State Question Voting Guide for Dummies

Some of you may still be struggling with who you should be voting for in the Presidential race or maybe you are asking yourself what exactly has been the benefit of voting for all those incumbents year after year. My guess is most of you are drawing a blank. Which is why I am assuming most of you need some kind of simple guide when it comes to the state questions, of which there are seven this year.

Going in numerical order, we will start with State Question 776, which in essence strengthens the death penalty by making it constitutional. Oklahoma has recently had some problems with how it kills people, as evidenced by people on death row dying painful deaths as a result of poor medicinal management with our lethal injection method of getting “an eye for an eye.”

Whether or not you are for the death penalty, I think it goes without saying that none of us want – or should want – people to die painful deaths for crimes they likely committed. Certainly, we only want the death penalty to be used on those who 100-percent committed the crime, and the jury is still out on that (pun intended). And if you are fine with killing people who may have committed the crime or you have no problem with painful deaths, then I’m not sure our criminal justice system is the problem. Go see a psychiatrist. And say hello to Donald while you’re there.

The reason behind 776 is that it would provide flexibility should the drugs Oklahoma uses be ruled as unconstitutional. It is basically a constitutional purchase of insurance for something that is likely to happen one day soon. The downside is that it would make it more difficult to make Oklahoma’s death penalty unconstitutional, which many real pro-life advocates (those who believe ALL life has value) believe should happen.

My vote? I’ve been on both sides of the fence when it comes to the death penalty but lately I’ve been leaning to not killing people who may be innocent. I have witnessed too many instances when innocent people were found guilty of a crime, and it would be shameful for us as a state to endorse killing these people. Our system is flawed and should not lead to death of innocent people. So, let’s not make it tougher to put a stop to that.

Next up is State Question 777, which is the Right to Farm proposal. This state question requires compelling state interest to pass legislation to regulate agriculture, which is the state’s 14^th-highest economic factor and represents less than 2 percent of our gross domestic product. Yes, you read that right. If agriculture were a sport, it would rank somewhere below Cornhole and horseshoes.

The goal of 777 is to shield Oklahoma farmers and ranchers from having to deal with red tape and regulation. If this same language were placed on the limits of freedom of speech, we could all threaten to kill anyone we want or yell fire in crowded movie theaters. Ridiculous, huh?

The concerns with this proposal is that it is designed to protect large-scale farms that have been accused of doing bad things to helpless animals. Small farms may get some protections too but on a much smaller scale.

Where do I stand? This one is easy. Sometimes, proposals are sent to a vote of the people as propaganda to prevent a future positive action from happening. Do we all love the taste of a juicy steak? Of course! Does the value of that steak decrease just a little if we knew the conditions cows go through when unregulated? It should. The fact is, there will be no need for further regulations if farmers and ranchers just followed the laws and had some semblance of a moral compass when it comes to how they treat animals. The animals we eat should get treated as well as the pets we keep. And, plus, haven’t we learned our lesson when it comes to voting for state questions that start with “Right to …”?

With State Question 779, we get to decide whether or not we are willing to do for all of our teachers what we have already committed to doing for 15 basketball players. Yes, that’s right – it’s a sales tax increase and this one doesn’t raise revenue for our pro basketball team.

We all want our teachers to get paid more. That way, journalists can finally get their due as the most underpaid and undervalued profession in Oklahoma. Actually, the $44,000-average salary for teachers is higher than any salary I received as a journalist. But that’s a story for another day.

Teachers deserve more money. They deserve a Legislature that cares enough to pay them higher than 49^th in the nation. Given that the Republican-controlled state has chosen to not do anything to move Oklahoma higher up in the money we allocate for education, we have to be creative in how we reimburse our teachers for putting up with our kids while we go to work each day.

The positive part of this proposal is that it will create a guaranteed source of funding for increased teacher pay, similar to the sources of additional funding that were created for education through lottery and casino revenues several years ago.

On a negative note, it’s a tax increase. It’s only a penny for each dollar, but it’s permanent. And since it is on the sales tax, it will disproportionally tax the poor.

What is my position? This one is tough. I don’t feel undertaxed when I go to the store and make a purchase. But I also realize voters are completely fine with re-electing people who aren’t getting it done at the State Capitol. There has been a law for years requiring education to be funded prior to all other agencies, yet that never happens. And I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Maybe a tax increase under Republican leadership will change some voting behaviors in the future. Until then, I say pay the teachers.

Next up are a pair of proposals that are linked together – State Question 780 and State Question 781. The first reclassifies drug possession offenses in an attempt to reduce the prison population, which is full of “criminals” who really just wanted to get high. It should be noted that Oklahoma ranks second in overall incarceration and first in the incarceration of women, so it is clear we like to lock people up for “crimes” that aren’t necessarily that bad in other states.

The positive of this proposal is that it would reduce taxpayer costs being spent on prisons while instead sending drug users to much cheaper rehab facilities. The downside is that this doesn’t just include pot smokers – those caught possessing cocaine, meth, heroin and date-rape drugs would also get rehab rather than prison.

My position? I’ve been saying for years Oklahoma criminalizes too much casual activity. We practically chop off kids’ hands for taking a cookie out of the cookie jar. Now, we have people on both sides of the aisle who seem to recognize the need for common sense in our criminal justice system. Yes, it is because it is a money issue, but progress is needed here and this is one way to do it.

As for 781, this could pass and still not pass. Huh? If 780 fails to pass, this one becomes irrelevant. Basically, this would create a county community safety investment fund to allocate resources to those rehab facilities where the “criminals” in 780 are being diverted. Since we are a yes on 780, we will be a yes on this one as well.

State Question 790 is one that hasn’t been talked about much, but may be every much as important as any of the others. You know how your entire life, you have been told there is a separation between church and state? How several of our “patriots” came to America to gain religious freedom? Yeah, it’s real. But this proposal would put an end to that and would allow for religious artifacts to be placed on government property. Yes, this is the Ten Commandments proposal.

I fail to see any positives to this. The same people voting in favor of this are probably going to vote in favor of 776, and I’m fairly certain there is something about “Thou Shalt Not Kill” somewhere in our religious teachings. Maybe there was a sub-amendment somewhere in there but I haven’t run across it yet.

The problem with passing this is that ALL religions would have an opportunity to place artifacts on government property. Do you think we as Christians will allow that to happen? And just how much money should be spent to litigate all of this? None. We just vote this down and move on. One guy wants to put up this monument and look what it has led to. Tell Mike Ritze to focus on something less controversial and get a life.

And finally, we have State Question 792. This is that long-overdue overhaul of our antiquated liquor laws. This one is relatively simple and probably the most heavily supported of all of them. Basically, this would allow all grocery, convenience and drug stores to sell cold, high-point beer and wine.

The positives are that it would modernize laws that most just don’t understand. The negative is that this could cut sales at independent liquor stores, many of which I have noticed are still supporting this change.

It should be obvious that I am in favor of this. Not that I do a lot of purchases of alcoholic beverages anymore, but I do recognize the need to improve these laws. I covered the ABLE Commission for years and it has been clear for years, Oklahoma is a caveman in a modern world when it comes to liquor laws. This is a great start.

Vote how you want but if the votes don’t match up with how I’m voting, just know you will hear about it until it gets changed back to the way I want it. So, what I’m saying is get out and vote, and make sure you vote my way!