Quotes of the Day

“If you go to the right places, you’re going to be able to find people that don’t want to raise taxes. I (think the referendum) is a little misguided, a lot misguided. I know for a fact that knocking doors, talking to neighbors that even people that don’t want higher taxes or anything like that, are not for this.”

– Rep. Jacob Rosecrants (D-Norman) on the veto referendum effort by Oklahoma Taxpayers Unite! to roll back the funding for teacher pay raises and increased education funding (Source)

“This decision by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is troubling and undermines longstanding policy and law that recognize tribes as sovereign governments, not racial classifications. This understanding is the very basis of the laws that apply uniquely to tribes and that have been upheld by the courts time and time again. HHS is demonstrating a breathtaking lack of understanding of this fundamental and bedrock concept in Indian law.”

-Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr., speaking about the Trump Administration’s attempts to remove exemptions for tribal citizens in states that are adding work requirements to Medicaid [Source].

“This bill will make our state the worst state in the country for children who commit crimes. We will again be known across this country as a place that does not protect its children.”

– Sen. A.J. Griffin, R-Guthrie, speaking against Senate Bill 1221, a measure making it easier to sentence minors age 13-17 to life without parole [Source].

“It seems like they’re undercutting all the progress we made this session. It’s hard not to take it personally.”

– Cheryl Fentress, a ninth-grade teacher from Bartlesville, on an effort led by former U.S. Senator Tom Coburn to overturn the tax increases that funded a $6,100 teacher pay raise (Source)

“The priorities [in Oklahoma’s FY 2019 budget] reflect the pressures and input from interested parties and the judgment of legislators as produced by a legislative as opposed to an agency process. I’m biased, but I think that’s as it should be. Legislators are elected to make the budget decisions.”

– Former House Speaker Steve Lewis, writing about the return of line-item appropriations in the Oklahoma budget on the OK Policy blog (Source)

“Are the issues new? No. Newly reported? No. Ignored? No, not by those who have the responsibility to fight the issues. They have been passed over if not ignored by those controlling the agency’s purse strings. That must change today.”

-Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Joe Allbaugh, who said that Oklahoma’s deep understaffing and overcrowding of prisons risks a deadly riot [Source].

“I am the nurse. I am the teacher when the teacher is gone. I’m the mom, dad, counselor — you name it. We wear maybe more hats now because of budget issues.”

– Carmon Williams, the secretary at Edwards Elementary in Oklahoma City who dispenses medication to students because the nurse comes in only once a week. She supports herself and four children on about $19,000 a year [Source].

“This budget in no way makes everyone as complete and whole as we were in 2009.”

– Sen. Kim David (R-Porter), on the budget plan passed by the Senate, acknowledging that almost all agencies continue to be underfunded even with the increases in the budget [Source].

“A simple, flat, 7-percent GPT for all oil and gas production in Oklahoma will not drive operators from Oklahoma . . . It will still, however, leave us the least-taxed major hydrocarbon producer in the country and reduce the effect of inevitable future price drops. The geology that Nature has bestowed upon us, combined with the technical savvy of local operators, will keep the industry interested in Oklahoma for as long as there is an industry.”

– Dan Boyd, petroleum geologist who worked at the Oklahoma Geological Survey for 11 years, in an editorial advocating for higher oil and gas taxes (Source)

“This is the first time since I’ve been here that we’re not arguing about who we are cutting to balance the budget.”

–  Rep. Kevin Wallace (R-Wellston), Joint Committee on Appropriations and Budget co-chair, on the FY 2019 budget proposal unveiled Monday. Wallace has served in the legislature since 2014 (Source)