We, the members of the Muskogee County Republican Party’s County Committee, strongly oppose any proposed weakening of the Oklahoma Constitution’s taxpayer protections found in Article V, Section 33. Revenue increases through raising taxes, removing exemptions, or increasing fees, ought to be approved by the majority of voters in a general election, or by a 75% vote of each of the two chambers of the Oklahoma Legislature. Our state constitution works best when the legislature partners with the voters in this manner.
Rather than seeking to loosen the taxpayer protections implemented by SQ640, we demand that the legislature trust the voters to make wise revenue decisions in the event that the legislature or governor believe they have compelling reasons to increase taxes and are unable to achieve the required 75% threshold in legislative voting.
We will only support candidates who respect the voters’ proper place in deciding revenue increase proposals and who will seek to uphold or strengthen the taxpayer protections found in Article V, Section 33 of the Oklahoma Constitution, not weaken them by lowering the standards entailed therein. We believe that the constitutional language intended for the voters to generally be a part of that process.
We direct the County chairman to distribute copies of this resolution on the MCRP’s social media, email list, and also to the Republican legislators representing portions of Muskogee County, the Oklahoma Republican Party chairman, the Oklahoma House Speaker, the Oklahoma Senate President, and the Governor of Oklahoma.
State Question 640 was a citizen-initiated ballot measure that was approved by Oklahoma voters in a special election in March 1992 with 56.2 percent of the vote. The measure amended Article 5, Section 33 of the Oklahoma Constitution to add restrictions on how revenue bills can become law. Under SQ 640, a revenue bill can only become law if: (1) it is approved by a 3/4th vote of both legislative chambers and is signed by the Governor; or (2) it is referred by the legislature to a vote of the people at the next general election and receives majority approval. absolutely NOT !let it stand ! and NO Taxes ! this in its self a Kick the can measure to get and give legislator the right to raise Taxes on the tax payers and a majority is indeed what is needed . Raieing Taxes will not solve this states problems , spoke with Lamb and he agrees , the problems is not taxes is legislators over spending and blaming the tax payer for their mis-becoming and wanting the us to cover their A**es and I say NO !
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