Quotes of the Day

“In the second special session? Yeah, I would.”

– Gov. Fallin, in response to a reporter who asked if she would veto a budget that did not contain a teacher pay raise (Source)

“The state will continue the cycle of using one-time funds to plug the budget hole if we do not make significant structural changes to our budget. The modest increases we are seeing month-to-month will not fix the state’s ongoing budget issues.”

– Secretary of Finance Preston Doerflinger, urging lawmakers not to read too much into a positive monthly revenue collections report (Source)

“I am hopeful to have backup support from community leaders who are highly engaged and represent all kinds of industries — big, small, urban, rural, Democrat, Republican, independent — to be able to find a path forward so we can end the constant budget crisis we have been experiencing over the last five years now and to fix the budget and quit kicking the can down the road.”

– Gov. Mary Fallin (Source)

“I’ve wondered why we didn’t have a caucus this week, or heard from the governor. I thought we would try to do something, but it doesn’t look like they are in any big hurry. Either the governor knows she has run out of time, or they have cooked something up between all the parties that they think we can vote on quickly.”

– Sen. Dewayne Pemberton (R-Muskogee) commenting on the lack of communication from leadership on the plan for a third special session (Source)

“Well, we are obviously circumventing the legislative process. We don’t have a lot of faith in the legislative process, and I think it’s fair to say most Oklahomans would agree with that.”

– Mickey Thompson, former director of the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association and founder and director of Restore Oklahoma Now, a nonprofit created to draft a ballot initiative that could restore oil and gas gross production taxes to 7 percent, with most of the new revenues earmarked for education (Source)

“Education is one of those core services. I understand that the state has challenges budgetwise like the state health department, the prisons and roads. All of these are core services that should be adequately funded, but so should education.”

– Bartlesville Public Schools Superintendent Chuck McCauley (Source)

“Addiction is the public health crisis of our time, and is a significant underlying factor in the majority of cases at our courthouse. We can’t wait for somebody else to solve this problem for us. We have to be responsibly creative and innovate in this area.”

– Kenneth Stoner, newly appointed Oklahoma County district judge, on the importance of strengthening and expanding drug courts and mental health courts in Oklahoma (Source)

“We’re hopeful that this large chorus of voices will continue pushing in 2018 for a balanced mix of new permanent revenues so that our teachers will no longer need to cross the border to support their families and Oklahomans with disabilities and senior citizens won’t have to wonder what will happen to their life-sustaining services every few months.”

– OK Policy Legislative Liaison Bailey Perkins, predicting that the bipartisan push for new revenues will continue in 2018 (Source)

“We deal with students who’ve been affected by trauma on a more regular basis than we ever have in my 26 years of education, she says. Additionally, we deal with more incidents of self-harm. The loads that pre-teens and teenagers are carrying seem to be quite stifling for some of them at times.”

Lisa Witcher, Executive Director of Secondary Education at Tulsa Union Public Schools, on the increasing need for mental health care in public schools.  An increasing number of students are living in poverty, and a life of poverty often accompanies trauma, but that’s not the only reason for the uptick in mental illness. (Source)

“We have balanced our budget by using one-time funds, revolving funds, raiding various cash funds, Rainy Day funds, to the point that we can’t do that any longer. It’s becoming a crisis in the state of Oklahoma.”

– Gov. Mary Fallin (Source)