As a lobbyist, each session is different from the one before. Sure the mechanisms are in place to assure its uniformity, but trust me when I say each session is different.
The OKFB public policy team found ourselves going from the offensive last session to playing major defense against policy decisions that affect you as members and our company as a whole. We had to get to work early this year and put to rest a home office tax credit bill that would have been a $1 million yearly impact to our county offices. This is money that we already put directly back into our communities and offices. If the government wants it back so they can grow government, then we say let’s leave it in the communities where it belongs.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest fights of the session was over an unnecessary storm shelter bill that, if enacted, would have been potentially the largest land tax increase in state history. We at Oklahoma Farm Bureau are proud of the effort we and other companies have made to donate millions of private dollars to fund storm shelters in the schools that need them most. While the politics of this bill got a little out of hand, at the end of the day, we prevailed and protected property taxes from an unnecessary increase.
As I stated many times this spring, this was a session filled with politics and not a lot of policy. Your Oklahoma Farm Bureau was successful with a number of issues that we will follow up with in other articles, and we will get a chance to talk about them face to face as we meet this summer. For now, know that your voice is strong at the Capitol, and that is because you are involved. We are only able to do what we do at the Capitol because you do your work in the country and let members know you are paying attention. We thank you for letting us serve you at the Capitol and look forward to seeing you soon.
