Oklahoma Lawmakers Approve Wasting Cash strapped State Coffeers

[Nbadan]

The state is so poor it can hardly keeps schools running, but it has the money to restrict a women's rights....

Oklahoma lawmakers approve bill to revoke licenses of abortion doctors
Source: Reuters
Oklahoma lawmakers approve bill to revoke licenses of abortion doctors
By Heide Brandes
April 22, 2016


OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - An Oklahoma bill that could revoke the license of any doctor who performs an abortion has headed to the governor, with opponents saying the measure in unconstitutional and promising a legal battle against the cash-strapped state if it is approved.

In the Republican-dominated legislature, the state's House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a Senate bill late on Thursday. Governor Mary Fallin, a Republican, has not yet indicated whether she will sign it.

Under the bill, doctors who perform abortions would risk losing their medical licenses. Exemptions would be given for those who perform the procedure for reasons including protecting the mother or removing a miscarried fetus.

"This is our proper function, to protect life,” said Senator Nathan Dahm, the Republican who authored the bill.


Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/oklahoma-lawmakers-approve-bill-revoke-licenses-abortion-doctors-171802892.html?nhp=1

We need a new federal law...This law would automatically remove the sponsor(s) of any legislation that is found to be unconstitutional by the courts, from office and ban them from ever running again. Lawmakers removed under this provision would have the right to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court; their sole defense would be to argue that the law is indeed constitutional. This provision would apply to both State Legislatures and the U.S. Congress.

[boutons_deux]

Oklahoma can no longer afford irrational Obamacare hatred

Republican policymakers are certain they want to reject every possible aspect of the ACA, until it dawns on them this posture ends up hurting their state for no reason. The Associated Press turned the spotlight on Oklahoma (https://www.yahoo.com/news/surprising-turnabout-oklahoma-eyes-medicaid-expansion-051849585--politics.html)today:

Despite bitter resistance in Oklahoma for years to President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, Republican leaders in this conservative state are now confronting something that alarms them even more: a huge $1.3 billion hole in the budget that threatens to do widespread damage to the state’s health care system.

So, in what would be the grandest about-face among rightward leaning states, Oklahoma is now moving toward a plan to expand its Medicaid program to bring in billions of federal dollars from President Obama’s new health care system.


This shift has been predicted for years, though it’s taking longer than health care advocates had hoped. Just how long can a state like Oklahoma spite itself, on purpose, because it doesn’t like the president? What would it take for officials in the Sooner State to succumb to arithmetic?

In this case, Oklahoma’s big budget shortfall, and the prospect of closing state-subsidized nursing homes, was enough to start changing Republicans’ minds.

Craig Jones, the president of the Oklahoma Hospital Association, told the AP,

“We are nearing a colossal collapse of our health care system in Oklahoma.

We have doctors turning away patients.

We have people with mental illnesses who are going without treatment.

Hospitals are closing, and this is only going to get worse this summer if the Legislature does not act immediately to turn this around.”

Warnings like these appear to have raised eyebrows, even among far-right policymakers.

The AP report added (https://www.yahoo.com/news/surprising-turnabout-oklahoma-eyes-medicaid-expansion-051849585--politics.html), “Despite furious opposition by conservative groups, Republican Gov. Mary Fallin and some GOP legislative leaders are pushing the plan, and support appears to be growing in the overwhelmingly Republican Legislature.”

For those keeping score, 31 states (http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/31-down-19-go-medicaid-expansion) have adopted Medicaid expansion through the ACA, and Oklahoma would be the 32nd if the state proceeds on its current course. South Dakota, Wyoming, Alabama, and Idaho are among the remaining holdouts eyeing (http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/31-down-19-go-medicaid-expansion) a similar change in direction.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/oklahoma-can-no-longer-afford-irrational-obamacare-hatred?cid=sm_fb_maddow

You Repugs and rightwingnuts fuck up everything you MISgovern.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

The God delusion is the root cause of this as with many of the country's problems.

[TDMVPDPOY]

wheres all that meth money?

[rmt]

Those states that accept Obamacare Medicaid will soon have financial trouble. Many more than expected will sign up and when the federal government pulls back on support, the states will be on the hook. And unlike the federal government, don't most states have to have balanced budgets? (they can't just print more money like the feds) Then, where will the money be diverted from - pensions? no. welfare, protection, transportation? these don't even add up to what is devoted to health care before Obamacare Medicaid. Education? probably. All for what - to give able-bodied adults without children sh***y Medicaid (and they still end up going to the ER).

[boutons_deux]

When the oil boom went bust, Oklahoma protected drillers and squeezed schools

Oilmen won a big victory when legislators made permanent one of the juiciest tax breaks in the United States. Schools, meanwhile, are having to cut classes, administrators and teachers to make up a growing revenue shortfall.

After intense lobbying, Oklahoma’s oilmen scored a victory two years ago. State lawmakers voted to keep in place some of the lowest taxes on oil and gas production in the United States - a break worth $470 million in fiscal year 2015 alone.
The state’s schools haven’t been so fortunate. In Newcastle, 23 miles from the capital of Oklahoma City, John Cerny recently learned that the school attended by his five-year-old granddaughter, Adelynn, will open just four days a week next year. The Bridge Creek school district will slash spending because of a projected $1.3 billion state budget shortfall next year.

http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-oklahoma-bust/

[boutons_deux]

Oil Battles Wind on the Great Plains

The wind industry’s rising success in Oklahoma has kicked off a high-dollar lobbying fight by fossil fuels executives determined to regain ground.

Wind now provides 18 percent of the state’s electricity, a higher share (http://www.awea.org/MediaCenter/pressrelease.aspx?ItemNumber=8463) nationally than any states besides Iowa, Kansas, and South Dakota. In many Oklahoma counties, wind energy equipment—including more than 2,000 turbines statewide (http://www.okstatechamber.com/sites/www.okstatechamber.com/files/RevisedReport_WindStudy9_3_15.pdf)—has put cash in the hands of landowners and driven up property values, freeing up money for schools and public services.

But a handful of oil and gas executives have set out to trim the wind industry’s sails. Starting in March, billboards began popping up along the Interstate in Oklahoma City, near the capitol building and the Petunia well. Their origin wasn’t clear at first, but their message was: The tax credits that have spurred Oklahoma’s wind energy boomlet are bad for the state.

they were paid for by the Windfall Coalition (http://www.thewindfallcoalition.com/), a nonprofit group started by Harold Hamm, the billionaire founder of oil-and-gas behemoth Continental Resources. Other supporters include Pete Delaney, the former chief executive of coal company OGE, and Jeff McDougall, president of JMA Energy Co., an oil-and-gas producer.

Hamm argues that wind (https://stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/2016/03/17/as-state-finances-stumble-oil-and-gas-leaders-rally-to-end-tax-credits-for-wind/), an industry no longer in its infancy, should be subject to the same production tax rate as oil and gas (http://oklahomawatch.org/2014/05/22/oil-and-gas-tax-bill-clears-house-senate/)—2 percent in the first three years, and 7 percent after that (http://okpolicy.org/understanding-the-new-tax-rates-on-oil-and-gas/). He also wants to see the end of all state tax incentives for wind energy.

a dramatic rise in earthquakes (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/29/us/earthquake-risk-in-oklahoma-and-kansas-comparable-to-california.html) linked to the drilling technique known as fracking, a raft of tax breaks (http://okpolicy.org/even-amid-energy-bust-oklahomas-oil-gas-tax-breaks-exceed-400-million-per-year/) that exceed those given to wind, and millions in state spending each year to import coal (http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/05/inside-war-on-coal-000002) from Wyoming. Industry critics say the problem is not wind, but the influence that Hamm and his coalition’s influence in the Greco-Roman halls of the Capitol.

The greed of oil and gas in Oklahoma and the ineptitude of politicians is like nothing you’ve seen.”

Industry backers also say that many of the Windfall Coalition’s arguments rely on misleading math, anti-foreign sentiment, and a heaping helping of hypocrisy. “They are trying to destroy wind energy at all cost, lying included,”

Around the same time that Oklahoma’s politicians were looking to hike taxes on wind, they were busy slashing taxes on the wealthy, and on oil and gas. In 2014, in the era of $100-a-barrel oil, the legislature cut production taxes on new wells from 7 percent to 2 percent (http://oklahomawatch.org/2014/05/22/oil-and-gas-tax-bill-clears-house-senate/), after three oil companies, including Hamm’s, threatened (http://newsok.com/article/4746060) to haul up their rigs and drill elsewhere (http://oklahomawatch.org/2014/05/20/oil-firms-reports-strike-different-tone-than-ceos-warnings-on-tax/). Legislators have also reduced income taxes (http://okpolicy.org/the-cost-of-tax-cuts-in-oklahoma/) on Oklahoma’s top earners, from 6.65 percent in 2004 to 5 percent beginning this year.

According to the Oklahoma Policy Institute, a think tank, tax breaks and cuts to oil and gas cost the state more than $600 million last year (http://okpolicy.org/even-amid-energy-bust-oklahomas-oil-gas-tax-breaks-exceed-400-million-per-year/), significantly more than those for wind. One break, in particular, seems made for satire.

The state offers a rebate to wells that lose money (http://oklahomawatch.org/2016/03/30/unprofitable-wells-now-a-big-tax-break/), meaning that Oklahoma is subsidizing oil producers to pump even more crude into an already oversaturated market.

That break would cost taxpayers around $158 million next year, according to the Oklahoma Tax Commission. Last Thursday, the state Senate voted to suspend the oil credit, and the House is expected to take it up soon.

http://prospect.org/article/oil-battles-wind-great-plains

[CosmicCowboy]

Oil Battles Wind on the Great Plains

The wind industry’s rising success in Oklahoma has kicked off a high-dollar lobbying fight by fossil fuels executives determined to regain ground.

Wind now provides 18 percent of the state’s electricity, a higher share (http://www.awea.org/MediaCenter/pressrelease.aspx?ItemNumber=8463) nationally than any states besides Iowa, Kansas, and South Dakota. In many Oklahoma counties, wind energy equipment—including more than 2,000 turbines statewide (http://www.okstatechamber.com/sites/www.okstatechamber.com/files/RevisedReport_WindStudy9_3_15.pdf)—has put cash in the hands of landowners and driven up property values, freeing up money for schools and public services.

But a handful of oil and gas executives have set out to trim the wind industry’s sails. Starting in March, billboards began popping up along the Interstate in Oklahoma City, near the capitol building and the Petunia well. Their origin wasn’t clear at first, but their message was: The tax credits that have spurred Oklahoma’s wind energy boomlet are bad for the state.

they were paid for by the Windfall Coalition (http://www.thewindfallcoalition.com/), a nonprofit group started by Harold Hamm, the billionaire founder of oil-and-gas behemoth Continental Resources. Other supporters include Pete Delaney, the former chief executive of coal company OGE, and Jeff McDougall, president of JMA Energy Co., an oil-and-gas producer.

Hamm argues that wind (https://stateimpact.npr.org/oklahoma/2016/03/17/as-state-finances-stumble-oil-and-gas-leaders-rally-to-end-tax-credits-for-wind/), an industry no longer in its infancy, should be subject to the same production tax rate as oil and gas (http://oklahomawatch.org/2014/05/22/oil-and-gas-tax-bill-clears-house-senate/)—2 percent in the first three years, and 7 percent after that (http://okpolicy.org/understanding-the-new-tax-rates-on-oil-and-gas/). He also wants to see the end of all state tax incentives for wind energy.

a dramatic rise in earthquakes (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/29/us/earthquake-risk-in-oklahoma-and-kansas-comparable-to-california.html) linked to the drilling technique known as fracking, a raft of tax breaks (http://okpolicy.org/even-amid-energy-bust-oklahomas-oil-gas-tax-breaks-exceed-400-million-per-year/) that exceed those given to wind, and millions in state spending each year to import coal (http://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2015/05/inside-war-on-coal-000002) from Wyoming. Industry critics say the problem is not wind, but the influence that Hamm and his coalition’s influence in the Greco-Roman halls of the Capitol.

The greed of oil and gas in Oklahoma and the ineptitude of politicians is like nothing you’ve seen.”

Industry backers also say that many of the Windfall Coalition’s arguments rely on misleading math, anti-foreign sentiment, and a heaping helping of hypocrisy. “They are trying to destroy wind energy at all cost, lying included,”

Around the same time that Oklahoma’s politicians were looking to hike taxes on wind, they were busy slashing taxes on the wealthy, and on oil and gas. In 2014, in the era of $100-a-barrel oil, the legislature cut production taxes on new wells from 7 percent to 2 percent (http://oklahomawatch.org/2014/05/22/oil-and-gas-tax-bill-clears-house-senate/), after three oil companies, including Hamm’s, threatened (http://newsok.com/article/4746060) to haul up their rigs and drill elsewhere (http://oklahomawatch.org/2014/05/20/oil-firms-reports-strike-different-tone-than-ceos-warnings-on-tax/). Legislators have also reduced income taxes (http://okpolicy.org/the-cost-of-tax-cuts-in-oklahoma/) on Oklahoma’s top earners, from 6.65 percent in 2004 to 5 percent beginning this year.

According to the Oklahoma Policy Institute, a think tank, tax breaks and cuts to oil and gas cost the state more than $600 million last year (http://okpolicy.org/even-amid-energy-bust-oklahomas-oil-gas-tax-breaks-exceed-400-million-per-year/), significantly more than those for wind. One break, in particular, seems made for satire.

The state offers a rebate to wells that lose money (http://oklahomawatch.org/2016/03/30/unprofitable-wells-now-a-big-tax-break/), meaning that Oklahoma is subsidizing oil producers to pump even more crude into an already oversaturated market.

That break would cost taxpayers around $158 million next year, according to the Oklahoma Tax Commission. Last Thursday, the state Senate voted to suspend the oil credit, and the House is expected to take it up soon.

http://prospect.org/article/oil-battles-wind-great-plains




Boo, your reference sites suck donkey dicks. only brainless bots like you can't see through the bullshit.

[Winehole23]

what bullshit? energy companies don't get tax subsidies?

[Winehole23]

I'll certainly agree boutons goes for activist journalism -- most posters here do -- but what's your particular gripe?

[CosmicCowboy]

If you actually read the article on the tax rebates, it's not a "subsidy" as the article claims. It's returning some of the taxes they have already paid in profitable years when they are losing money to operate at current oil prices. It's like taking losses on your tax return in any business. They can be applied to profits/taxes paid in other years. The only other option is to take the temporarily money losing wells out of commission and plug them which eliminates any future tax revenue from the well forever.

[Winehole23]

thanks for responding in detail. that's much more persuasive than waving your hands at the citation and crying "bullshit!"

[Winehole23]

you could make up some new insults. accusing everyone you don't like of mental retardation and stealing oxygen may be satisfying for you, but the monotony is beginning to grate.

[boutons_deux]

Oklahoma doesn’t ‘do all this craziness by accident’

The Washington Post reported (https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/amid-fiscal-crisis-oklahomas-legislators-create-smoke-screen-critics-say/2016/05/24/fa5795b0-21b8-11e6-8690-f14ca9de2972_story.html) yesterday, meanwhile, that a similar dynamic is unfolding in Oklahoma – a state where President Obama lost literally every county, twice.


Some public schools are starting summer vacation several days early.

Others are contemplating a four-day week to cut costs.

And more than 200 teachers in Oklahoma City were handed pink slips in March.

But instead of addressing a burgeoning budget crisis that threatens public education and other critical state services,

Oklahoma lawmakers have been busy debating proposals

to criminalize abortion,

police students’ access to public bathrooms and

impeach President Obama.


In theory, Oklahoma’s GOP-led state government should be focused on the state’s $1.3 billion budget shortfall, the result of tax breaks and reduced oil revenue. But much of the focus has been on the culture war, not the state’s financial mess.

During a recent debate in the state House over an obviously unconstitutional anti-abortion proposal – which was later vetoed – state Rep. David Brumbaugh (R) told (http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/abortion-god-legal-battle) his colleagues,

“Everybody talks about [Oklahoma’s] $1.3 billion deficit. If we take care of the morality, God will take care of the economy.”

Wishful thinking about divine intervention hasn’t worked out in Oklahoma’s favor.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/oklahoma-doesnt-do-all-craziness-accident?cid=sm_fb_maddow

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/oklahoma-doesnt-do-all-craziness-accident?cid=sm_fb_maddow

also file under "Sharia news"

[boutons_deux]

You Repugs and rightwingnutjobs HATE "politically correct"? :lol

From self-destructively, insanely Repug RED Oklahoma:

WHETHER OR NOT NATIVE STUDENT, JONATHAN BIRDSHEAD, CAN WEAR BEAD GRADUATION CAP TONIGHT

http://nativenewsonline.net/currents/meeting-underway-whether-not-native-student-jonathan-birdshead-can-wear-bead-graduation-cap-tonight/

[boutons_deux]

Coal ash bedevils Oklahoma town, revealing weakness of EPA rule

After a billion-gallon spill in Tennessee, the agency sought to regulate the often-toxic byproduct of burning coal. It largely failed.

BOKOSHE, Oklahoma — Here in the land of wind-whipped, rolling plains, the gray dust, which sparkles in just the right light, seems inescapable. Residents of this town near the Arkansas line say they have spotted it on their grass, trees, ponds, barns, furniture and cars.

The source of Bokoshe’s enduring misery is coal ash, an often-toxic byproduct of burning coal for electricity. Clouds of it, swirling like tornadoes at times, descend upon people while they sit in their yards and mow their lawns. The powdery material clogs swimming pools, air conditioners and chicken coops.

The ash, which contains harmful metals such as arsenic, chromium and lead, comes from a state-permitted disposal pit — operated by a company named Making Money Having Fun — fed by a power plant eight miles outside of town. Residents here began complaining about the dust to state regulators in 1998.

More than a decade later, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency got involved and in 2014 finally acknowledged that the pit has shown “evidence” of escaping coal ash dust. But the grime that coats the town has not gone.

https://www.publicintegrity.org/2016/06/30/19829/coal-ash-bedevils-oklahoma-town-revealing-weakness-epa-rule

That's the kind of EPA regulations and enforcement that Repugs adore.