February 2025, ROPE became The ROPE Report - after our weekly Wednesday and Friday morning (9am) podcast begun in 2022. Instead of following only education - as we have since 2008 - we will research and write about any issue that poses a threat to our individual liberties as Oklahomans. We will no longer post to this blogspot, but will keep it active as a reference library for anyone interested. Please find The Rope Report on Facebook, X, LinkdIn, Telegram, Instagram, TikTok and at rope2.org.
From our conversation with former McClain County Assessor, now newly-elected state Senator, Kendal Sacchieri on January 15th.
See the blog on our website for more information, but this video has to be the most important video you could ever see on property taxes and if it doesn't make you really mad, you might be a communist...LOL - no, but really!
See the full video on our YouTube and Rumble channels.
In this ROPE Report Short, our guest for Wednesday, June 26th, Oklahoma Representative Sherrie Conley and Jenni White talk about what really makes "school choice". Is it the government giving people taxpayer dollars to privately school their kids (vouchers), or is it the government allowing taxpayers to have our property without property taxes (Ad Valorem) so that taxpayers could help pay to educate their own children? This led to a bit more discussion on taxation...
The video in its entirety (recorded live on the 26th) can be found on our Rumble and YouTube channels.
Though we all want to be able to believe there is a job for us when we need/want one, economic development today has begun to put the needs of the 'community' above the needs of the individual.
Often we hear economic developers talk about the importance of 'public investment' for private enterprises because these will have impacts for the community.
Take, for example, the public, tax-dollar 'investment' that went into electric car manufacturer Canoo so that people in Pryor, OK, could have jobs. Yes, of course we want employed citizens - they contribute to those things the government SHOULD be funding, like roads (not busses or street cars) and public safety - and employed citizens often feel more fulfilled when they have jobs - but what happens when taxpayer dollars are used to help a private company provide jobs in an area of the state where taxed payers may not even live?
This private company now has an advantage over the other private companies that did NOT receive government assistance and taxpayers lost part of the fruits of their labors to a community where they don't even live.
This has to stop. Government should be protecting the rights of individuals, not the rights of companies, or communities - not even to provide jobs.
