCPAC, both of whom have varying degrees
of disagreement with the job performance of Superintendent Barresi.
This Wednesday, will be Dr. Barresi’s opportunity to explain her job
performance. I have asked her to talk about the condition of the of
the department when she took office and what changes she has made over
the past 2 plus year. In addition, I want her to speak to her support
for the very controversial, Common Core Curriculum program. We will
give her 30 to 35 minutes to speak and then have some time for Q&A.
You will not want to miss this meeting.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* THURSDAY EVENING - SHAWNEE AREA - The Tea Party of Central
Oklahoma will host their monthly meeting this Thursday evening, at
Van’s Pig Stand, 717 East Highland in Shawnee. Folks will gather at 6
for dinner and the meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. OCPAC Treasurer
Susan Goodman and I will be the speakers. I will give a little history
of why and what OCPAC has been able to accomplish over the years and
then Susan will talk about the nuts and bolts of forming and keeping a
PAC legal and on track. Anyone interested in understanding the small
part OCPAC has played in turning Oklahoma from a deep dark blue state
to a bright red state, or are interested in the how and whys to form a
PAC, this is a meeting you should attend.

* THURSDAY AFTERNOON - GLEN BECK SHOW - Pastor Paul Blair, of
Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond, is scheduled to make a live
appearance on Glen Beck’s TV show, this Thursday afternoon, May 16th.
The show airs at 4:00 p.m. Oklahoma time and can be seen on the
internet if you subscribe ($5.00 per month) to Beck’s Blaze network.
In addition, we have Dish Satellite service which offers the Blaze
network for an additional $5.00 per month. The Blaze network is 24
hours and offers some great programming.

* FRIDAY EVENING - WEATHERFORD & WESTERN OKLAHOMA - Several
groups have worked together to host a “Pulpits and Patriots”
conference this Friday evening in Weatherford, though folks will
attend from many miles around. The conference will begin at 7:00 p.m.
and be held at the Pioneer Center, 1000 Gartrell Place in Weatherford.
The first speaker will be Paul Blair, pastor of Fairview Baptist in
Edmond and the Executive Director of the Re-Claiming America for
Christ organization. Blair will talk about the mind set and thinking
of our founders to create the foundations of our nation. State
Representative and pastor Dan Fisher of Trinity Baptist Church in
Yukon will do a presentation on the ACTIONS of our founders. The 3rd
speaker will be Erik Stanley from the Alliance Defending Freedom legal
organization, speaking about what pastors and Christians can do today.
Additional special guests will be Dran Reese from San Diego, founder
of the Salt & Light Council and Mike Sawyer, Area Coordinator with the
John Birch Society. There is no charge to attend this conference.

* SATURDAY MORNING - EDMOND AREA - The same conference I
mentioned above will take place, Saturday morning from 9 until 11:30
a.m. at Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond (the location is at the
intersection of N Sooner and Danforth Roads). There is no charge to
attend, this should be a very educational conference for the folks in
central Oklahoma.

* SATURDAY MORNING - GUTHRIE AREA - Logan County GOP officials
Art and Sheila Briesh are hosting a legislative training seminar
featuring Amanda Teegarden of OK-SAFE. The seminar is from 9:00 a.m.
to 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 18th. The location will be the Zion
Lutheran Church, 424 East Warner, in Guthrie. Amanda has presented
these activist seminars all over the state and received rave reviews.
There is probably no better training on how to understand the
legislative process which is important to help us become better and
more influential citizens. There is no cost to attend, but so Art and
Sheila know how many handouts to prepare, it is very important to
notify them of your attendance. To do so, please send an e-mail to
Arthur and Sheila Briesh at: heartl...@aol.com and put May 18th in
the subject line along with the number of people attending.

* SATURDAY EVENING - DUNCAN AREA - The Stevens County Republican
Party will host their annual Fish Fry, Saturday evening, at the
Stephens County Fairgrounds in Duncan. U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe will be
the keynote speaker. A reception with Senator Inhofe will be from 5 to
6:00 p.m. and the Fish Fry begins at 6:30. Other than the state
convention, this is the largest GOP event in the state each year with
hundreds of folks attending. The food is great, there is plenty of
entertainment with both a live and silent auction taking place. I
believe the tickets are $25 each, for more information call the County
Chairman, Leon Farris at (580) 656-7951 or e-mail to:
le...@stephenscountygop.com.

++ TIDBITS

* CORRECTION & APOLOGY - First the good news. In last week’s e-mail
I had mentioned that possibly SB 640 could become the legislative
vehicle that might be used to expand Medicaid in Oklahoma and as such
should be watched very closely. It looks like the issue is dead for
this year, which is really good. However, in my explanation of the
bill last week, I said the Senate author, Brian Crain (R-Tulsa), was
the winner of last year’s RINO (Republican In Name Only) award. I was
quickly contacted by the EA (Executive Assistant) in Senator Crain’s
office to point out that the Senator was the RINO winner in 2011, NOT
2012. I stand corrected and apologize for the error. This is important
as Senator Crain did make an improvement on his 2012 Conservative
Index score found in the Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper over his 2011
score.

* THE OKLAHOMAN ON TAXES AND FEES - Monday’s edition of the
Oklahoman had 2 very important front page articles. The first was
about the rapid increase in the collections of revenues from fees. The
second article was about the long lines at state offices where people
take their driver’s license examinations. Regarding the long lines at
the examiners offices, it is a serious problem, however, it is a
problem which can be easily solved without the proposed 50 to 100
percent tax increase. The proposed increase is a TAX and not a fee
increase. During the debate on the floor in the House, Representative
Sean Roberts (R-Hominy) raised the question of it being a tax
increase. The House sponsor of SB 652, Don Armes (R-Faxon), denied
that it was a tax increase, but rather a fee increase. Armes probably
doesn’t know the difference or perhaps lacks the intellectual honesty
to admit that is was a tax increase and would therefore require a 75%
supermajority to pass or go to a vote of the people, rather than a
simple majority required to pass a fee increase.

Actually very few lawmakers know the difference and unfortunately that
difference isn’t well defined in the law. In fact, the only definition
of the difference between a tax and a fee that I know of has come from
incomplete and inconsistent court decisions. In years past Senator
Brogdon has tried to determine the difference with a bill that I
believe was called the “Revenue Stream Definition Act” but was
unsuccessful. Representative Wesselhoft has also tried a similar
effort but with no success.

If you look at page 3 in the Oklahoman, there is a graphic chart which
shows the revenues collected from fees over the past number of years.
Here is where the tale gets serious, when the Democrats were in
charge, fees actually went down in 2004 from 2003. From that time on,
fees have increased dramatically. Why is that important? The
Republicans took control of the House in 2004 (but started governing
in 2005) and the Senate in 2008.

Therefore, a case might be made that some of the income tax cuts in
which Republicans brag about are actually a blue smoke and mirrors
sham. If those income tax cuts were simply replaced by new revenues as
a result of fee increases then we have been fooled by the Republicans.
On the other hand, those increased fee revenues could be the result of
increased use of services which produce fees, rather than the result
of fee increases. The investigative journalists at the Oklahoman were
not able to determine which was the case as that kind of information
isn’t available, which then brings up another problem. Lawmakers don’t
have a handle on the size, cost and efficiency of government if that
information isn’t available and therefore can’t make good economic
decisions.

If done correctly, I actually prefer most of the functions of
government to operate on a fee based system. Some proper functions of
government must necessarily be based on taxes. Here is the difference.
A fee is revenue collected from some activity or service and ALL
(100%) of the revenues collected are ONLY used to regulate or provide
for that particular service or activity from which they were
collected. As an example, our turnpike system and our state wildlife
department are fee based systems. No state tax dollars are used to
support either of these departments, they are completely dependent
upon the fees raised from their use. On the other hand, a tax is
revenue collected from some activity, service or earnings and those
revenues collected can be used for ANY government expenditure rather
than having to be used to support the activity or service from which
they were collected.

Since a significant part of the current cost of a drivers license is
diverted to health care and perhaps other uses, the current cost of a
drivers license is not a fee but a tax. Some of the proposed increase
cost for a drivers license and state identification card is to be used
for radios and according to the Oklahoman, to go to the general fund.
Therefore, the proposed increased cost is a tax increase and not a fee
increase. Since it didn’t receive a 75% super majority in the House,
it was not properly passed and should not be on the Governor’s desk
waiting for her signature or veto.

Let me give an example of how the taxpayers can be abused with the
slight of hand by lawmakers. I believe it may have been during the
2008 session that State Representative Randy Terrill (R-Moore, at that
time) introduced a bill to add a fee to money wired out of state, with
the fees raised to be used by law enforcement to stop the flow of drug
money being wired out of the country to go back into the hands of drug
lords. Since it was a fee increase, it needed only a simple majority
to pass. However, the revenues raised were way beyond what law
enforcement was able to use, so the next year, Terrill proposed to
divert some of those revenues to pay the salary for a new position at
the Medical Examiners office. If that effort had been successful,
Terrill would have converted the fee into a tax, even though it never
received a 75% supermajority vote in the legislature or was never sent
to a vote of the people.

What is the solution? Speaker Shannon proposed a several year
moratorium on fee increases this year, but I don’t believe it went
anywhere. The legislature could pass a law next year to define the
difference and define every revenue stream in the state as either a
fee or tax. Or, the citizens could ask the legislature to offer a
state question to require all fees to have to be passed by a 75%
supermajority or go to a vote of the people. As a last resort, and the
least desirable, the citizens could collect signatures for an
initiative petition to amend our constitution to require that 75%
supermajority or go to a vote of the people. I suggest solving this
should be in the top 5 issues for the legislature to deal with in
2014.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday

Charlie Meadows
Charlie...@gmail.com

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