{"id":19140,"date":"2014-03-25T12:52:40","date_gmt":"2014-03-25T17:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=19140"},"modified":"2014-03-25T14:01:12","modified_gmt":"2014-03-25T19:01:12","slug":"bill-to-allow-new-tax-on-limestone-and-sand-mines-dead-until-next-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2014\/03\/25\/bill-to-allow-new-tax-on-limestone-and-sand-mines-dead-until-next-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill to Allow New Tax On Limestone and Sand Mines Dead Until Next Year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"State<\/a><\/p>\n

STATE OF OKLAHOMA<\/p>\n

State Rep. Charles McCall, R-Atoka<\/p>\n<\/div>

Representative Charles McCall’s bill<\/a> to allow counties to impose a tax on sand and limestone mining operations that sell their product elsewhere didn’t make it through the full House by the March 14 deadline.<\/p>

But McCall, R-Atoka, says he will try again next year.<\/p>

“Unfortunately the measure will go no further this session \u2026 however it can and will be introduced next year,” McCall tells StateImpact. “The additional time will afford further education to the membership on this matter.”<\/p>

As StateImpact reported in February<\/a>, for years, south-central Oklahoma lawmakers have been pushing for a new tax \u2014 or at least a county option for a new tax \u2014 on companies that mine for stone and sand, particularly in the sensitive Arbuckle-Simpson Aquifer.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that Johnston County residents want the out-of-state companies to leave \u2014 well, some do \u2014 but many agree they should be getting something more for sacrificing the county\u2019s natural resources. District 2 Commissioner Mike Thompson is among them.<\/p>

\u201cWe definitely need [the mining companies], and we\u2019re not trying to run them out or nothing,\u201d Thompson says. \u201cWe appreciate what they do, employment and everything. But we just would like to have our fair share that\u2019s leaving the state.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>

McCall’s task is a tall one \u2014 convincing the fervently anti-tax Oklahoma Legislature that county’s should be allowed to tax these mining companies \u2014 but the death of the bill this session was actually progress compared to previous attempts.<\/p>

This session, for the first time, county commissioners from across the state were organized behind the effort. The bill got through the House committee process after failing to do so the year before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That means it won’t become law \u2014 this year. McCall, R-Atoka, fully expects to try again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":18297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[491],"tags":[509,508,427],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19140"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19192,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19140\/revisions\/19192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}