Weekly Opinion Editorial
FIND THE WASTE!
by Steve Fair
In December, the Oklahoma State Board of
Equalization, which is made up of the Governor, Lt. Governor, State Auditor,
State Treasurer, Attorney General, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and
the Secretary of Agriculture met and certified the amount of money the Oklahoma
legislature has to spend this year. Because
revenue is down, the board certified $869 million less than last year. That is a -12.6% decrease from last year and comes
on top of last year’s-20% shortfall. Much
of Oklahoma government revenue is based on oil and gas gross production tax and
while the price of oil goes down, so does production.
Next week, the Oklahoma legislature
convenes and this will be a challenging session, coming on the heels of last
year’s challenging session. Republicans who
have been campaigning about making government smaller may be forced to do just
that. Since Republicans took control of
the state legislature in 2006, very little ‘streamlining/rightsizing’ of state
government has been done. Now that tax revenue
is off double digits, it is quite possible the campaign rhetoric is going to
have to match what legislators actually do.
It is disappointing when some Rs focus on
only one side of the ledger- the revenue side.
Instead of identifying waste in state government, they float more and
more ideas of how to get more money out of the hard working people in Oklahoma’s
pockets. The Governor has said taxing
cigarettes, tattoos and car washes is likely.
Others said it is time to eliminate ‘tax credits.’ Tax credit is a deplorable term because it
assumes the money is the governments before it is collected and by designating your
money a ‘credit’ the government is giving you permission to keep your own
money. Very Republican concept- not!
Preston
Doerflinger, the Secretary of State Finance, an appointee of the Governor,
says: “I think it’s
important for everybody to realize you’re not cutting your way out of this
situation. We have to have a serious conversation about revenue in this state.”
Why can’t you cut your way out of
it? Is Oklahoma government so lean and
mean that no fat exists anywhere? What
if the people overwhelmingly rejected the idea of paying more taxes and those
deep cuts had to be made? Waste would
have to found and eliminated. That is
how it works in business? If there is a
downturn in sales, a business doesn’t keep on spending? They adjust expenses, lay off workers and
work on building the revenue stream. Families
often have to make tough decisions when their income is reduced. Adjustments have to be made, but when government
is short on money, they just tax the people more.
No doubt the
legislature will do ‘across the board’ cuts this year as they always do and
tell every state agency they need to feel the pain equally. The problem is that one size doesn’t fit all. Some agencies should feel the pain more than
others. The legislature will take this ‘path of least
resistance’ because they say there isn’t the money and time to locate where the
real waste is. Here is a novel idea: why
not fund the constitutional office charged with watching government- the State
Auditor’s office- with incremental money to hire more auditors to turn over
more rocks and find more waste? That common sense idea has been presented
several times and is always voted down, primarily because Gary Jones, the
current Auditor, has been critical of the legislature. The only state agency that should be getting
more funding is the one that is looking out for the taxpayers.
Some Republicans just don’t get it. They honestly believe taxpayers are in favor
of more taxes. They prance around with
ideas to give raises to public school teachers, judges, state agency heads, and
bureaucrats all while proclaiming they believe in ‘small government.’ They support taking more tax dollars out of
our pockets so they can keep Oklahoma government up in the manner in which it
has become accustomed. With Oklahoma
being so dependent on the oil/gas industry, thousands of Oklahomans have been
put out of a job and those who got other jobs aren’t making as much as they
were before. How many state employees has
Oklahoma government cut during that same period? Guaranteed, it was nothing like the private
sector.
Oklahoma government doesn’t
have too little of the taxpayer’s money- they have too much. They mismanage the money they get. Call your state legislator today and tell
them you are not in favor of any tax increase until they start working on the
spending side of the ledger first.
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