House Dems’ actions don’t match rhetoric

AS the Oklahoma Education Association issued its demand for a $6,000 pay raise for teachers this year, and $10,000 over three years, House Democrats let it be known they were fully behind them.

“For longer than any of our current members have been in the House, Democratic Caucus members have stood side-by-side with teachers and have fought to protect funding for our most valuable resource — public education,” declared Rep. Steve Kouplen of Beggs, who leads the caucus.

Yet this support wasn’t so evident just five months ago, when a plan to provide teachers with $3,000 raises failed in the House. The bill, which also would have given state employees a $1,000 raise, was backed by 54 Republicans but didn’t receive a single “yes” vote from House Democrats.

The reason, ostensibly, was because the bill didn’t include an increase in the gross production tax paid by oil and gas companies. When a new bill was presented soon after, increasing that tax from 2 percent to 4 percent, about four-fifths of the 28-member Democratic caucus voted in favor but some Republicans who had voted for the first bill switched course, and the measure failed.

House Democrats like to point to that second vote as a way to criticize Republicans and say, “We were willing to do our part.” And it was certainly true that some Republican members peeled off on that vote. But then in February, when the Step Up Oklahoma plan was presented that would have provided teachers with $5,000 across-the-board raises, Democrats bailed again.

The original Step Up plan sought to raise $790 million through a variety of tax increases, including on gross production of oil and gas, and on tobacco — two things House Democrats had long sought. Concerns about some aspects of the proposal resulted in their removal, making the price tag $581 million.

On Feb. 12, the day of the vote on Step Up, teachers and students flooded the Capitol urging the bill's passage. When it came time to vote, 53 of the 72 members of the Republican caucus supported Step Up. That’s one vote short of 75 percent of a caucus that philosophically opposes higher taxes.

Yet only 10 of the 28 House Democrats (36 percent) did the same. Why? Because among other things, they said, the plan was too hard on lower-income Oklahomans and didn’t hit the energy industry and the “wealthy” hard enough. Democrats claimed they wanted the gross production tax increased to 5 percent (it was 4 in the Step Up proposal), and the top income tax rate bumped to 5.25 percent from the current 5 percent. But the reality is their opposition was driven by pure party politics in an election year.

And so, teacher pay raises — sizeable, meaningful pay raises, something Democrats have railed about for years — went by the board. We’re left with the OEA demanding the Legislature come up with $1.4 billion total by April 2, or face a walkout. “Schools will stay closed until we get what we are asking for,” OEA President Alicia Priest said.

That could be a while. And if that happens, Democrats will surely howl about Republican mismanagement, but House Democrats will deserve most of the blame. The OEA, its members and the general public should remember that.