Quotes of the Day

“The earthquake legislation I’m doing is not earth-shattering. It’s making sure people know what do during earthquakes and make sure they’re well protected. It should never have been this hard to pass this piece of legislation. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but we need to prepare our children, the faculty, staff, administrators.”

-Rep. Mike Shelton, proposing a bill for the fifth straight year directing schools to perform earthquake drills (Source)

“Since I’m single and I don’t have children, I can afford to teach here. But I couldn’t raise a family on this salary. At all. But as of right now, I’m OK. That’s not the same for the vast majority of teachers. Since most teachers are married and have kids, you can’t raise a family on this salary.”

– Teacher Daryl Gandy, who teaches government at Ulysses S. Grant High School in south Oklahoma City (Source).

“If oil continues to drop, I feel there will be another revenue failure for 2016.”

– Rep. Earl Sears, R-Bartlesville, House Appropriations and Budget Committee (Source)

“The thing that should frustrate all of us is that we have a century of experience telling us that an energy-based economy drastically rises and falls, and yet we still don’t have a savings account that appreciates that fact. Though addressing the short-term crisis is important, we should also move forward on long-term reforms like this while the lessons are fresh, or we’ll simply find ourselves in this predicament again.”

-Sen. David Holt, introducing Senate Joint Resolution 44, which would ask the people of Oklahoma to set the cap on the state’s Rainy Day Fund at 15 percent of the total state budget (Source).

“Given the financial stress the state faces, we should consider a number of financial management options, one of which is a delay in the reduction from 5.25 to 5 percent in the top tax rate”

-Senate Finance Chair Mike Mazzei, R-Tulsa, who has filed a bill to void Oklahoma’s 2016 tax cut in a fiscal year in which a revenue failure has been declared (Source).

“Our state faces a serious financial crisis. We don’t have the money to pay our bills. Expanding Medicaid coverage would help solve that problem and, at the same time, take steps toward reforming our criminal justice system.”

-ACLU of Oklahoma Executive Director Ryan Kiesel, speaking about a new report from the organization on how accepting federal funds for health care  could be used to increase mental health coverage, a key component in modernizing Oklahoma’s criminal justice system (Source).

“The quarter-cent tax cut did not cause the financial problem we’re in. Changing the severance tax on oil and gas from 7 percent to 2 percent did not cause the problem. The lack of dealing with the tax credits and making sure the citizens of Oklahoma are getting their money’s worth … didn’t cause the problems. But I tell you what, they sure have made the problem a lot worse.”

-State Auditor Gary Jones, endorsing Tulsa Chamber of Commerce President Jeff Dunn’s criticism of Oklahoma’s tax cuts amid a massive budget shortfall (Source).

“I am extremely proud of our dedicated DHS employees. Year after year, they have responded to reductions in the workforce by taking on more and trying to ensure that our clients do not suffer.  However, at some point, there is a human limit to what they can continue to do at the same level of quantity and quality.”

– Oklahoma Department of Human Services Director Ed Lake, on mid-year cuts that, combined with the loss of federal matching funds, mean $28,070,000 in cuts to DHS (Source).

“It doesn’t plug our hole. It doesn’t solve our deficit problem that we have. But what it shows is that to me the tax cut isn’t as important as helping public education.”

– Rick Cobb, Superintendent of Mid-Del Schools and blogger at okeducationtruths, on Oklahomans donating their income tax cut to public schools. The median Oklahoma household will get only $29 from the cut to the top rate (Source)