OUR VIEWS | DA's ideas are worthwhile

Many Oklahomans no doubt share the sentiments of Chickasha's school superintendent, who learned recently that his district had been shorted $2.1 million by Grady County.

“It's astounding, absolutely astounding,” Superintendent Jack Herron told Randy Ellis.

The problem was that property tax revenue that should have been directed to the school district went instead into the county's general fund. District Attorney Jason Hicks says it appears to have been an “inadvertent mistake.”

Unfortunately, county governments in Oklahoma have a long history of practices that could be called puzzling, if not outright illegal. The county commissioners' kickback scandal of the 1980s, which resulted in 230 convictions or guilty pleas, is the most egregious example.

More recently, the state Auditor and Inspector's Office worked under former director Gary Jones to get counties to comply with property valuation rules and processes. More than 20 years ago, state officials came up with a review process to determine if county assessors were properly valuing property. But when the initial test showed many were not, state officials changed the process so more counties would be in compliance.

Many assessors subsequently kept property values artificially low, and there was no pressure from the state for them to do otherwise. Schools may have lost out on hundreds of millions in funding as a result.

By the end of Jones' second term last year, most counties had come into compliance.

The misdirection of funding for Chickasha schools follows another black eye in Grady County involving taxpayer funds. A state investigative audit found in January that over a 10-year period, the county's elected officials had been paid more than $727,000 above the amount allowed by law.

Hicks said he told county officials, “This really looks bad,” and he's right. Hicks also has a few suggestions that state lawmakers should consider.

One is to require that county financial records be put online for public consumption. Another is to require county officials to review their books monthly. The fact they aren't made to do so “just blows my mind,” he said.

“They ought to be looking at it every month, not every now and then,” Hicks said. “Maybe this is something the Legislature and Governor Stitt need to be looking at. If you want accountability, you can put some procedures in place so you have some accountability.”

Lawmakers ought to take note. While it's unlikely the scope of problems that might be found elsewhere would compare with those on display in Grady County, it also would be a mistake to assume every other county's books are ship shape.