Putting Oklahomans at risk
Our Legislature is putting at risk thousands of vulnerable Oklahomans. These range from the infants depending upon food stamps for their formula to older Oklahomans receiving health care services in their home. The lives of these people are dependent upon statefunded services.
Perhaps our Legislature should follow the lead of benevolent benefactor George Kaiser of Tulsa, who believes in putting his money where his mouth is. Through research and ingenuity, Kaiser realizes that the only way the poverty cycle can be broken is to provide access to education and state-funded resources for those embroiled within that cycle. Ending the poverty cycle will not be accomplished by conducting eligibility checks on those Oklahomans who receive SoonerCare (Medicaid) benefits. In the end, conducting eligibility checks creates more costs for Oklahoma.
Many of us forecast the current $215 million shortfall when the state’s personal income tax was reduced two years ago, and when the gross production tax was decreased from 7 percent to 2 percent two years ago. It certainly wasn’t a surprise when the bill that would have increased the cigarette tax was defeated two years ago and again during the 2017 legislative session, even when the dollars realized from this tax increase would be designated for providing health care to Oklahomans.
Now there is talk of additional draconian agency cuts at a time when the Department of Human Services has reduced its staff by 30 percent and when the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, which administers the Medicaid program, is forecasting an additional 9 percent provider rate cut if the Legislature cannot create and pass a budget plan that will begin funding state agencies at adequate levels. Who will be affected by these cuts? Doctors, dentists, social workers, nurses, nursing homes, hospitals and many others who daily service Oklahoma’s most vulnerable citizens as well as those who are not dependent upon Medicaid.
A workable plan has been presented. Not only would the plan bail us out of the $215 million fiscal hole, but it would provide an ongoing stream of revenue. But too many of our majority party legislators will not vote for a bill if there is any association with a tax increase contained within the bill’s text. So much for Oklahoma’s creed — so much for brotherly love.
Shame on us! We elected these legislators and now we, the people, are left to grin and bear it? Before you vote in the 2018 general election, I urge you to check the voting records of incumbents who are seeking re-election. It’s all there for us to see on the legislative website.
Emig, of Stillwater, is president of the Oklahoma Silver Haired Legislature Alumni Association and a past president of the State Council on Aging.