The rumors started after the company released a statement about its lawsuit about the parts of the Affordable Care Act that it doesn’t like, namely the parts having to do with contraception (you know, the part Hobby Lobby’s owners, the Green family, maybe, possibly don’t understand). Hobby Lobby Inc. claims the healthcare mandate goes against […]
taxes
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Capital kumbaya
While Sen. Tom Coburn has gone out of his way at times to be the bee in President Barack Obama’s bonnet, both have said they are friends and have a great respect for one another. With Coburn’s departure from the Senate coming soon due to his battle with cancer, USA Today reported Obama recently name-checked […]
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In reform, real focus on needs on students
Oklahoma’s education debate spends a lot of time on a few familiar subjects: education funding vs. tax cuts, vouchers and charters vs. traditional public schools and high-stakes testing vs. letting teachers teach. What’s too often missing from these debates is any consideration of the needs of real students. We’ve lost sight of the reasons kids […]
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Our taxes are better than yours
The best-ranked component for the state was property taxes. Oklahoma has the 4th lowest state and local collections average, at $642 per person. Among states with an individual income tax, Oklahoma was the 22nd lowest. The state’s corporate income tax ranked 17th lowest, down from 9th lowest in 2010. We also ranked 36th for 2013. […]
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Brake dancing with facts
State employees, including the corrections officers and state troopers who protect us, haven’t received a pay raise since 2006, but our country-club Republicans allocated $7 million to needlessly remodel Capitol legislative offices, including a conference room “complete with a catering area and offices.” We incarcerate over 26,000 people (27 percent for drug offenses), costing hundreds […]
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The good, the bad and the goofy
In other words: situation normal. Thirty-six months from now, you’ll enjoy an average tax reduction of 35 cents a day. Gov. Mary Fallin says that is necessary for Oklahoma to be more attractive to business decision-makers. Thirty-five cents daily more in our pockets with an effective date of 2016 doesn’t meet the smell test. Regardless, […]
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Big, bloated government
Let’s start with Mickey’s home in higher education. Unlike most states with a consolidated higher ed system, ours is fragmented, with nearly 30 separate colleges and universities, each with its own president, squadrons of vice presidents, deans, provosts and other administrators and enrollment and business offices. Bring all the two-year colleges under one statewide community […]
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Death by a thousand cuts
Oh, but it can. The state Legislature this session passed House Bill 2032 to decrease the maximum Oklahoma personal income tax rate from 5.25 percent to 5 percent in 2015 and then again to 4.85 percent in 2016 if there is sufficient revenue growth. When fully implemented, the Oklahoma Tax Commission estimates the measure will […]
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Rich folks pay plenty
Something seems to be mistakenly, if not conveniently, missed in Tiffee’s logic. “The poor paying more?” I don’t think so. The following are pretty close estimates of the bottom of the 20 percent bottoms and the bottom of the top 1 percent’s respective annual gross income levels, those being $25,000 for the “poor” and $250,000 […]
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Moneyball
Thunder majority owner Clay Bennett Credit: Shannon Cornman Home games at the Chesapeake Energy Arena routinely sell out. Signs of Thunder mania, from car flags to T-shirts, are everywhere. Lengthy, glowing profiles about the team and its relationship to OKC have appeared everywhere from The New York Times to USA Today. The team’s devoted following […]