Many failures evident in this legislative session

THE Oklahoma Constitution imposes various restrictions on the Legislature. But there’s no constitutional mandate forcing lawmakers to wait until the 11th hour to do anything. That seems to be news to them.

There are areas of disagreement among political parties and competing factions, yet there are also areas of agreement and issues where inaction is indefensible. The fact that lawmakers failed to address those topics within the first two months of session verges on malpractice.

To cite just one example (yet again), increasing the cigarette tax is a political no-brainer. It’s one of the few tax increases to draw strong, bipartisan support in polls of Oklahoma voters. Most people — including many smokers — view the tax as a health measure because it would deter smoking. That it could also provide additional funds to maintain various state services is an added bonus.

Yet in the fourth month of the legislative session, the cigarette tax remains on high center. Republicans and Democrats are to blame, although the Democratic caucus has earned extra scorn. House Democrats included a cigarette tax increase in their own budget plan, yet have consistently prevented action on it.

It’s time lawmakers took “yes” for an answer on the cigarette tax. It should have passed months ago.

Some smokers object to being targeted for a tax increase while liquor taxes remain unchanged. That’s a fair point. It’s astounding that lawmakers have considered a bill to raise the effective tax rate on people for donating to charity or paying for a parent’s nursing home care, yet have said hardly a word about liquor taxes.

Then there’s criminal justice reform. Several ideas have been proposed to reduce Oklahoma’s prison incarceration rate by using less costly punishments for nonviolent offenders. None has become law yet, and some have been watered down.

Those measures might not generate large, immediate savings, but they would put the state on a path to lower future costs without harming public safety. One way to avoid a repeat of this year’s budget shortfall is to control future costs. So why haven’t legislators already done so?

Similarly, Oklahoma has more than 500 school districts, far more than states of comparable size. Yet there’s been no serious effort to find savings by, say, combining administration in small schools. And there’s certainly been no admission that some tiny schools are no longer viable.

That’s an emotional topic for some, no doubt. But how can lawmakers tell citizens that large tax increases are needed while making no effort to eliminate waste?

Similarly, there’s been little discussion of agency consolidation. Nor has there been any effort to eliminate questionable expenditures like state money spent on a “spaceport” near Burns Flat.

The list goes on. These are areas where broad public support or an obvious need for action exists. Yet all we’ve gotten from the Legislature is inaction. The release of last-minute budget plans only signals that everything will now be done in a rush with little public transparency or scrutiny.

As U.S. House speaker, Nancy Pelosi famously said Congress had to pass Obamacare so people could find out what was in it. That Oklahoma lawmakers from both parties are employing that model may be their most damning failure this year.