Quotes of the Day

“I cannot say when that will happen, but that’s certainly the direction that they’re heading.”

– Oklahoma County assistant district attorney Aaron Etherington, speaking about the likelihood of a lawsuit from the US Department of Justice over the county’s overcrowded, outdated jail. (Source)

“As we look back on the last four months, my caucus can’t help but think about how in this game of winners and losers, the people who truly lost this legislative session were middle class Oklahomans, and in particular those Oklahomans in rural parts of our state.”

– State House Minority Leader Scott Inman (D-Del City), speaking out against the budget passed by the state legislature late last week. The budget left in place wasteful tax breaks and allowed an income tax cut to go into effect, while leaving some state agencies unable to continue providing services at current levels. (Source)

“We smashed both the wettest May and the wettest month. Not just broke it, but absolutely smashed it. And the forecast calls for another good dousing by the end of the month. I don’t know if people realize the history they’re seeing here.”

-State climatologist Gary McManus, speaking about torrential rainfall and flooding that has likely caused millions of dollars’ worth of damage to roads and bridges across the state (Source)

“That would be extremely disappointing to a lot of people, if we’re going to spend that money on private prison beds. (Employee) morale is in a bad place. I don’t know how it could possibly get worse.”

-Sean Wallace, executive director of Oklahoma Corrections Professionals, on news that the Oklahoma Department of Corrections has decided to spend its $14 million budget increase on sending more inmates to private prisons instead of providing the employee raises proposed in the agency’s budget request (Source)

“It’s not a matter of not being able to see these patients. We will close.”

– Lindsay Flaming, a nurse practitioner at an independent practice in Norman, speaking out against recommended reimbursement cuts for health care provided by nurse practitioners, physician assistants and other midlevel providers for Medicaid patients. Flaming said their office saw almost 4,000 Medicaid patients last year. (Source)

“We wish the state budget deal had turned out otherwise. It could have, but poor choices, this year and in the past, left the state with a $611 million chasm, and a promise that next year the hole will be even deeper.”

– The Tulsa World’s Editorial Board, arguing that the budget deal failed to use sensible solutions, including canceling the income tax cut, to build a responsible budget (Source)

“The governor and legislative leaders promised to hold common education funding flat, and that’s what they did.”

-Shawn Hime, executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, who said flat funding for education means Superintendent Joy Hofmeister’s push to increase teacher pay and expand the school year is dead for this year (Source).

“We’re not just writing this down because we want to write something in a report.”

-State Auditor and Inspector Gary Jones, in a 2012 audit that found widespread problems with the management of jail funds by the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office. For the past five years state and federal auditors have repeatedly criticized the Sheriff’s Office lax oversight of funds, but those warnings prompted little change and some of the funds went missing (Source).

“Whatever agreement they do come to will not touch one dollar of an irresponsible income tax cut, will not essentially raise any money from any of the billions of dollars of tax credits that are currently out there. Instead they’re going to balance this budget on the backs of county roads and bridges, on the backs of public education teachers, on the backs of nurses and physicians’ assistants around the state.”

-House Minority Leader Scott Inman, speaking about the state of budget negotiations between legislative leaders and Governor Fallin (Source)

“There are things we address as physicians that may not have long-term effects, such as a child who comes in for a cold. We know that the cold will resolve itself and the child will be fine. If we do not address the word gap for our families, then we are not addressing one of the most potentially long-term disadvantages that they will face.”

-Tulsa pediatrician Amy Emerson, who is participating in a campaign to raise awareness on the importance of talking, reading and singing to children from birth to age 3 (Source)