Smugzug

If you’re going to the Thunder game tonight, and you own a Jalen Williams #8 jersey, I’d suggest that this evening would be a good night to wear it.

Re: A very important message about State Question 847 🧵 I’ve been in and around Oklahoma City governance for two decades, and I receive more resident feedback than anyone, so I make this simple observation with a lot of experience supporting it: Though there are many funding priorities we all share, the most common requests I receive are requests to better fund streets and education. To be clear, city government in Oklahoma has no jurisdiction over education, so I am in a much better position to fund streets than I am education (though I used my public platform and several weeks of my life to campaign for the $1 billion OKCPS bond issue in 2022). Now, to characterize streets and education as the top priorities for many residents is not to imply that we could or should abandon other funding priorities. We have to fund many other things as well, like public safety and non-streets infrastructure. And at the city level, we have to remember that tax dollars must come from somewhere, so we also have to spend some of our resources seeding activities that spur economic activity. No, by saying this, I’m merely making the point that, in my experience, if a resident ever starts a sentence with “What about…” those words are probably going to be followed by the words “streets” or “education.” Now, it should be self-evident that to increase funding for streets or education, we as residents would have to pay more in taxes. Though that should be a self-evident reality, we are surrounded in public life these days by politicians who try to sell us a fantasy that somehow we can magically pay less and get more. I don’t like paying taxes any more than anyone else, but I also like having streets, schools, police officers, firefighters and many other amenities funded by taxation. I’m a fiscal conservative who wants a limited and efficient government, but I don’t profess to desire no government. Why do I bring all of this up today? Because on Tuesday, November 3rd, you are being asked by the Oklahoma Legislature to significantly reduce the funding for streets and education. Specifically, you are being asked to do this through State Question 847. The Oklahoma Legislature is perhaps not going to tell you the real effects of State Question 847 on the services most important to you, but I am. If you wish to have our streets and schools drop in quality from their current levels, that is your choice. But I can’t in good conscience let you vote on State Question 847 without giving you a serious explanation of what you are being asked to do. Reading the actual text of State Question 847 will probably give you a headache, but the basic outcome is that, over time, you will eventually be charged a little less in property tax. I don’t think its authors would mind that characterization. In fact, I think they welcome it. The problem is, no one has also told you that your property taxes in Oklahoma City primarily fund the two highest priorities you have - streets and education. And there is no method under current Oklahoma law to fill the financial hole that will be created by State Question 847. If you vote yes on State Question 847, you are directly and explicitly putting less money into the two functions of government that you tell me that that you care about the most - streets and education. To even better explain this, here’s a more detailed explanation of where your property taxes go in Oklahoma City. For this example, let’s pretend you are paying an annual property tax bill of $1,000 (yes, I know most bills are probably larger that that, but I’m just trying to keep the math simple).