Oklahoma Ranchers Seek Supreme Court Intervention in State Checkoff Referendum

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 23, 2017

Media Contacts:
Bill Bullard, 406-252-2516, billbullard@r-calfusa.com
Angela Huffman, 614-390-7552, ahuffman@competitivemarkets.com

Oklahoma Ranchers Seek Supreme Court Intervention in State Checkoff Referendum

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – Today, Oklahoma members of the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) and R-CALF USA joined together to file with the Oklahoma Supreme Court an application for original jurisdiction requesting the court enter a declaratory judgement and prohibit the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry from certifying the Oklahoma beef checkoff program referendum.

The legal application is in response to the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association’s attempt to create a new Oklahoma state beef checkoff program through a referendum which began on October 2, 2017. If passed, the new beef checkoff program would mandate all Oklahoma cattle producers pay the Oklahoma Beef Council an additional one dollar for every head of cattle they sell. Currently, under a federally mandated beef checkoff program, all cattle producers are required to pay one dollar. This state referendum would effectively double Oklahoma cattle producers’ beef checkoff fees by requiring an additional tax of $3.2 million dollars a year.

The legal documents filed with the Oklahoma Supreme Court outline a series of constitutional and legal irregularities relating to both the petition signature gathering and election processes. The opponents of the Oklahoma Beef Checkoff Program have been raising these irregularities stating they create an unfair and unjust election.

Bryan and Linda Best from L Bar B Farms, LLC., operating an 800 head cow-calf ranch in central Oklahoma said, “If we cattle producers are going to see our taxes doubled, then we need to have a fair election. The Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association based the number of required petition signatures on the number of Oklahoma farms and ranches that have cattle and not on the number of cattle producers in Oklahoma, resulting in thousands too few signatures being submitted to allow for a referendum vote to occur at all. Many of the petition signatures are those of individuals from Texas and other states, names without any signatures, and children too young to sign their names. Signers were not even required to provide proof of cattle sales.”

John Johnson, a cattle producer from Duncan, Oklahoma stated, “This referendum is unconstitutional. Here in Oklahoma, we protect our rights as taxpayers by requiring three quarters of our legislature to approve revenue increases. That did not happen in this case. And, the petition signature drive lasted 20 months. That’s nearly seven times as long as signature-gatherers are given for signature drives. For every other signature drive in Oklahoma, you get 90 days.”

The in-person voting on the referendum is to be held on November 1, 2017 with votes cast at any Oklahoma extension office. Cattle producers may request a ballot from October 2 through the 20th with mail in ballots having to be postmarked by October 27, 2017.

Even though they have filed this legal action, the Oklahoma members of R-CALF USA and OCM call on all cattle producers to vote “no” on the Oklahoma beef checkoff referendum.

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R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America) is the largest producer-only cattle trade association in the United States. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle and sheep industries.

Organization for Competitive Markets is a national, non-profit public policy research and advocacy organization. Founded in 1998, OCM is the only national think tank focusing strictly on antitrust and trade policy in agriculture, working toward the common purpose of returning our food and agricultural sector to true supply-demand based competition.