Perspectives: Sam’s Perspective – Text Tax

Hello everyone. If you’re new to our state, Welcome to Oklahoma. There are a few things you need to know before you’ll truly be accepted. For example, religion plays a big part of life in Oklahoma. Additionally, football is a religious experience here. So is Bar B Q, and chicken fried steak. Gravy is considered its own food group, either sausage or red eye and can be counted as a vegetable. Baseball caps with whatever you support printed on the front are part of the dress code for many and you are in style if you wear it inside and backwards with the bill protecting the red area from the back of your head to your shoulders from the sun. You should own at least two guns and sport an NRA sticker on your car window. Of course we have a legislative body here but what sets our members apart from other states is most elected to either the House or the Senate wear little hats made of aluminum when the legislature is in session. Members feel that protects their brains from damaging rays sent from outer space that might sway their thinking and their votes.
Also, if you moved here from California, don’t tell anyone. Just say you’re from Arizona. Folks in these parts are suspicious of California. They know that just about anything new starts in that state then spreads across the rest of the country. However, once in a while something happens in California that catches the attention of Oklahoma legislators. Such is the case right now in fact. Seems west coast leaders considered and then dropped the idea of adding a tax on text messages as a way to raise money.
They had also considered making it retroactive. What a mess that would have been. Well sir I just heard that a couple of Oklahoma lawmakers are taking a look at a text tax. It will never get off the ground which makes it attractive to them. Some state lawmakers enjoy supporting legislation they know won’t stand up in court, so there is a chance you will be hearing about this after the first of the year.
But that’s Oklahoma. It really is a wonderful state with so much to offer. The problem is and always has been we keep sending the same bunch back to the legislature expecting different results, which we never get and then don’t understand why.
Will Rogers pretty much nailed it back in 1932 when he said, “One of the evils of democracy is you have to put up with the man you elect whether you want him or not. That’s why we call it democracy.”
I’m Sam Jones and that’s my perspective.