It’s official: Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin and Republicans in
the Oklahoma Legislature don’t care about the working poor or their
children, and in fact, are trying to declare a “state of emergency” in
order to assure that those in poverty stay that way.
Senate Bill 1023, written by Tulsa Senator Dan Newberry and
co-sponsored by Fairview Rep. Joe Hickman, who recently replaced T.W.
Shannon as Speaker of the House, would make it illegal for any
“municipality or other subdivision of this state” to raise the minimum
wage in Oklahoma, where poverty is at a 10-year high.
The proposed legislation is so important that it included these
ominous words: “It being immediately necessary for the preservation of
the public peace, health and safety, an emergency is hereby declared to
exist, by reason whereof this act shall take effect and be in full force
from and after its passage and approval.”
What on earth has our elected officials in such a panic that they
feel the need to circle the legislative wagons and fend off the hungry
masses, lest they storm the Capitol and demand an honest day’s pay for
an honest day’s work?
It’s simple, on Thursday, an
initiative petition to raise Oklahoma City’s minimum wage to a living
wage of $10.10, endorsed by the Central Oklahoma Labor Federation, will
be filed at City Hall, to begin gathering signatures to put it to a vote
of the people. That’s right, the potential “riot in the streets”
emergency is nothing more than the people of Oklahoma daring to assert
their federal and state constitutional right to petition.
This past Monday, Republicans
in the Oklahoma State Legislature began to fast track the anti-living
wage bill, which could effectively make it illegal for
the working poor to earn enough money pay their rent or buy food for
their children and, at the same time, effectively take away our
constitutional right to petition altogether. Done, and…done.
Read on here
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