Can Oklahoma learn from Kansas

[Townsend]

The Lost Ogle reminds me of Phoenix New Times an LA Weekly http://www.voicemediagroup.com/ an alternative news publication. I take the article and Pam's comment as a load of sarcasm based on a real issue.

Creeped her FB.  Pam's comment does not appear to be sarcasm.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Wait.   I didn't read the article first, and just read the comment.  I thought it was somebody being overly sarcastic, and doing an excellent job of parodying the wing-nuts.   Is this seriously a real comment by a real person in a position of relative standing in OK?  Good.  Effing. God.     The level of "you have got to be kidding me" is so high here I don't even know how to react.

It's Oklahoma... yeah, it's real.

[dbacksfan 2.0]

Creeped her FB.  Pam's comment does not appear to be sarcasm.

My bad. Went back an re-read her comment an picked up this lovely nugget of nuttieness.......

"You can save money on text books by using the family Bible which teaches a LOT of science, history, geography, psychology, sociology and even grammar and vocabulary."

[swake]

Creeped her FB.  Pam's comment does not appear to be sarcasm.

[Conan71]

Apparently the state GOP isn't capable of nutting up and increasing income taxes with no end in sight of dropping oil prices nor any clue when oil prices might return to higher levels.  Even with budget cuts, there will still be government waste- it is what government appears to do best.  Personally, I don't want to live in a state which resembles Afghanistan due to reduction in essential services and education, I'd gladly pay more in personal taxes to offset losses from oil revenue to the state.

Lawmakers fear second revenue failure for current fiscal year

OKLAHOMA CITY — Lawmakers are concerned that a spiraling drop in oil prices could result in a second revenue failure for the current fiscal year.

A number of scenarios to deal with it are under discussion, including additional cuts in general revenue to state appropriated agencies, House Appropriations and Budget Committee Chairman Earl Sears, R-Bartlesville, confirmed Wednesday.

"If oil continues to drop, I feel there will be another revenue failure for 2016," Sears said in response to questions about the budget.

The regular session begins Feb. 1, when lawmakers will craft a fiscal year 2017 budget. That budget is expected to be at least $900.8 million less than the current fiscal year budget.

A revenue failure for fiscal year 2016 was declared in December. As a result, Finance Secretary Preston Doerflinger made a 3 percent across the board cut in general revenue to state appropriated agencies.

Doerflinger can make across the board cuts to state agencies, but only lawmakers can make targeted cuts, Sears said.

"He can't do targeted cuts, but we can," Sears said.

Sears emphasized that no decision has been made on how lawmakers will proceed.

Sears, Doerflinger and Senate Appropriations Chairman Clark Jolley, R-Edmond, are expected to meet Thursday to discuss numerous funding policies regarding the 2016 budget, Sears said.

One item under consideration is increasing the cuts to some state appropriated agencies up to 5 percent from 3 percent, he said. Such a move would allow targeted cuts to cushion the blow to some agencies.

House Republicans caucused on Tuesday to discuss the budget. Senate Republicans met Wednesday to discuss the budget.

"As oil prices continue to drop, I think it is likely you will see an additional revenue shortfall announced because of our dependence on gross production taxes," said Sen. Brian Crain, R-Tulsa.

Barbara Hoberock 405-528-2465

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/capitol_report/lawmakers-fear-second-revenue-failure-for-current-fiscal-year/article_679ac52a-1655-591b-b554-e236437302db.html

[AquaMan]

Bloodletting. Once the waste and evil spirits are drained out, then we can get healthy again. If the patient isn't comatose. (Trumpies...this is satire)

[cannon_fodder]

I heard on the radio this morning that budget cuts will further reduce the number of levy and dam inspectors in Oklahoma. We currently have 9 for the several thousand dams and levies we have. We can receive something like $30mil in matching federal funds if we meet our funding obligations of $18mil a year.  We haven't met that in years and certainly won't this year...  so we will let the dams/levies continue to crumble until a disaster happens, then beg Uncle Sam for cash and launch investigations into how this could have happened.

Same story with Medicaid expansion. When we are flat broke we will beg for the "free" money and whine that the "free" period is over and we have to immediately do a 2% match (or whatever).

Highway funds.

Police funds.

Anything that requires a state match, we're probably losing out on.

I'm not worried about losing funding for quality of life projects, while I think its stupid to cut museums, art, music, parks and other quality of life items first - I get it. Times are tough and Oklahoma City sees those things as luxuries. But even the most right wing anti-tax guy has to understand that "deferring" spending on roads, bridges, and other capital projects simply costs us more money down the road, and costs us commerce in the mean time. Cutting spending on education at all levels is like Pfizer cutting its R&D budget, the immediate impact might be minimal, but you have mortgaged long term gains.

But hey, with me tax savings I can go see a movie with my family. So there's that.

[heironymouspasparagus]

I heard on the radio this morning that budget cuts will further reduce the number of levy and dam inspectors in Oklahoma. We currently have 9 for the several thousand dams and levies we have. We can receive something like $30mil in matching federal funds if we meet our funding obligations of $18mil a year.  We haven't met that in years and certainly won't this year...  so we will let the dams/levies continue to crumble until a disaster happens, then beg Uncle Sam for cash and launch investigations into how this could have happened.

Same story with Medicaid expansion. When we are flat broke we will beg for the "free" money and whine that the "free" period is over and we have to immediately do a 2% match (or whatever).

Highway funds.

Police funds.

Anything that requires a state match, we're probably losing out on.

I'm not worried about losing funding for quality of life projects, while I think its stupid to cut museums, art, music, parks and other quality of life items first - I get it. Times are tough and Oklahoma City sees those things as luxuries. But even the most right wing anti-tax guy has to understand that "deferring" spending on roads, bridges, and other capital projects simply costs us more money down the road, and costs us commerce in the mean time. Cutting spending on education at all levels is like Pfizer cutting its R&D budget, the immediate impact might be minimal, but you have mortgaged long term gains.

But hey, with me tax savings I can go see a movie with my family. So there's that.

You give the RWRE  WAAAYYYYY too much credit!!  They not only don't 'have' to understand - they don't actually understand.  And the most unbelievable part of it is how many of them really aren't very well off, but continue to vote directly against their own self-interest for people who do real physical and financial harm to them!!


To save MAYBE a couple hundred bucks a year on a $100 k income...probably noticeably less...

Or $20 on a $50 k income.

[AquaMan]

I love the World headline, "Yes! We Are Angry!"

Other than Kasich, that pretty much sums up the republican candidates this time but especially Trump. And what do humans do when they don't understand what's happening around them? They get angry.

Trump adds a little more negativity than the others though. Even his tag line, "Let's Make America Great Again!" is weird. America is great. We don't poison our political opponents. We are a magnet for masses yearning to be free and we are among the greatest in personal wealth the world has ever seen. He has taken the "negative sell" technique to new levels of success.

[Ed W]

"Let's make America great again!" It clearly resonates with some but it's sorely lacking on details. Most of The Donald's slogans are like that and he bristles at supplying any real information.

You can fool some of the people all of the time and apparently that applies to about 35% of registered Republicans. It's depressing.

[cannon_fodder]

Let's make America great again!

I want to know if he is talking about going back to Obamas first term with massive government expansion on healthcare and unreal corporate bailouts -  or back to the wars, economic collapse, unemployment, and ballooning budgets under Bush II. Maybe the scandals, gun control and isolationism under Clinton. The economic wobbles and malaise of Bush I. The ridiculous increases in budget, giving missiles to Iran and WMDs to Iraq, government toppling, apartheid support, gun control and granting of immigration amnesty under Reagan. The energy crisis, economic downturn and water treading done under Carter. Whateverthehell Ford did. The antics of Nixon. Or go way back to when we had high corporate taxes, high tax rates on the rich, and high union membership?

I need him to define an era we are to emulate. Or, I guess, general platitudes and vague Golden Age statements are probably enough to run a country.

[swake]

I want to know if he is talking about going back to Obamas first term with massive government expansion on healthcare and unreal corporate bailouts -  or back to the wars, economic collapse, unemployment, and ballooning budgets under Bush II. Maybe the scandals, gun control and isolationism under Clinton. The economic wobbles and malaise of Bush I. The ridiculous increases in budget, giving missiles to Iran and WMDs to Iraq, government toppling, apartheid support, gun control and granting of immigration amnesty under Reagan. The energy crisis, economic downturn and water treading done under Carter. Whateverthehell Ford did. The antics of Nixon. Or go way back to when we had high corporate taxes, high tax rates on the rich, and high union membership?

I need him to define an era we are to emulate. Or, I guess, general platitudes and vague Golden Age statements are probably enough to run a country.

Maybe back to the days when his father refused to rent apartments to blacks?
http://gawker.com/woody-guthrie-despised-his-landlord-donald-trumps-racis-1754282007

[heironymouspasparagus]

The energy crisis, economic downturn and water treading done under Carter. Whateverthehell Ford did. The antics of Nixon. Or go way back to when we had high corporate taxes, high tax rates on the rich, and high union membership?

I need him to define an era we are to emulate. Or, I guess, general platitudes and vague Golden Age statements are probably enough to run a country.

The contrived energy crisis was in Nixon's regime.  OPEC, in conjunction with Big Oil and our CIA sat down and applied "Harvard School of Business" analysis to how to make money in oil move faster, thereby creating larger profits (turns per year along with higher prices).  OPEC was still unsophisticated enough at that point in time that they didn't realize they could make such a thing as the Burj Kalifa if they just charged us a little more for oil.  If ya have a barrel of oil you sell for $2.50 and make 20%...well that is nowhere as good as a barrel at $5.00 and make 20%.  Simple calculation that they were taught by US.

And while the mideast has been a huge mess for hundreds of years, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi worked as the figurehead after the early 50's CIA coup that got rid of the constitutional monarchy that had been around for 30 years or so.  Breeding even more of the hatred in the area...and leading to the 1979 revolution.

But the Shah saw the benefit of higher oil prices along with Saudi and everyone else that formed OPEC, so we had a crisis.

Ford did a couple things - first pardoned Nixon, which, as much as I disliked Nixon, was the best thing any President could have done at the time.  Put an end to that insanity. 

Second was his use of the veto and the way he worked with Congress...very well.  He vetoed more bills per year than any modern President and made them stick.  For a guy that was only around for about 2 1/2 years...not too shabby.

Carter was another one who inherited a gawd-awful mess...the contrived energy crisis of 1979 was not a new one, it was the continuation of the 1974 mess.  The economic problems both he and Ford had to deal with came directly from the bungling of the end of VietNam era of carp.  And 11% inflation!!  BUT, wage and price controls...Really??   ID10T-ic.  But what can one expect from Nixon?

Inflation was a continuation and as for unemployment...well, if Carter's was "catastrophically bad at 7.2 peak for one year, what does that make Reagan's 3 year numbers of 1981 at 7.6%.  1982 at 9.7%.  And 1983 at 9.6%.  But by 1984 we did manage to get back down to 7.5%.  STILL higher than Carter's worst year!

The lies and spreading of uncertainty goes on by both parties to a certain degree.  But it is obvious that the Republicontin's are master's and do SO much more of it, that the Dems pale by comparison.

Oh, yeah...we haven't even touched on the fact that at the end of Carter's last fiscal year, those "deficit" monger Dems had racked up $900 billion in national debt....in 200 years.  By the end of Raygun's last fiscal year we were at $2.6 trillion.  290% increase in 8 years!

And how the last year of Baby Bush added $1.9 trillion to the debt.  And the end of Obama's first fiscal year the adder was $1.65 trillion - that's a 15% reduction while fighting Baby Bush's record recession.  By the end of fiscal 2015, there was $330 billion added to the debt.  That is a reduction of over 80%.  While bringing the longest economic recovery in the history of the planet - anywhere, anytime.  But Faux News still says we are in 'shambles'....yeah, right.


As for those high taxes - well they also had high exemptions...50% and better, bringing real tax rates a whole lot closer to today's.  Rockefeller was the one specifically targeted with the 95% income tax rate and he never paid anywhere near that after adjustments.

[AquaMan]

I need him to define an era we are to emulate. Or, I guess, general platitudes and vague Golden Age statements are probably enough to run a country.

I saw a cool headline somewhere on the net,"REPUBLICANS PROMISE ON THE FIRST DAY OF THEIR PRESIDENCY TO REPEAL THE TWENTIETH CENTURY!"

[Townsend]

Oklahoma health commissioner proposes $1.50 cigarette tax increase

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/state/oklahoma-health-commissioner-proposes-cigarette-tax-increase/article_dc3729a6-fb98-521d-bb8b-a861d3685050.html

Oklahoma Health Commissioner Terry Cline said Tuesday he wants to raise the state's cigarette tax by $1.50 per pack to pay for teachers and expand the Insure Oklahoma program for low-income workers.

The proposed increase is being carried by state Rep. Doug Cox, R-Grove, as House Joint Resolution 1058, a legislative referendum that would take a vote of the people to enact.
Cline said the tax increase would generate $182 million a year while driving down cigarette consumption by about 10 percent.

As written, the measure would direct 66 percent of the proceeds — about $120 million — to teacher salaries, 32 percent to Insure Oklahoma and 2 percent to pediatric cancer research and treatment through the University Hospitals.

Cline said the increase would effectively apply to tribal smoke shops as well as non-tribal vendors under current tobacco compacts.
The state cigarette tax is now $1.03 per pack.

Cline noted Oklahoma continues to rank among the worst states for overall health despite some improvements.

"I'd like to get us out of the bottom 10," he said. "One of the things we can do is attack tobacco."

Cline said polling commissioned by the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust shows Oklahomans support a higher cigarette tax. A $1.50 per pack increase, Cline said, would rank Oklahoma's tax among the 15 highest in the country.

Statistics provided by Cline showed cigarette consumption in Oklahoma has declined as price increases, but that excise tax revenue has been relatively steady for the past decade.

Adult smokers have declined from about one-third of the population in 1990 to 21.1 percent currently. Youth smoking rates have fallen by more than half since 1999.

Those rates remain above the national average, however.

Cline acknowledged the new tax would fall disproportionately on the poor, but said he hoped it would also be more of an incentive to quite smoking. He said smoking is more prevalent among low-income groups, including those reliant on Medicaid or who have no insurance at all, and those same people tend to have more health problems than non-smokers and higher-income Oklahomans.