1889 Institute: Oklahoma’s tax system can be improved

PRINCIPLES FOR SOUND TAX POLICY

Oklahoma’s tax system can be improved.

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK (July 15, 2021) – The 1889 Institute has published “The Why and How of Sound Tax Policy,” an exploration into the principles that should be followed in formulating tax policy. The study’s author, Luke Tucker, who is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at the University of Oklahoma, as well as 1889 Institute intern, looked across the ideological spectrum, and found an amazing amount of consensus among economists on this issue. He found that there are only four basic principles that should be followed in formulating tax policy:

- Neutrality – keep taxes from fundamentally changing economic calculations 

- Transparency – make it so people know what they are paying in taxes

- Simplicity – make it easy to comply with tax law

- Predictability – make it so it is easy to know what one will owe in taxes.

“Luke brought a fresh set of eyes to this issue, taking nothing for granted and assuming nothing in advance,” said Byron Schlomach, director of the 1889 Institute and himself a PhD economist. “Luke did an excellent job of looking deeper and explaining why these principles matter.”

Column: Still Reason to Celebrate the 1889 Land Run

Still Reason to Celebrate the 1889 Land Run

By Tyler Williamson

In a telling example of the outrage mob, cancel culture, and the deep-seated need to get offended at everything, the 1889 Land Run has been canceled. You may remember the controversy surrounding Oklahoma City Community College (OCCC) and its decision to remove a monument depicting the 1889 Land Run. The irony is that OCCC most likely would not exist were it not for the land run, but I digress.

I don’t have any special affinity for the monument. It was merely a small slab of concrete with a depiction more myth than reality. Interim President Thomas was at least partially correct when he said the monument wasn’t historically accurate. However, in a separate statement, the Vice President of OCCC stated that they removed the monument because it “celebrated cruelty and oppression.” Granted, the administration is within their rights to remove the monument for any reason, but it is unfortunate that they chose to paint the ‘89ers, and the 1889 Land Run in general, in such a light. In doing so, the administration went so far as to substitute a different myth for reality.

Columnist: OK Educators need to read, and follow, directions

Oklahoma Educators Need to Read, and Follow, Directions

By Mike Davis

Read all the directions. Teachers used to say this before every test. Following them was implied. Students who skipped directly to the first question often made mistakes. Sometimes extra credit was hidden in the directions. Unfortunately, Oklahoma educators seem to be having trouble with both reading and following directions.

For example, at a school board meeting on June 7, Oklahoma City Public Schools Superintendent McDaniel talked about the impacts of SB658 on the district’s continuing plan to mandate masks in schools. While Dr. McDaniel correctly pointed out that the bill requires the school board to put a mask mandate on the agenda of every board meeting until they are repealed, the law also requires that the county must be “under a current state of emergency declared by the Governor.” The governor recently affirmed his plan not to impose a new emergency order. Superintendent McDaniel fell into one of the classic blunders: he failed to read all the directions.

Educators seem to have asked an unreliable friend to describe the directions contained in HB1775. Based on the unreliable friend’s abysmal summary, they are loudly announcing their intent not to follow. Numerous statements on Twitter, some by self-identified teachers, show a profound misunderstanding of the law’s directives.

Here’s what the bill actually says: schools can’t force students to learn that they are inherently bad because they are a certain race. Schools can’t discourage students from treating people of every race equally. Every requirement of the law falls into one of those two categories. It specifically allows the teaching of historical facts, including any atrocity perpetrated by one race on another. It does forbid teachers from asserting that past atrocities by one race make current members of that race responsible for those atrocities, or predisposed to committing them again. Students of every race deserve the opportunity to forge their own path, free of racial baggage. While that may still be a dream, further burdening them at the schools they are required to attend is not the solution.

1889 Institute: Time to rethink Oklahoma's emergency powers

TIME TO RETHINK OKLAHOMA’S EMERGENCY POWERS

The legislature must be forced to act in extended emergencies.

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK (July 21, 2021) – The 1889 Institute has released “Rethinking Emergency Powers in Oklahoma,” a proposal to reform the state’s emergency powers provisions. It proposes that declared emergencies last only one week before the legislature must weigh in to extend such declarations by two weeks. After that, the legislature must pass explicit enactments according to warranted circumstances. Right now, Oklahoma’s Emergency Management Act allows the legislature to extend an emergency declaration indefinitely.

“The legislature—the body in which all laws originate—is the proper authority to determine the best path forward in an ongoing, long-term emergency situation,” said the study’s author, 1889 Research Fellow, Mike Davis. “Emergency powers are a dangerous tool, granting nearly unchecked power to officials at the executive level of governments. It should only exist with tight safeguards,” Davis said.

Davis also criticizes the way an emergency is defined in Oklahoma law.

1889 Institute: OK taxes and fees are higher than Massachusetts as percentage of GDP

OKLAHOMA’S GOVERNMENT COULD BE SMALLER

Oklahoma’s taxes and fees are higher than Massachusetts’ as a percentage of GDP.

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK (July 7, 2021) – The 1889 Institute has updated “Oklahoma Government Revenues and Spending in Perspective,” a Fact Sheet that compares Oklahoma to the other states in total taxes and fees collected by state and local government as a percentage of the state’s GDP. Oklahoma ranks 13th among the states in how low its governments’ revenues are compared to other states.

The Fact Sheet also looks at state and local government spending in six categories: higher education, public education, public welfare, hospitals, highways, and corrections. Oklahoma spends more of its GDP on higher education than 32 other states, but spends more by this measure than only 9 states on public education.

“In looking at the spending rankings, it’s clear that Oklahoma could spend more efficiently in some areas,” said Jason Lawter, the study’s author and Fiscal Policy Fellow at the 1889 Institute. “This does require discernment, though, given that the state’s road needs may well justify Oklahoma outspending 33 other states in that area,” he said.

Williamson: Whose job is it anyway? Parents vs bureaucrats in educating kids

Whose Job is it Anyway? Parents Versus Bureaucrats in Educating Kids

By Tyler Williamson

A major principle of the school choice movement is that parents should be empowered to choose where and how their children are educated. This is a simple idea: parents are responsible for their children and should direct their education. Many opposed to school choice can’t seem to grasp this. They seem to think it’s the government’s role to educate children and view anything that breaks the status quo as a threat.

In an opinion piece for The Oklahoman, one writer invoked scripture in his rebuttal of school choice. But what does the Bible actually say? Psalm 127, says children are a blessing from the Lord. Later it says that children are like “arrows in the hand of a warrior” and the man who has “a quiver-full” of them is blessed. Proverbs 22:6 says to train up a child in the way he should go.

These verses (and others) indicate that children are a blessing to their parents, not just some vague blessing on society, and parents are commanded to train them. If parents aren’t given control and are forced to send their children to a school based on a home address, their ability to direct their child’s education is severely limited.

Columnist: Why I Refuse to Vote in Judicial Retention Elections

I Abstain: Why I Refuse to Vote in Judicial Retention Elections

By Tyler Williamson, 1889 Institute

Every two years, certain judges are placed on the ballot for a simple yes/no retention vote. These elections stem from Oklahoma’s judicial selection method, and ask voters whether they want to keep, or retain, certain judges. Elections are staggered so judges only face retention every six years. However, not a single judge has been voted out in the fifty-plus years since retention elections were instituted.

I would wager that the majority of Oklahoma voters, including me, a relatively informed voter, know next to nothing about the judges that come up for retention votes. That is unsurprising, considering most people don’t have the time to research and evaluate the legal philosophy and judicial track record of every judge. Thus, a look at election results from the past few elections tell a simple story: a majority vote yes on all of the judges, a decent minority vote no on all of them, while only a small fraction do research and make informed votes. To be clear, I am not lambasting Oklahomans for being uninformed. Many people I know personally vote “No” on all retention elections no matter who it is. I used to vote “No” by default as well. The problem is, it doesn’t matter how informed you are. The judicial selection system we use is extremely flawed, thus rendering your vote meaningless.

Consider the following:

1889 Institute: The Economic Fantasizing of the Green Advocates

The Economic Fantasizing of the Green Advocates

By Byron Schlomach

In a confirmation hearing for President Biden’s Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, Senator Ted Cruz complained about Biden killing the Keystone XL pipeline, eliminating 11,000 jobs. Buttigieg responded that “Biden’s climate agenda will create a net increase in jobs.” Buttigieg’s response, commonly given by climate activists when challenged on jobs, is pure, unmitigated, economic balderdash.

New technology, from steam engines to robotics, has generally freed resources to expand opportunities and increase standards of living. Green advocates presume, therefore, that any new technology will do the same. But there is a key feature of innovations that expand opportunity and jobs. They make production cheaper.

True growth-inducing innovations, like steam, the Bessemer process for producing steel, and refining and burning fossil fuels for energy are always a chance to lower costs. Consequently, they are adopted voluntarily. There is never any need for governments to force, bribe (through grants and subsidies), or tax advantage companies into adopting innovations that are truly beneficial – that is, that lower costs and produce a higher standard of living on top of more jobs for us all.

1889 Institute calls for end of aerospace engineer tax credits

1889 INSTITUTE: END AEROSPACE ENGINEER TAX CREDITS

Market forces should drive labor markets, not government.

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK (April 21, 2021) – The 1889 Institute has published “Oklahoma’s Aerospace Industry Engineer Workforce Tax Credits,” the most recent of two installments in the Institute’s Corporate Welfare Directory. The paper makes it clear that the state’s tax rebate program for aerospace engineers is another corporate welfare scheme. Three programs effectively subsidize high-paying professional aerospace engineering jobs, providing tax breaks to companies who hire engineers or to the engineers themselves.

“What’s particularly galling about these programs is that other Oklahoma businesses and everyday taxpayers with lower incomes and less in benefits have to fill in the tax holes created by these programs,” said Byron Schlomach, director of the 1889 Institute. “In a very real sense, these programs tax the poor in order to give to the rich,” he said.

1889 Institute: End Oklahoma's corporate welfare for Hollywood

Hollywood hates Oklahoma's culture, people, values, and politics. Take one look at Georgia and see what reward there is for doling out years of corporate welfare to the woke leftists. It doesn't end well.

1889 INSTITUTE: END THE FILM ENHANCEMENT REBATE

Oklahoma offers one of the most generous film production subsidies in the nation.

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK (April 7, 2021) – The 1889 Institute has published “Corporate Welfare Directory: Oklahoma Film Enhancement Rebate,” which makes it clear that the state’s tax rebate program for filmmaking is a corporate welfare scheme. Dressed up as something to help Oklahoma’s image and to create jobs, the 35 percent rebate applies to projects with production budgets as low as $50,000 and as little as $25,000 in qualifying expenses.

“With qualifying production budgets as small as this, it’s obvious that the Film Enhancement Rebate Program is more about throwing a sop to an industry than it is about making Oklahomans more prosperous,” said Tyler Williamson, the study’s author and 1889 Institute Research Associate. “One wonders if Oklahoma’s tax system is being manipulated just so our elected officials have a chance to meet movie stars,” he said.

In an earlier publication, the 1889 Institute devised a series of yes/no questions for determining if a particular policy could be considered corporate welfare. “The film rebate checks off every box,” said Williamson. “A recent Incentive Evaluation Commission report that supports the film rebate, reversing that commission’s earlier judgment changes nothing. The film rebate is a net cost and effectively a subsidy to a California-based, and very wealthy, industry,” Williamson said.

About the 1889 Institute

The 1889 Institute is an Oklahoma think tank committed to independent, principled state policy fostering limited and responsible government, free enterprise and a robust civil society. The publication, “Corporate Welfare Directory: Oklahoma Film Enhancement Rebate” and other reports can be found on the nonprofit’s website at www.1889institute.org. 

1889 Institute: What GameStop can teach us about Good Governance

What GameStop Can Teach Us about Good Governance

by Mike Davis (1889 Institute)

The law doesn’t govern most interactions. Everyone gets in line at the grocer; that’s what we’ve always done. We rely on unwritten rules of fair play, trusting they will be observed. What happens when we rewrite those rules? Escalating rule-changing that makes everybody worse-off. The recent kerfuffle with GameStop is illustrative, and it should serve as a warning to those willing to erode governmental traditions for short term wins.

Robinhood, a website that lets users trade stocks without a per-trade fee, froze its trading of GameStop and other highly-volatile stocks. The everyman Robinhood traders were locked out, while elites still had access through traditional hedge funds. Outrage was swift, and Robinhood reversed its decision.

But these actions didn’t happen in a vacuum: GameStop was volatile because of a targeted attack– a short squeeze. Many hedge funds were short-selling GameStop and other stocks that have been hit hard by lockdowns. Short selling, in very simple terms, is a bet that the price of a stock will go down. If it does, the short-seller makes money. If it goes up, they lose money. A group of Robinhood traders bought shares of GameStop, driving up the price. Hedge funds lost billions of dollars. Traditional brokerages seemingly have a justifiable bone to pick. But do they?

1889 Institute: School district funding during Covid-19 made worse by bad policy

Stress of School District Funding During Covid-19 Made Worse by Bad Policy

By Tyler Williamson, 1889 Institute

A recent article in The Oklahoman discussed the financial impact of the mid-year funding adjustment for Oklahoma school districts. School administrators bemoaned the adjustment, citing the hardships of the pandemic. This reduction should come as no surprise, however, considering how Oklahoma’s school district funding works.

State appropriated school district funding is allocated based on Weighted Average Daily Membership (WADM), a convoluted “per student” measure. WADM is then used to calculate how much funding a school district will receive from the state. Basically, the more students there are in a district, the more money the district will receive. Therefore, if a district loses students, it will receive less funding, and if a district gains students, it will receive more funding.

In 2020, Oklahoma school districts decided to shut-down in-person learning but were not adequately prepared to teach students virtually; consequently, they lost students to schools that did virtual schooling better. Over 60,000 students left traditional public schools and enrolled in various charter schools. Therefore, the traditional districts’ enrollment fell while charter school enrollment rose. As a result, based on our discussion of formula funding above, you would think that traditional school districts would lose funding and charter schools would gain.

1889 Institute: COVID shows why gov't collective bargaining should be illegal

COVID-19 Illuminates Why Collective Bargaining with Government Employees Should Be Illegal

By Byron Schlomach

By one recent ranking of the fifty states and the District of Columbia, Oklahoma’s public schools are 48th in quality. Texas is big, diverse, and has immigration issues; nevertheless, it ranks 30th, ahead of Missouri (32nd), and Arkansas (39th), but behind Oklahoma’s other neighbors Kansas (27th) and Colorado (17th).

Demographics, culture, and other issues outside schools’ direct control play some part in the rankings. Still, our schools were not doing what they needed to do even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Things have only gotten worse. Since Oklahoma’s schools closed in March 2020, Oklahoma’s public schools have become intellectual wastelands. Unready to conduct classes online last spring, most of Oklahoma’s schools – at least the large districts – simply punted the rest of the school year. Things are only marginally better this year.

Yet, schools have not been a source of COVID-19 spread. Sweden and other European countries have demonstrated this fact, and a study from the United States shows COVID-19 spreading at a minuscule rate in schools, with just 0.04% of students being infected at school. There was apparently no transmission from students to adults in the schools.

1889 Institute: False Alarm -- Climate Change is not going to kill us all

False Alarm: Climate Change is not Going to Kill Us All

By Spencer Cadavaro

In recent years, apocalyptic predictions of climate change have been popular. As politicians and activists push their preferred policies to supposedly prevent climate change, their claims of what will happen if we do not adopt them grow more severe. One politician claimed, "The world is going to end in 12 years if we don't address climate change." I remember hearing similar predictions while growing up in the early 2000s about the ozone layer and polar ice caps. But their fearmongering overstates the dangers posed by a changing climate, and their solutions are unlikely to fix the problem. Indeed, their solutions will likely cause even more problems, especially for states where fossil fuels are a staple of their economy.

One of the more radical proposals to fight climate change involves making the United States carbon neutral by a specific year, such as 2030 or 2050. To do this, activists want to transition to an electrical grid that runs on renewable energy sources. Such a process would be expensive, costing nearly $6 trillion. Beyond the dollar cost, such an act would require massive amounts of land. According to an analysis by the Brookings Institute, wind and solar generation need ten times as much land to produce a similar amount of energy as coal or natural gas. We simply do not have the land necessary to make this happen.

Schlomach: the high duty of elected officials and ways they fall short

The High Duty of Elected Officials and Ways They Fall Short

By Byron Schlomach

With a legislative session starting, it’s worth considering - What is the central, over-arching duty of an elected official? The Oklahoma Constitution’s oath of office requires Oklahoma public officials swear to “support, obey, and defend” the constitutions of the nation and the state, that the official will not take bribes, and will discharge duties as best he or she can.

Every individual acting in a governmental capacity in Oklahoma must act in the best interest of the people of the state as a whole. This high duty, executed as a public trust, is best characterized as a fiduciary duty wherein one puts the people’s interest above one’s own, preserving good faith and trust, with a duty to act in the people’s best interest.

Fiduciaries have the power and obligation to act in a person’s best interest and are held to high and strict standards of honesty, diligence, and responsibility. They must be conscientious, loyal, faithful, disinterested and unbiased. They must be free of deceit, conflict of interest, self-dealing, concealment, bribery, fraud and corruption. Too many elected officials fall short in many subtle ways. For example, elected officials probably aren’t doing their fiduciary duty if:

Galbraith: train wreck legislation demonstrates the need for public testimony

Train Wreck Legislation Demonstrates the Need for Public Testimony

By Brad Galbraith

Shutting out Oklahomans’ voices in the legislative process leads to uninformed public policy. A recent hearing of the House Transportation Committee serves as just one example of the testimony deficiency in Oklahoma’s legislative process.

The committee recently considered House Bill 1048, sponsored by Representative Kerbs, which requires private railroads to maintain at least “two crewmembers in the control compartment of the lead locomotive unit of a train.”

Limited to the knowledge and testimony of the bill’s sponsor and the Secretary of Transportation, the committee unanimously voted to approve a simple bill that it believed was an innocuous codification of current standards that would protect public safety indefinitely into the future.

1889 Institute: study shows Dental Assistant licensing is unnecessary

NEW STUDY: DENTAL ASSISTANT LICENSING UNNECESSARY

Dental assistants are licensed in only nine states, and in Oklahoma only since 2015.

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK (March 3, 2021) – The 1889 Institute has published “Dental Assistant Licensing in Oklahoma,” which applies criteria the Institute has applied to other licensing laws and finds the need for dental assistant licensing wanting. The questions asked by the 1889 Institute inquire about serious risk to the public and whether incompetent practitioners are difficult to detect. Since dental assistant work does not pose serious risk and incompetents are easy to sort out, there is no reason for licensing them.

“Was Oklahomans’ dental health suffering prior to 2015, when the dental assistant licensing law was passed?” wondered Spencer Cadavero, author of the paper and Research Associate at the Institute. “One would think there would be scores, or at least a dozen, stories of mangled mouths as a result of dental assistant malpractice for the legislature to pass such a law, but no such stories exist or are likely to,” he said.

1889 Institute: A pPlan to put Teachers in charge, give Parents choices, and benefit Children

A Plan to Put Teachers in Charge, Give Parents Choices, and Benefit Children

By Mike Davis

Our education model is puzzling when compared to other industries. But it’s been this way so long it’s difficult to imagine anything else. We group children by age, not by knowledge or ability. We send them to schools based on address, not teaching methodology. Parents have very little say over which school their children can attend. And teachers are answerable to more and more people who lack the qualifications to teach, which is the sole mission of the public schools.

Teachers have always answered to the principal, which does track with other professions. The managing partner of a law firm has ultimate authority too. The principal is usually a former teacher, but he no longer spends his days in the classroom. For him, a successful day is one free of dealing with troublemakers. Rather than maintaining proper discipline he can simply shuffle them back to class. But the senior partner defers to an experienced attorney in matters of case strategy. He hasn’t been in settlement conferences, and hasn’t read the judge’s disposition in case management conferences. How often do teachers get the same consideration?

Beyond this disconnect, a teacher might answer to librarians, counselors, and technology staff. A lawyer would never be answerable to administrative staff. As schools trend towards social programs, the focus on education wanes. So too does the teacher’s status. They used to be the reason schools existed; now they are cogs in the social-work machine.

1889 has proposed a solution to put teachers in the driver seat, and give parents meaningful options for educating their children. The Professional Teacher Charter Act allows experienced teachers to open their own school, funded on the same basis as other charters. Parents will be free to choose the school that best fits their child.

The freedom inherent in the plan will allow Oklahoma to become a laboratory of pedagogy. Schools will be able to test and improve their teaching methods. Parents will be free to choose a school that they believe works best for their child. Not every child learns the same way, and what works for nine students might not work as well for a tenth.

“More funding to the classroom” is the mantra and excuse for nearly every demand for increased public education funding. But the single most important classroom expense is the teacher. Yet the system puts the teacher at the very bottom of the decision-making ladder.

1889’s model flips the ladder and puts teachers in charge of schools and then empowers parents to choose the school that is best for their child. Ultimately, this can only benefit Oklahoma’s schoolchildren.

Mike Davis is a Research Fellow at 1889 Institute. He can be reached at mdavis@1889institute.org.

1889 Institute: Guide to governments regulation of land use

BASIC GUIDE TO GOVERNMENTS REGULATION OF LAND USE PUBLISHED

The 1889 Institute counts the ways government impacts property rights.

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK (February 3, 2021) – The 1889 Institute has published “Land and Prosperity: A Primer on Land Use Law and Policy,” which describes the many ways state and local governments regulate the use and disposition of private property. The publication first discusses the need to establish order among individuals whose actions impact others, then describes the benefits of private property, and then describes the many ways government interferes, justifiably or not, with property owners’ decisions in how property is used and developed.

“The study is a description of the many ways government inserts itself into the decisions property owners make about the use of their property,” said 1889’s Land Use Fellow, Brad Galbraith, the study’s author and relatively recent addition to the 1889 Institute’s staff. “It’s important to fully understand how government impacts prosperity through its influence on property rights, under which the rights to life and liberty are subsumed,” he said.

The new study makes few value judgments or arguments regarding the various types of land use regulation on government’s part, whether the subject is the common law of nuisance or zoning, or comprehensive planning.

1889 Institute: Is Education the primary mission of public schools anymore?

Is Education the Primary Mission of Public Schools?

By Tyler Williamson

Did you know the state of Oklahoma is experiencing not one, but two pandemics? Back in July, according to the Oklahoma City School District, the state was experiencing the “dual pandemics of COVID-19 and Systemic Racism.” Instead of preparing teachers for the realities of the fall semester, the district decided to spend valuable time and resources to ensure their teachers learned how to “practice alternative ways of relating to…[their]students.”

To date, the fall semester has been a roller coaster ride with only marginal amounts of student learning. Faced with the reality that if any real learning standards were enforced, many students would be held back a grade, teachers are asked to reduce their grading standards and give participation grades.

But, is education even a primary goal of public schools anymore? Evidence from the Oklahoma City School District says no, but this isn’t just a local phenomenon. A July 23rd feature article in the New York Times by Sarah Darville, the managing editor at Chalkbeat (a non-profit news outlet focused on education), discussed the difficulty of reopening schools. She spent the bulk of the article discussing three things that make the decision difficult: child care, meal programs, and mental health counseling. Where is education?