The opportunity for the State Chamber of Commerce to find its soul

As an office holder, it didn’t take long for me to observe the sharp tension between many of those who make up the grassroots, small government constituency and the State Chamber of Commerce.

This tension seemed a bit puzzling to me. After all, in its effort to promote business and defend business owners, shouldn’t the Chamber be the leading force in the effort to push back against excessive taxation and overregulation?

Shouldn’t these two groups work together?

As an office holder, I felt that I could be a positive voice in de-escalating this tension. Over the years, I built good working relationships with those who work policy issues on behalf of the Chamber and I have enjoyed helping them advocate for government reform.

But even as I built these relationships I made the following observation: those who feel the State Chamber has been co-opted by the special interests are absolutely correct.

Year after year, the State Chamber, Oklahoma City and Tulsa Chambers have advocated for an array of the tightly targeted corporate welfare programs and tax giveaways which I described in last week’s article posted at HD31.org/744.

Instead of focusing their energies on across-the-board policies to benefit all businesses, the message of these institutions lost its ideological purity and became compromised and inconsistent.

These compromises took place as special interest organizations used their influence inside of the Chamber to turn the Chamber into their personal vehicle for advancing and passing their proposals.

Unfortunately for the Chamber, it is difficult to advocate for special interests giveaways and across-the-board reduction in size of government. In order to have the capacity for the giveaways, government must necessarily remain large with a complicated tax and regulation code and enough capacity to provide special benefits to the few, all while overtaxing and regulating the many.

Over time, this loss of ideological purity has wrought a devastating effect upon the Chamber’s credibility within the Legislature, especially the House of Representatives.

Lawmakers might feel compelled to support the corporate welfare giveaways; nonetheless, as the cumulative effect of these giveaways has become known, lawmakers have grown resentful of having to cater to the Chamber.

During the last year, opposition to the Chamber reached its flashover point in the House. It is no longer advisable for a bill author to tell his fellow members that it is supported by the Chamber of Commerce. The member who makes this mistake might find himself on the receiving end of audible booing similar to that which accompanies debate within the British House of Commons.

A few months ago, I experienced the effects of this loss of credibility firsthand. I authored a key
judicial reform proposal – a bill for which the Chamber heavily advocated – but which experienced defeat at the hands of a coalition of Democrats, anti-legal reform Republicans, and the very grassroots lawmakers who should have been for the proposal but who now instinctively distrust the Chamber to the point that they might vote against Chamber proposals just because they are Chamber proposals.

I greatly sympathize with my friends who work policy on behalf of the Chamber. These are policy professionals whose ability to be effective has been compromised by the special interests who have had the pull to severely compromise the Chamber’s mission.

Here’s the good news: last week I wrote of the Legislature’s abrupt change of policy and how it has stopped advancing most corporate welfare and secretive tax giveaways. This sudden turn of events has provided the Chamber with a Godsend, a tremendous opportunity to regain credibility and effectiveness.

Chamber leaders and members may reclaim their organization using this logic:

Specialized, tightly targeted and opaque corporate tax credits have lost their political viability;

History will harshly judge the last few years as a type of dark ages when the public treasury was repeatedly plundered by those with political influence and this is the chance to flip, join the right side of history and regain lost credibility; and

The Chamber can regain its effectiveness in the Legislature by no longer advocating for corporate welfare, secretive tax giveaways, or tightly targeted credits for the influential few.

This new ethic will heal the deep rift with grassroots taxpayers and allow the Chamber to reclaim its rightful position as the foremost advocate for all Oklahoma business owners. It can regain credibility and in the process, just might find its soul.

Thank you for reading this article. Your interest and input are much appreciated. Please do not hesitate to email [email protected] with your thoughts and suggestions.