TODD LAMB for taxes!
John Michener
Todd Lamb’s latest appeal to Republicans for their support is filled with pandering and misdirection. Out of all the obfuscation, let us examine just two simple claims: “As Governor, I will be…an anti-tax, limited government conservative,” and “I will be a champion of the unborn.”
Todd Lamb may claim to oppose taxes now that it is campaign season, but he was clearly FOR taxes before he was against them. Lamb, along with six others, serves on the State Board of Equalization (SBE). According to the state constitution, the SBE certifies the funds that are available to be budgeted by the Legislature, and any appropriations without the SBE’s certification “shall be null and void.” Therefore, in June of 2017, after Governor Fallin signed the Legislature’s unconstitutional taxes into law, Todd Lamb had the opportunity to stop those unlawful taxes by voting against certification of the funds, but instead Lamb approved the taxes. In stark contrast, State Treasurer Ken Miller exercised true courage and leadership by voting not to authorize the use of unconstitutional tax increases.
Lamb cannot claim to be for limited government while fueling it and funding it with unlawful revenue. Lamb likes to claim that he opposed Mary Fallin over taxes, but his exit from her cabinet was nothing more than an expedient ploy to distance himself from the politically toxic governor. When he was on the SBE, he was given the chance to actually stop Fallin’s tax increases, but instead, he gave them the proverbial thumbs up. And on March 28, 2018, Senate President Todd Lamb made no protest and was conspicuously absent when the Senate passed a $447 million tax hike that will hurt every Oklahoman and punish our number one industry.
Lamb’s claim to be a “champion of the unborn” has also been exposed as false by Lamb’s own moves to keep abortion safe and legal. In each of the last two legislative sessions, Lamb was solicited to provide leadership to completely ban abortion, but he flatly refused to assist. Along the campaign trail, when asked for his plan to end abortion in Oklahoma, Lamb indignantly babbles about his fight to regulate abortion as healthcare when he was a state senator years ago.
We need a statesman, not a politician, to restore proper government and establish justice in the sovereign state of Oklahoma.
