Politicians’ failings pose major challenge
THE continued failures of the Legislature have left Oklahomans — conservative and liberal alike — angry and ready to vote lawmakers out en masse. These feelings aren’t the product of a single vote on any one tax plan, as happened Wednesday, but the result of years of failure to manage government.
The incompetence of Oklahoma lawmakers is not a recent development. Year in and year out, legislators have approved budgets filled with gimmicks that allowed them to spend more money than what the state was taking in. This generated automatic shortfalls the following year, and a self-created “crisis” atmosphere. Lawmakers would “resolve” those challenges by doing the very thing that created the problem in the first place — using additional budget gimmicks that again inflated government spending above revenue collections. Rinse, lather, repeat.
When a state recession hit, caused largely by declining oil prices, lawmakers found it much more difficult to continue the charade. Serious financial management would involve thorough review of spending, detailed auditing of agencies, and challenging the assumptions of programs and departments. Contingency plans that would allow for targeted cuts in times of shortfall that minimize damage and maximize benefits for Oklahomans should have been developed long before oil prices took a downward turn. They were not. And lawmakers haven’t taken any such steps since then.
Instead, they have chosen to approve across-theboard cuts based on no real review with no real planning. That means some agencies that could have cut more have been allowed to skate, mismanagement has continued at other agencies, and some agencies have been forced to take actions that are far more detrimental than necessary.
All this in turn has generated demand for ever-larger tax increases on working Oklahomans. Republicans have been in charge the whole time, and deserve the lion’s share of the blame for not preparing for a downturn.
Watching legislative “leaders” during this special session has been a lesson in how not to negotiate and how not to run government. Time and again they have announced a “last chance” plan to address budget problems, only to say, “never mind, here’s another plan” when people cross their supposed red line. This has reduced their credibility and made it more difficult to round up votes for any single proposal. When people in every faction in state government have reason to believe they can get more of what they want by holding out, some are going to do so.
These circumstances have generated the irony of lawmakers offering endless compromises without ever reaching compromise.
Wednesday the House considered (and narrowly rejected, due largely to Republican members’ opposition) legislation to enact $454 million in combined annual tax increases. It was far from a perfect bill, but it was one that many Oklahomans could have lived with.
Yet it went down in defeat, leaving alternatives that, so far, have considerable flaws of their own. It was an utter failure, as the entire seven-week special session has been.
Oklahomans can overcome financial challenges, but not as long as poor leadership and crass gamesmanship reign among this state’s political class.