The Tulsa Frontier News was able to conduct an interview with one anonymous juror in the trial of police officer, Betty Shelby. Shelby shot an unarmed Tulsa motorist last year. We're posting some amazing quotes from the article. Please read the full account at The Frontier.

​  Oklahoma does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.
  Our representatives must cut the State budget, fund what is essential - like roads, courts, and law enforcement - and then carve away at the rest. 

  A proposed discriminatory tax increase on cigarettes ( HB2372) failed in the Oklahoma House this week. However, since it received a majority vote (thanks to some of our own legislators), it will be on the ballot in November 2018. 

  Two more tax-increase bills to defeat are HB2403 and HB2347 which together limit itemized tax deductions and change the way gross, taxable income is calculated, so
    
Tax Shake Down
    Oklahoma Tax Shakedown Oklahomans pay more income tax. Additionally, Governor Fallin wants to charge sales tax on over 150 services such as funerals, insurance, utility bills, even child care and nursing home services.

  Contact your State Representative TODAY and tell them to vote NO on these and all proposed tax increases. Oklahoma needs to cut spending, NOT increase taxes!

 The emblem on Oklahoma's revered state flag includes the prominent centerpiece of a smoking pipe. If this device is so fundamental to who we are, as a state, then why is there so much drama, lately, about the bedrock tradition involving a pipe?

  Every culture has it's own traditions about what to smoke and how to smoke it. But never has there been so much consternation and obsession about telling folks:

• where to smoke,
• how much to smoke
• what device to use
• how much tax to pay for that smoke

  Norman, Oklahoma has had an idiotic series of police raids and felony lawsuits because one 'mom & pops' shop decided to sell exotic and artistic pipes. Prosecutors are still abusing this family's shop.
​   Parks and recreation areas ban small smoking devices, but welcome campfires and BBQ smokers
   The most contentious of all legislative proposals have been fought over whether or not to tax a customer another $15 for each cartoon of cigarettes. 
  Why are we acting so hostile to our own people for participating in an activity that we prominently identify with on our own state flag?

This afternoon, the Democrat House leader, Scott Inman, accused Senate President Pro-Tem, Mike Schultz a liar. 
Democrats were in private discussions with  republican legislative leaders and Gov. Fallin. When Inman stepped out to discuss the Republican budget offer with the Senate Democrat leader, they were eventually called back and told that the deal was off; "Because the Republican rank & file members refused to support it.
  But Inman claims that the Republican leadership never did present the proposal to the Republican caucus of either house.

​  While still a good distance away from a solution to maintain current budgeting numbers, the House of Representatives is still looking for loose change under any proverbial seat cushion they can find.
  The process has become stressful and testing the nerves of many. this is when we find the real character of so many whom we entrusted with this task.

There are 3 budget blueprints being mulled at the Oklahoma Capitol.

• The Fallin Budget, which the House & Senate leadership are seeking to fund. It calls for huge spending increases and massive tax expansions.
• The Democrat Budget, which calls for massive increases in oil production taxes. If passed, they would support a consensus of other proposals and possibly could make the largest expansion in spending in the state's history.
• The OCPA Budget proposal. It adds fuel taxes, a smaller cigarette tax, and a wind tax. But they also propose cuts of $1.35 billion. 

 Be sure to follow the "Tax Week" drama on Webcast, at our LawMakers Journal page.

  A Tulsa jury decided after 9 hours, that Betty Shelby did not commit 1st Degree Manslaughter.

  She was charged in the death of a motorist who appeared incoherent and not effectively communicating with her, when she came upon him, in North Tulsa.

  Tulsa did not riot or threaten retribution. We awaited the judicial process and tonight we heard the verdict.

  As I write this, I'm listening to the screams of distraught Tulsans of every color, expressing their outrage with the decision.

  What many of them are saying is that cops often get by with doing things that private citizens would go to prison for.

  Some believe that the district Attorney, Steve Kunsweiler, overcharged by accusing Shelby of 1st Degree Manslaughter. Many Tulsans believe the narrative that a spooked cop fired reflexively when a taser gun fired within inches of  Betty Shelby's ear.
  
  Shelby fired a lethal round within a split second of the taser.

  OCPA is Oklahoma's premier conservative thinktank. Their research team compiled a far less painful roadmap for fiscal austerity and reforms. Here is their introduction..

​  With just over a week until the end of the regular legislative session, some lawmakers have proposed massive tax increases, including a plan to cap personal itemized deductions that would dramatically increase personal income taxes on many Oklahoma families and small businesses.

  OCPA released today a budget plan to fill Oklahoma’s $878 million budget gap and give teachers a pay raise—while respecting and protecting Oklahoma families and their own budgets.

  The balanced budget plan proposed by OCPA includes more than $1.3 billion in savings—including items from OCPA’s “Freedom Agenda” published in January and “First Steps” list released in February—and $337 million in tax increases, including an increase in the tax on gasoline and diesel, a 67-cent per pack cigarette tax increase, and a wind production tax. Together, the lower spending and increased taxes add up to nearly $1.7 billion.

  Last week a young Republican party leader narrowly won a special election race against a Democrat who got a lot of help from outside the district. Activists with the Teacher Caucus flooded the voters with phone calls, seeking to discredit Taylor for his support of charter schools.

  Zack Taylor did not face a recount, so his election was certified on Monday.

  Tuesday he was sworn in and took his place in the House chamber.

  His first substantive vote was on a massive packages of consumption taxes. Politicians used to call these "sin taxes".  Liquor, tobacco, and fuel probably could be used for detrimental purposes (preachers are still trying to find scripture where these substances are declared outright 'sin').

  House District 28, in central Oklahoma, had a vacancy when Tom Newell resigned days after being re-elected, to take a lobbyist job with a Florida-based group.

  Sooner Politics spoke with Taylor on the morning after his electoral success. We have every reason to believe he is solidly committed to party values and stays closely connected to the Republican grassroots in Seminole County.

   Tonight the Oklahoma House stayed in a marathon session and suspended the rules in order to move on a massive tax and spending increase. The Bill had not yet been printed & distributed when the members were first asked to throw aside a key House rule in order to give the committee report a same-day floor vote
​
  Again, several legislators switched to "No" votes seconds before the roll was closed; so as to cloak their intent on the official record.

  The vote barely reached majority support. 51 members decided it was worthy of a ballot measure. The key House author, Leslie Osborn, is reserving her right to move to reconsider the proposal at a later time.

  This measure only raises $47 million in Oil Production Taxes over 3 years. But in just 2018 alone, it raises over $218 million from Tobacco Taxes and over $171 million in Motor Fuel Taxes.

​  It is clear that the Petroleum Industry is being protected while retailers are not.

  The deal includes huge new spending  on common education.
  It hikes fuel taxes, sales taxes, oil production taxes, and several other regressive measures.
  The economy will no doubt be greatly burdened with carrying the load of an ever-growing state government.

  Echols started out the floor procedures by moving to suspend the chambers rules which do no allow for a vote on legislation not yet, written, distributed, or read by the members of of the House.

It took some suspicious maneuvers to get the motion to suspend the rules to attain the 2/3 vote. It seems to have come down to Chuck Strohm & Sean Roberts (who just happen to be the co-chairs of the Platform Caucus).

  The Oklahoma House of Representatives just passed a 1% tax on the retailers who  are required to collect and transfer sales taxes. It was a key feature of the collecting burden that our state placed on each retailer. In return for collecting and holding this money, the retailer was allowed a 1% discount for all the manpower and capital risk involved in being that agent for the state.
  As a result, all retailers are now going to be held responsible for all the risks and manpower. But no reimbursement will compensate businesses for the servitude. 
  By a technicality, the house leadership determined that  HB2367 is not a tax increase, even though real people know that it definitely is. the hike will likely start in July, if it becomes law.
  This added risk borne on the backs of our own retailers is one of many factors harming the economic environment. It will either be passed on to the consumers or deplete the competitiveness of our brick & mortar shops who already face stiff competition from web commerce giants like Amazon.
  Earlier this year our governor struck a special deal with Amazon whereby they claim that some sales taxes will voluntarily be collected. It's not known if Amazon will still get their sizable cut of the sales tax they charge Oklahomans; or if this will potentially break the deal that was just made.

  By a vote of 63-34 with Sean Roberts abstaining, the 98 seated members of the House of Representatives failed to reach the 75% threshold to pass new revenue legislation.
  But the majority passage does allow it to be placed on the ballot of the Nov. 2018  general election.

  The new tax of roughly $1.50 per pack of cigarettes would be designated for various healthcare interests.

  The House Democrats did not vote as a block like they did last year.  The Platform Caucus was also not completely monolithic.
​
  Gov. Fallin returned to the House floor like she did last year. And once again, her presence may have been counter-productive to her desired ends. 

A careful observation of the house video reveals that 3 Republicans switched their votes at the last minute. All three of them; McDugle, Park, and Frix; saw that the tax was failing, and decided that they opposed it.

They will likely be asked about this by their constituents and others.

  Oklahoma has some well-run private universities. But they operate at  a huge disadvantage, because our state legislature is undermining their very existence. How can they keep a campus operational when their faculty pays taxes which fund their own competition?
  About one out of every six dollars that the legislature spends, is a welfare payment to our state-operated colleges. 
  Oklahoma has a huge industry in colleges. But we have far more of them on the public welfare rolls than in the private sector. The legislature is just one of the funding sources that colleges aggressively tap into. Federal 'PAL' grants are perhaps the largest welfare checks that universities live off of.  Big corporate benefactors, federal research grants, and direct tuition payments are some of the major ways that these behemoths continue to feed off of.

  There are some constitutional duties that the state is derelict in attending to. Some of those mandates are costing our people dearly. Our mental health mandates are a glaring example. We have turned away the seriously ill. It has resulted in our county jails being overcrowded with the psychotic populations.  It is the worst affront to civil rights that we have endured in the past 50 years. Our own legislature has to own this issue.

  ​​“Efforts to cap itemized deductions in order to increase personal income taxes by more than $100 million on hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans directly oppose the promises by conservatives to do the tough work of going line by line through every expenditure of government and to reform government so that it lives within the current tax burden in Oklahoma, especially during a tough economy. These efforts should stop immediately."
​

  ​“Oklahoma’s economy is hurting due to the recessionary effects of OPEC’s energy price war and stagnant economic growth due to the failed tax, spend, and regulate policies for 8 years under the Obama administration."
​

  Leftists have had a very frustrating time when they try to boycott businesses for their owners' social values policies. When Chick Fil-A's founder expressed his traditional Christian faith regarding what a biblical marriage is, the left went after the whole corporation.
​
  But when former Gov. Mike Huckabee suggested that conservatives also express their solidarity, the corporation's stock values exploded.
​
  I ran across a link on social media. A fella posted a link to a radical left website which was calling for a massive worldwide boycott of "right-leaning" corporations. I'm reposting the list as a "badge of honor".

  'Liberals Unite' posted the following...