{"id":3362,"date":"2012-01-04T11:26:16","date_gmt":"2012-01-04T17:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=3362"},"modified":"2012-12-20T10:10:51","modified_gmt":"2012-12-20T16:10:51","slug":"meet-the-resistance-a-coalition-to-fight-for-the-income-tax-and-state-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2012\/01\/04\/meet-the-resistance-a-coalition-to-fight-for-the-income-tax-and-state-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Resistance: A Coalition to Fight for the Income Tax and State Services"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3370\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Caption\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/01\/david-blatt.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3370\" title=\"David Blatt\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/01\/david-blatt.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"443\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/01\/david-blatt.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/01\/david-blatt-102x150.jpg 102w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2012\/01\/david-blatt-203x300.jpg 203w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Provided<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Oklahoma Policy Institute is organizing a coalition to fight for state-funded services, and resist calls to reduce or eliminate the state income tax, reports the Tulsa World. The coalition hasn&#39;t been formalized yet, director David Blatt (above) said.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Talk of tax cuts and a restructured state tax code have been increasing.<\/p><p>And the resistance, it appears, is organizing.<\/p><p>The <em>Tulsa World<\/em>\u2019s Barbara Hoberock <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tulsaworld.com\/news\/article.aspx?subjectid=336&articleid=20120104_16_A11_ULNSbw423597&rss_lnk=16\">reports<\/a> the Oklahoma Policy Institute is leading the budding \u201ccoalition\u201d:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;We are beginning to work with other organizations about how to develop some kind of common messages and strategies to try to make the case for fair and adequate funding of public services,&#8221; David Blatt, director of the Oklahoma Policy Institute, told the paper.<\/p><\/blockquote><p><!--more-->The Oklahoma Policy Institute \u2014 a nonprofit <a href=\"http:\/\/okpolicy.org\">research outfit<\/a> that promotes \u201cequitable, responsible, and sustainable\u201d fiscal policies \u2014 is worried that recommendations made by legislative panels will hurt poor and moderate-income Oklahomans, Blatt told the <em>World<\/em>.<\/p><p>Specifically, Blatt and Oklahoma Policy worry efforts to reduce or eliminate the state <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/tag\/income-tax\/\">income tax<\/a> will shift the tax burden to the poor, and that reduced revenues will endanger funding to government services.<\/p><p>The coalition hasn\u2019t been formalized, Blatt emphasized, but the Oklahoma Policy Institute is <a href=\"http:\/\/okpolicy.org\/blog\/ok-policy\/were-hiring-again\/\">hiring an outreach coordinator<\/a> to gather and organize members around a \u201cshared agenda\u201d of \u201censuring adequate funding of public services.\u201d<\/p><p>The resistance already has some influential supporters, like the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, and <em>potential<\/em> supporters like the Oklahoma Education Association and the Oklahoma Hospital Association.<\/p><p>The coalition\u2019s mission also coincides with those of the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy and the Oklahoma Public Employees Association, which lamented to the <em>World<\/em>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWe have a lot to make up for. State employees are 20 percent below market. There has been no pay adjustment since 2006. We have crumbling infrastructure,\u201d OPEA spokeswoman Trish Frazier said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Talk of tax cuts and a restructured state tax code have been increasing.And the resistance, it appears, is organizing.The Tulsa World\u2019s Barbara Hoberock reports the Oklahoma Policy Institute is leading the budding \u201ccoalition\u201d: &#8220;We are beginning to work with other organizations about how to develop some kind of common messages and strategies to try to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":3373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[492,15],"tags":[166,256,254,97,255,253,257],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3362"}],"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\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3362"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3375,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3362\/revisions\/3375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}