Agricultural News
Cattlemen's Association CEO Talks Legislative Highlights, Upcoming OCA Convention
Thu, 14 Jun 2012 15:21:01 CDT
Scott Dewald, the chief executive officer of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association sat down with Ron Hays recently to discuss several issues including the outcome of the legislative session and the upcoming OCA events.
Dewald said the legislature put off many important issues like tax policy and budget issues until the waning days of the session, but that's nothing new. He said there were a number of issues being closely watched by the cattle industry, especially tax policy.
"I think the big one to us was the income tax issue and the possible elimination of or ratcheting down of the personal income tax. The offset to that, what happens when you lose that revenue, do you increase property taxes? Do you increase fees? What do you do to finance state government? It's one of those big deals that didn't happen that we were, quite frankly, concerned about because we didn't know what the other revenue sources were going to be. And we certainly didn't want it to be the ranchers of the state of Oklahoma or the farmers and landholders in the state of Oklahoma having to foot the bill."
Governor Mary Fallin's bid to reduce income tax rates for top earners ultimately failed and tax policies remained largely unchanged.
Dewald said the debate over tax credits was good, in his opinion.
"You need to totally and completely be revisiting that from time to time to make sure that you're in step with what's happening with the rest of the region and make sure that you can attract jobs, that you can provide services and goods that the people demand, and core services. I don't think it was an exercise in futility as I've heard it called by some."
He also stressed the need for voters to plan to get out and vote during the primary election June 26th. There are at least 11 state House races that will be decided by the primary this year.
The 22nd Annual Cattlemen's Association Summer Ranch Tour is schedule for June 25th and Dewald says they will be visiting ranches in north central Oklahoma this year.
"We started these as a way to get our ranch members on other ranches to learn from those other ranchers, learn about the new genetics, learn about the new technologies that they're using. And hopefully they can take those home and put them to work on their place and, hopefully, be better for it."
In July, the OCA will hold it's 60th annual convention at the Reed Center in Midwest City. Dewald said he expects a huge crowd. The show will feature 108 different vendors and government agencies this year. Dewald said association members spend a majority of their time during the convention visiting with various vendors "trying to garner more information from them. That's where the real meeting takes place when they're out there talking to those vendors."
Several special guests are line up for the convention as well.
"We also have Don Close who you'll remember from Texas Cattle Feeders Association coming in to give a cattle market outlook on Saturday. We've got Jeff Thrash coming in. He will do our inspirational breakfast for us on Saturday morning. Howard Wasdin is coming in. I'm real excited about this man; he wrote the book Seal Team Six and he will be there to do our opening general sessions. You take that and add on top of that our Junior Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association convention and an Oklahoma Cattlewomen's Association convention all at the same time. All the cattle people will be in Midwest City at the Reed Center in Midwest City July 25, 26, 27 and 28."
Scott Dewald will appear with Ron Hays on this Saturday's "In the Field Report" on KWTV News-9 about 6:40 a.m.
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