Quotes of the Day

I know that now if I spike a migraine in the middle of the night or that I’m vomiting or blacking out, that I can go to the ER and I don’t have to worry about it. Whereas before if that happened, it was basically wanting to put an anvil on my head, and I was taking two aspirin, two Tylenol, two this, two that. I was taking like 15 over-the-counter medications a day, probably eating my stomach up.

-Sarah Payne, an Oklahoma City hair stylist who suffers daily migraines. Payne now has an appointment with a neurologist, something she could not afford until she recently gained access to health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace (Source: http://bit.ly/1ivUVZi).

I’m a conservative but that doesn’t mean that I want to make cuts to medical programs for sick children. I don’t want to get a few dollars in a tax refund that means cuts will be made for needed repairs to our highways, roads and bridges. I don’t want to hear that our educational system is being cut back. Being a conservative means that I don’t mind spending money wisely.

-Edmond resident Georgia Sparks, writing in a letter to the editor published by The Oklahoman about why she opposes income tax cut plans (Source: http://bit.ly/1fa9BcB)

Unless something happens quickly, they’re going to be in real trouble.  And I can’t tell you what a difficult challenge it would be to adjust to living in this environment without a hospital close by.

–Lexington City Manager Charlie McCown, on a failed bridge linking the town to nearby Purcell

These results show a growing disconnect between elected officials and Oklahoma voters on this issue. The more voters learn about the tax cut proposals, the less popular they become.

-David Blatt, Executive Director of Oklahoma Policy Institute, on a poll showing support for cutting Oklahoma’s income tax has dropped significantly (Source: http://bit.ly/1eVbPfW)

In Oklahoma, we’re not talking about sex, only to say not to do it. We forget these are kids and kids are known to be dumb and make bad decisions. We need to talk about birth control, how to use it and how to get it.

– Former teen mom Nikki Parker. Though she is now director of human resources for the Tulsa Regional Chamber, she needed public assistance during her two children’s youngest years. Oklahoma ranks second in the US for teen pregnancies (Source: http://bit.ly/1mgwySX)

It’s kind of an unsustainable crunch. The governor has Complete College America and wants to graduate more students. Meanwhile, we’re cutting the dollars and, therefore, how do you make that up?

-Oklahoma State University President Burns Hargis. The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education requested an increase of $76.3 million for the next fiscal year, but the governor has called for a cut of nearly $50 million (Source: http://bit.ly/1eO5C5l)

We’re trying to predict how an 8-year-old will pass a test on one day. These are kids whose very first standardized test is a high-stakes test.

-Sandi Calvin, executive director of elementary education at Union Public Schools, who said the district is keeping portfolios of all students’ work throughout the year to use for good cause exemptions in case they fail the 3rd Grade reading test (Source: http://bit.ly/1nxBhRM)

This isn’t about managed care. It is about privatization. The Oklahoma Health Care Authority is already one of the most efficient agencies in state government. Their administrative overhead is far less than what you would find with most private insurers and so for there to be any cost saving, it is going to be borne on the back of providers.

-Wes Glinsmann, spokesperson for the Oklahoma State Medical Association, speaking against a bill that would move a portion of the state’s Medicaid population onto privatized managed care plans (Source: http://bit.ly/O9RsF9).

If we are going to tie tax cuts to a trigger, how about we choose other benchmarks? We know that a well-educated workforce is what is most critical to our state’s prosperity, yet since 2008 we’ve made the steepest per-pupil cuts to education funding in the nation. Why not decide that we will only cut our income tax when per-pupil funding climbs back to where it was in 2008? When our teacher salaries are raised to the regional average? When our college graduation rate reaches the national average?

– OK Policy Executive Director David Blatt, on proposals to trigger automatic income tax cuts when there are modest increases in state revenues (source: http://bit.ly/1nlLDUQ).

Every nook and cranny is filled with somebody.

-Tulsa County Commissioner Karen Keith, on overcrowding in Tulsa county jails (Source: http://bit.ly/1frYCz5)