Quotes of the Day

“To use an analogy, we’re at the interim between when you’re at the very worst of your flu but before you’re back to 100 percent. You know you don’t feel quite right, but you’re certainly on the mend. That’s where we are right now in the energy industry.”

– Oklahoma City University economist Russell Evans (Source)

“We estimated in this case that there are more than one million people in Oklahoma without identification. And the thing is when you make it harder to vote, people just stop voting.”

– James Thomas, an attorney who is representing a client in challenging Oklahoma’s Voter ID law. The case was dismissed this week, but Thomas plans to appeal (Source). Oklahoma saw record low turnout in the 2014 midterm elections; read our ideas for repairing our broken democracy.

“If there’s a better way to do it, why haven’t they done it yet? It seems like it’s always put on the back burner and we will get to it when we get to it. We’ve got to step up and do something.”

– Broken Arrow resident Debbie Vance, who plans to vote for SQ 779, the penny sales tax for education, and who expressed skepticism toward Gov. Mary Fallin’s push to pass a teacher pay raise during a special legislative session (Source)

“It’s like cutting Google from the internet. It takes away the ability to marry up people in need with agencies that can provide a whole array of services.”

-Donnie House, spokesperson for 211 Oklahoma, which had its budget slashed 30 percent in Oklahoma’s midyear cuts and could be forced to scale back the helpline that connects Oklahomans to emergency shelter, health care, and food assistance (Source).

“We can talk about cost-of-living adjustments and debate average salaries, but when you are hemorrhaging teachers across state lines like we are, you have a problem. We would not have record numbers of emergency certification and teachers leaving the state if it wasn’t a real issue.”

– Tyler Bridges, assistant superintendent for Clinton Public Schools, an educator taking dispute with a report from the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs alleging that public schools could use carry-over funding from the last fiscal year to restore cut programs and hire teachers [Source]

“How much does it cost the state? How much does it cost the citizens of Oklahoma to pay for defending legislation that once passed ends up in a higher court and is found unconstitutional?”

– State Sen. Kay Floyd (D-Oklahoma County), who has requested an interim study on the ramifications of unconstitutional legislation [Source]

“Maybe it was an honest mistake. But even one day after the honest mistake, it had to be corrected and it hasn’t been. And everything I’m hearing is that there’s no intention of correcting it.”

– Oklahoma City attorney David Slane, asking the state Supreme Court to order Governor Fallin to return the state’s $140 million surplus left from midyear cuts to state agencies [Source]

“We have had very dismal success because once people hear what the salaries are in Oklahoma, they are really reluctant to move here.”

-Oklahoma City Public Schools chief human resources officer Janis Perrault, speaking about why the district discontinued a program that sought to recruit teachers from other states (Source).

“We can spend $15,000 for failure or $6,000 for success. States that have done this — addressed the root of the issue — have decrease their crime rate.”

-Former House Speaker and a leader of Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform Kris Steele, who said Oklahoma spends on average $15,000 per year to incarcerate someone and $6,000 for treatment and community supervision (Source).

“That’s something that people don’t really realize with 211. They think it’s (utility assistance and food) that people need, but often when people are at the point of needing utility assistance or needing to feed their family, they’re at a point of crisis, and they’re considering suicide or needing that kind of support as well.”

– Monique Scraper, chief development officer with HeartLine, an Oklahoma City nonprofit organization that answers 211 calls from 40 counties in central and western Oklahoma. DHS recently announced it would be cutting support to 211, and as a result, the line may no longer operate around the clock [Source]