Fallin hopes ‘reasonable heads’ prevail

Last week as Gov. Mary Fallin celebrated the passage of a teacher pay raise and revenue to fund it, she encouraged teachers preparing for a strike to visit the Capitol to say “thank you” before heading back to class.

Thursday will be day four of their visit.

“I'm hoping that reasonable heads will come together and that the union (Oklahoma Education Association) and other groups that are out here will understand that they received the largest pay increase ever in the state's history, a 19 percent increase in funding for education overall,” Fallin said in her office Wednesday.

There were some who said “thank you,” though. Fallin beamed while describing someone who brought a box of candy to her office and when an 8-year-old teacher’s son walked up to the governor’s residence with flowers and a card.

He drew his vantage of the Capitol protest on one side, and on the other this message: “Thank you for signing the bill. Keep up the good work. Our school needs more cash money.”

“There is good stuff happening at the Capitol,” Fallin said.

The governor said the biggest surprise during the first three days of the protests, which have filled the Oklahoma Capitol to capacity, was the misinformation she said was spreading through the crowd.

“There were some teachers that didn't even know the pay raise had been signed. The discord between all the different bodies involved in the process has been disheartening from a standpoint,” she said. “But I hope reasonable people come together and understand we need to move forward and get something good done for the state of Oklahoma.”

Fallin cited several revenue ideas floating between the House and Senate, including bills to collect third-party online sales tax, to use surplus cash, to collect more revenue from wind production and capital gains.

In a meeting with legislative leadership on Tuesday, Fallin secured unanimous agreement that if the Legislature votes to strip a hotel/ motel tax out of the funding bill passed last week, they would resolve to fill the gap before it happens.

There will be more protests and more legislating on Thursday as teachers argue for more education funding and lawmakers in the Senate consider two more votes on revenue bills.

“I think their voice has been helpful, although I'll remind people that we passed a teacher pay raise bill before the strike, and they decided to come here after the pay raise bill had been signed,” Fallin said. “I think it's nice that people have the opportunity to be able to come to the Capitol and advocate for their issues, be able to talk to the legislators, elected officials about what they think is important.”