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Helping hand
Businessman-turned-politician Kevin Stitt might have parlayed some of the same energy that elected businessman-turnedpolitician Donald Trump to the White House to become Oklahoma’s governor, but he’s not exactly falling in lockstep with the president on every decision. At the urging of Oklahoma faith leaders, Stitt sent a memo to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that Oklahoma will continue to accept refugees, which is in compliance with a presidential executive order that allowed cities and states to opt out of receiving political refugees. “Faith leaders across the state reached out requesting the State continue its history of accepting refugees facing dire political or religious circumstances in their home countries,” a statement from Stitt read. “As part of their relocation, these refugees undergo a thorough legal vetting process and are often reunited with family living in the States. I appreciate churches who have assisted these individuals, and stand ready to continue to do so, to ensure the success of refugees in our communities.” The Trump administration has slashed the amount of refugees allowed to the enter the country — to just 18,000 in 2020 after accepting 30,000 in 2019 and 45,000 in 2018 — while it separates families and keeps children in cages of people from Central and South America who are seeking asylum from the very things allowed under refugee statutes. Even Congressman James Lankford,
R-Oklahoma City, criticized Trump’s plan, saying that efforts to curb illegal immigration shouldn’t stop us from welcoming refugees. Only about 206 refugees of the 28,052 refugees accepted in the country this year have settled in Oklahoma this year, according to The Oklahoman. Considering Oklahoma was founded as a haven for refugees in their own country, it only makes sense that the state continues to be a haven for allowing people to get back on their feet.
Heavenly treasures
Oklahoma’s property taxes, according to Oklahoma Policy Institute, are among the lowest in the U.S., but a recent report from journalism nonprofit The Frontier
reveals that for some properties, the taxes are even lower — as in zero. “State law grants tax exemption to properties ‘used exclusively and directly for fraternal or religious purposes,’” The Frontier reported on Dec. 16, “but the process for determining whether a property is eligible for tax exemption is a patchwork of policies and practices formed by each county’s tax assessor and local district attorney determinations. … State law contains no standard for what kind of property qualifies for a religious tax exemption. The law doesn’t even require a property to be owned by a church or a religious group to qualify for a tax-exempt status.” Among the tax-exempt properties The Frontier discovered in its study of nine Oklahoma counties were a 120-acre cattle ranch, airplane hangars, radio broadcast towers and a $1.7 million seven-bedroom, five-bath house sitting on 10 acres of land. “In Oklahoma if a church or parachurch organization (such as a ministry) can show it owns the property and that property is lived in … then the property is usually taken off the tax rolls,” Tulsa-based nonprofit attorney Philip Haney told The Frontier. “It’s almost a presumption that that property is being properly used by a church or religious ministry and can be taken off the rolls.” You might expect us to be all sarcastic and snarky about allowing absurdly wealthy organizations and individuals to keep money that could be going to our underfunded schools, social programs and infrastructure, but as the pastors of the Chicken-Fried Church of Fake News — where we hold services while ripping massive bong hits on a private jet to get as close to God as possible — we commend the state of Oklahoma for not taxing our hangars full of sacred jets, our holy pot farm and our blessed solid-gold pansexual body-positive strip club. Amen.
Fox 25 recently reported two instances of local dispensaries trying to give back during the season. Only one of them was successful. Sweetleaf Health Center and Dewey United Methodist Church partnered to give five families baskets of food. Sweetleaf manager Amanda Mathews said the partnership was a step in the right direction, especially in terms of knocking down the stigma surrounding dispensaries in neighborhoods. “There’s a lot going on with controversies with dispensaries being close to churches, and we’re trying our hardest to fight that,” Mathews said. Dewey church pastor Jinx Barber told Fox he “never in a million years” thought the partnership would happen. “But I tell you what, anyone willing to help people in our community, I will gladly work with,” he said. “Now that it’s legal, we’re going to have to get used to it being around, but it’s no different from alcohol in some respects.” Unfortunately for children who come from low-income families, Collinsville School District did not have the same willingness when Pure Rx Dispensary approached it to donate money. The school district, which has accumulated an outrageous and shameful $4,000 in school lunch debt, turned down a contribution from the dispensary for about $2,700 to pay for outstanding lunch debt. The district’s nutrition director Michell Janah said they were advised not to take the donation because the lunch
program is federally funded. Though if this federally funded program didn’t let children go into lunch debt, maybe they could have accepted the money for other improvements in the district. “I’m bummed that we couldn’t take their money, and I hope that they truly understand,” Janah told Fox. “I know money is money, but things are not always so clear. Federally funded programs have a lot of rules and regulations, and we have to be careful with those. We do not what to get stripped of it and have it impact our entire community.” Fox reports that other people in the community have stepped up to make donations, which were OK for the school to accept. The district said it will start the new year with no lunch debt, which might sound like a feel-good story when it actually highlights the disgraceful fact that lunch debt even exists in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
High offerings
Giving season is essentially over, but it seems like some businesses found it hard to participate in holiday philanthropy. O KG A Z E T T E . C O M | J A N U A R Y 1 , 2 0 2 0
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