Another thought - they could pick the politically least popular (as far as voters are concerned) unfunded federal mandate, and pass a bill stating that per the 10th amendment the Feds have no right to force the states to spend money on it, then zero out all funds in the state budget previously used for it. They'd just need to pick one that has a chance of standing up in court.

__________________
Just say "NO" to Ethanol - Drive Diesel

Mitchell Oates
Mooresville, NC
'87 300D 212K miles
'87 300D 151K miles - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD 67K miles
Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club

Although many of you might find this difficult to believe... Oklahoma has already done almost all of these things. I guess ya'll are smarter than you thought.

Two years ago the state ordered a 20% across the board cut in spending. I think 18% was the final average result; some agencies cut more than 20% and some less.

Sales tax can only be raised by elections. The tax here is now around 8% and the state also taxes all food purchases. Casinos are everywhere and they are run by the Tribes, but the state gets a cut. There is also a state lottery. Oklahoma also has a great highway system, but the majority of the nice roads here are toll-roads. The Turnpike Authority makes a lot of cash, but that money stays in the Turnpike system. One Indian tribe got so fed up with the roads in their area they rebuilt a state highway at a cost (to them) of $60,000,000.

Since the Governor could not do away with the income tax they did manage to get the tax cut by 1/2 a %. This is seen by many here as just stupid since the only reason for it was so the Governor could say 'I cut taxes!'

As weird as this might sound if anyone comes up with a real and workable solution I am in a position to pass it on to some of our Ledge members.

One proposal is to cut back on the prison population which is rather high here, but the last person to suggest that was voted out of office and has never been heard of again. Another is to seek more Federal Funds, but the Republican Ledge members here tell me they would never be elected again if they did that. Plus our Senators have led the charge against Earmarks except for the military, but that is a big help because there are several major military bases here such as Tinker AFB, Fort Sill and the McAlester Army Ammo Plant.

My solution is to put more people to work which would bring in more state income tax. In fact, the employment issue would help a lot of states.

Write your Rep in DC and tell them to vote for the infrastructure bill that the Senate has already passed. That would help put people back to work all over the country.

They did that already.

Hiring people on the gov dole isn't the way to bring gov spending under control or we would just hire the whole forking population and have everything we want.

State Highway 1 is rather close to my house, but the local Sonic is located a few miles off of it.

They have tried to interest companies in buying naming rights to roadside parks and rest areas. I don't think they are getting many takers, though.

The state is also blowing a lot of cash on a lawsuit against the Indians here concerning water rights. According to a lot of treaties the Indians own almost all the water in the lakes and rivers.

The state contends that since the Treaties were signed prior to statehood in 1907 the Indians have no treaty with the state. Therefore the state can take their property.

The Indians I have spoken to on this tell me they have over a Billion dollars they can throw at this lawsuit, so if the state wants to spend its' money this way then they are OK with that. So far the public seems to be siding with the Indians which is galling to the Ledge and the Governor.

So far there are no easy solutions nor is there the will for any hard ones.

True, but the highways need to be maintained and so far a routine infrastructure bill is being held up in the House in DC.

One Interstate here, I-40, was in such bad shape that several miles of it had to just be torn out and rebuilt from the dirt up. The busted up concrete did get used for an anti-erosion project, so there was some savings there.

If the road had been maintained the cost would have been less in the long run.

My state has had the solution for decades: When times are tough, gut primary and secondary education. If times are really tough, go after university student tuition waivers and other aid as well.
Simple and effective, and no pesky unions to get in the way.

__________________
You're a daisy if you do.
__________________________________
84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

Okla. should consider ending the tax deductible status of NRA membership dues.

__________________
You're a daisy if you do.
__________________________________
84 Euro 240D 4spd. 220.5k sold
04 Honda Element AWD
1985 F150 XLT 4x4, 351W with 270k miles, hay hauler
1997 Suzuki Sidekick 4x4
1993 Toyota 4wd Pickup 226K and counting

From what I read this morning, the teacher's union is wanting a $100 million across the board increase in salary.

Oklahoma teachers union want $100 million for teacher raises

In one of the articles I read this morning, please forgive me for not having the link, but I'll search for it later, almost $400 million could be saved by combining many of the smaller districts in the state.

__________________
1987 560SL
85,000 miles

Other than your initial post, what other proposals if any have been floated?

I'll give credit - 20% across the board cuts, that took some political guts thats rarely seen these days.

Given that they've already made those depth of cuts, I'd say they have a good case for proposing to restore the 0.5% cut in the income tax, and holding a special election to raise the sales tax by the amount needed to cover the shortfall. If nothing else, make the above two items effective only until the bonds issued to cover the current shortfall can be paid off, then they're off the books. That might make it politically more palatable for members of the legislature and the voters.

Kinda hard to give suggestions for OK's particular situation, given only your posts to go on.

Along the lines of your suggestion, putting people back to work, any proposals being floated to help attract private business or increase employment?

__________________
Just say "NO" to Ethanol - Drive Diesel

Mitchell Oates
Mooresville, NC
'87 300D 212K miles
'87 300D 151K miles - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Jeep Liberty CRD 67K miles
Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club

One state proposal to increase employment is a very targeted one. Any company involved in aerospace tech, which includes all types of aircraft, gets a state tax credit they can sell for every engineering job they move here.

Boeing moved a number of jobs, around 200, here from Kansas and California. So that worked out pretty well. Oklahoma is also trying to get approval from the FAA to set aside a section of land about 40 miles by 80 miles just north of Fort Sill for use in testing drones. The catch is the Drones have to be built in Oklahoma if you want to use the airspace. The FAA is still considering this.

There is also a giant plant in Midwest City the state owns where GM once built Malibus. If you know any company that needs LOTS of space they could likely rent this space cheap.

The reason for this request is that Oklahoma teachers are right at the bottom when it comes to pay. I think the figure is 48th in the US. And even if some folks call them a Union they are not since public Unions here are banned by the Oklahoma Constitution.

Consolidation of school districts is always a hot topic here since it really does make so much sense, but every Ledge member fights to keep their school districts as they are since in some cases the teachers and administrators are the best paid people in their district. When a district drops below 60 students that district is combined with another.

(To show the mentality of some of the people here: There was a district that had 62 students. They kicked one out of school because he is Autistic and they did not want to mess with him. Then a family moved and took two students out of the district so they begged the parents of the Autistic kid to bring him back. They decided not to and the entire district was combined with another and all the Administrators lost their jobs.)

This suggestion is really a good one, and people are working on it, but so far without any success.

retmil.....

I will bring that up. A tax increase of up to one percent would not kill anyone since the income tax here is currently 5.45%. And if folks know the bond thing would not be forever that would help, too.

One suggestion that is bought up a lot is to get rid of all the illegals that are here. The problem is that Oklahoma did that years ago. If you give aid or shelter to an illegal it is a Felony, so they all left.

The Catholic Church told the state they would be happy to see them in Court and they have made it clear that they will give aid and shelter to anyone who needs it. This sort of put the law in limbo as the state does not want to become famous for locking up a bunch of Priests for helping others.

Short of a small tax increase I really don't see anyway out of this mess.

Fraud, embezzlement and just flat wasting money cost gov's all over lots of money.

Any decent accountant can find literally hundreds of those money leaks fast. It always amazes me that taxpayers do not demand audits of our government funds being spent.

__________________
1985 300D 198K sold
1982 300D 202K
1989 300E 125K
1992 940T

"If you dont have time to do it safely, you dont have time to do it"

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."