Earlier this year, a vagabond group of social misfits, deviants and outcasts filed an awful intit....oops... sorry... for a second I thought I was writing for Continental Resource newsletter – The Fracker. Let's start over...
Earlier this year, a group of socially conscious rogue oil industry leaders – we'll call them The Oil Slickers –announced they were launching an initiative petition that would raise Oklahoma's insanely low and vehemently protected gross production taxes from 2% to 7%. The money from the tax increase would then be used to fund pay raises for greedy, selfish teachers.
Naturally, our Oil Overlords think raising taxes to reasonable, regional averages to help fund education is wrong. They're now fighting the petition in courts.
Via NewsOK.com:
The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Thursday heard two challenges to a proposed ballot initiative that would raise taxes on oil and natural gas production to provide a pay raise for teachers.
Led by oil and natural gas industry representatives, the challenges centered on the clarity of the proposal and its description, and on whether the initiative would violate the state's constitutional requirement that state questions embrace only one subject.
An attorney for the initiative proponents, however, said the language is clear and legal and that voters should have a chance to decide on the issue.
If approved by voters in November, State Question 795 would set the gross production tax on oil and natural gas at 7 percent. The tax rate currently is 2 percent for the first three years of production before it increases to 7 percent. The additional tax revenue would be used to pay for a $4,000 teacher pay raise.
Proponents are facing a tight deadline because they first must gain nearly 124,000 legal signatures in time to begin the process of getting the initiative on the ballot.