OUR VIEWS: Long-range ideas would be welcome

The Oklahoman Editorial Published: January 18, 2010

It would really be refreshing, as the legislative session approaches, to have someone - anyone - say they intend to spend time during the next several months trying to come up with ways to help Oklahoma thrive for the next many years. That is, to take a long view of governance instead of the usual one-year-at-a-time approach.

It won't happen. Never does. Lawmakers are creatures of habit. Item 1 on their list every year is to avoid doing anything that might affect their re-election chances. This is why task force reports on major issues, or audits of giant state agencies, wind up getting stuffed into crowded book shelves instead of anyone actually following up. In this rapid-paced, sound-byte age, it's easier to sell platitudes to constituents than it is to work on big-picture issues.

This is why there were no surprises last week when Republican leaders disclosed parts of their agenda for the 2010 session. Atop the list is workers' compensation reform - much needed, and something we hope is achieved, but also something that has bubbled to the surface many times through the years and likely will again in the future.

The GOP brass wants to trim government fat in order to reduce inefficiencies and save money. They want to promote the use of clean energy. If all goes according to plan, a commission will be formed to increase the use of renewable energy in Oklahoma. They will pursue legislation that results in more jobs and makes the state more business friendly. They're all good ideas. But we've heard them all before.

As the state works to dig itself out of a budget deficit that's approaching $1 billion, lawmakers are filing legislation that would allow high schools to offer the study of the Bible as an elective. They're filing bills that would make it more difficult for married couples to get a divorce. They're looking to give the Legislature more power to remove judges and make sure they follow the jury's recommendations on sentencing.

They're hoping to mandate honesty in political campaigns, and to require a prescription in order to buy medication that has pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient in making methamphetamine. Lawmakers are hoping to rescind the official state meal, which was approved by the Legislature in 1988, because it gives a poor impression of Oklahoma.

In these pages last week, David Blatt with the Oklahoma Policy Institute offered ideas for managing the current fiscal crisis and preparing for the next one. One was to go about budget forecasting differently - use private and academic economists, along with legislative staff, theOfficeof State Finance and the Tax Commission to produce "a technically improved, more transparent process" and "long-term forecasts that would help align spending commitments with projected revenues."

What a concept, one we expect will land with a thud at NE 23 and Lincoln

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