Oklahoma’s gross production tax rate of 7 percent was enacted in 1973. Since then, several exceptions and reductions — to as low as 1 percent or 2 percent have been granted to incentivize the drilling of horizontal wells. Since 2014, all new wells pay only 2 percent but approximately 80 percent of all other wells continue to pay 7 percent. The 2 percent rate was a generous temporary incentive that our state cannot afford today.

Oklahoma is facing financial disaster. We cannot afford business subsidies unless we are willing to break the back of public education, public safety, economic development, and highway maintenance. As a conservative, I believe the state has basic “core” responsibilities that only it can fulfill. We must educate our children. That means we have to pay our teachers a competitive wage so we don’t lose them to another state. We must maintain roads and bridges. We must properly support our public safety needs, especially our district attorneys, district courts, the Department of Corrections, and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

There is no place in America where our industry can do better than Oklahoma’s 7 percent historical rate. Texas’ effective tax rate is 6.7 percent on oil and 7.5 percent on gas and North Dakota’s is 10 percent on all but marginal wells. Anyone familiar with the economics of drilling knows that taxes rarely determine where to drill. Most successful companies drill where the oil and natural gas is located — not where tax policy is lenient.

Yes, both large and small producers pay a 2 percent rate on new wells drilled in Oklahoma. So why are we, as small producers, asking to have our tax rate on new wells more than tripled? Simple. We live in communities all across Oklahoma. Our kids and grandkids go to public schools. We want Oklahoma to be a thriving place where our children and yours have a bright future. Today, if we take the wrong fork in the road, they will lose our state as a choice of opportunity. That is unacceptable. We are Oklahomans first, oil men and women second. We’re asking for fairness and parity by restoring the historical rate for the gross production tax that began in 1973.

Oklahoma has been very good to my family, my employees, their families and our industry. It is now the entire industry’s turn to help our Legislature take the correct fork. We must lead by example and advise the Legislature to do away with the “special 2 percent tax deal.” Only then can we have credibility and advocate for abolishing all the other “special tax deals” that are choking our state’s revenue. This is not about making a good deal. It is about creating $400 million annually to help our state educate, protect and maintain infrastructure.

Politically, this is a conservative, free-market principle. The state should not pick winners and losers in our economy by virtue of tax preferences. Tax giveaways aren’t a free-market concept. When a special few pay less in taxes, it means that everyone outside the deal must pay more. If this deal ever had a purpose, mission accomplished. These wells are now commonplace and need no further incentive.

Let’s advocate fairness and parity for all oil and gas operators to pay the same gross production rate. Critical things like our roads, education and public safety are in real jeopardy. How do we profit by losing the vitality of our state just to keep a special tax deal?

Dewey Bartlett is the former mayor of Tulsa, president of Keener Oil & Gas Co. and a board member of the newly formed Oklahoma Energy Producers Alliance.