Five Years Later...the Same Problems Are Back

Five years ago today, a group of strangers gathered in room 412-A of the Oklahoma State Capitol. Many had never been inside the building before and most weren’t sure what to expect. Some wore suits and seemed right at home in the halls of power; others were in jeans and t-shirts, glancing around furtively and wondering if they were in the right place.

The group shared a common purpose: to build relationships with their elected officials and with one another and, hopefully, do their part to nudge the state toward responsible policy decisions that would plug the state’s enormous $1.3 billion budget shortfall and prevent absolutely devastating cuts to core services.

The event was called “Let’s Fix This: A Day at the Capitol For Regular Folks,” and the description went like this:

This is a day for us regular folks who care about our state and our communities to take some time off of work and actually meet face-to-face with our state legislators about the state budget crisis. We've all been complaining about stuff on social media long enough; now let's have the conversations in person. The state may be broke, but we're not broken - there are a lot of totally reasonable, common-sense solutions for increasing revenue available. We just need to encourage our lawmakers toward them.

This isn't a rally...it's more of a group outing. If you've never been to the Capitol before, that's fine. I've never done this kind of thing before either, so we can hold hands or something. Maybe it'll be 50 of us that show up. Maybe it'll be 100 or 200. Or, heck, maybe this crazy idea of having face-to-face conversations with the men and women who are paid to represent us will catch fire and we'll have 1,000 people show up. That would be pretty amazing. (We can still all hold hands if you want.)

Remember: Decisions are made by people who show up. I hope you'll be one of them.

That $1.3 billion budget shortfall that sparked our first event in 2016 was caused, in large part, by the state legislature giving out tax cuts just as our state was starting to recover from the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

Five years later, here we are again—our economy is beginning to rebound from COVID-19, the federal government has pitched in some money to help out, and yet again our state legislators are talking about cutting taxes.

I mean, I get it—everybody likes a tax cut. But we’ve been down this road before and we know how it ends. If you want to know what Oklahoma would look like if we dramatically cut taxes, just look around—this is it, we’re living in it. Adjusted for inflation, the Oklahoma state budget is 25% smaller than it was 20 years ago. That means we spend 25% less on the things that matter most to Oklahomans—education, public health, roads, and public safety. Continuing to reduce our state revenue isn’t how we become a Top Ten State, especially not right now when we’re already in such a precarious position.

We can think of no better or more meaningful way to celebrate our fifth birthday than to ask you do the thing that started all this: Contact your state legislators, introduce yourself, and share with them your thoughts and feelings about the state budget. But don’t stop there—ask them about their thoughts, too. Find out why they hold that position, and even if you disagree, try to find common ground from which to work. Start building a relationship with them about this issue, and then keep it going throughout their term. That is how we fix this—by getting engaged and not giving up.

Besides, most of them—the good eggs, at least—care about this state just as much as you. But they need to hear from voices that aren’t inside the Capitol every day; they need to hear from the regular folks who live in their districts and are normally too busy or tired or jaded to take two minutes to send them an email or make a quick phone call. Doing that one little thing is something that tens of thousands of other people don’t do—and that means your voice is that much louder.

To make it super easy, head over to the Taxpayers for a Better Oklahoma website and they’ve got links to help you easily lookup and contact your state legislators (plus a ton more information about the current state of fiscal business for the state).

Thanks for reading to the end of this post and an even bigger THANK YOU for hanging with for our first five years of Let’s Fix This. I truly don’t have adequate words to express what this journey has been like and how much your support means to all of us.

We’re working on some stuff behind the scenes that I think you’re going to love; more details to come this summer. In the meantime: if you believe in building a better democracy, don’t mind hard work, and are looking for ways to dig in a little deeper in order to build long-term success, this is the place for you.

And, yes, your monetary donations are always appreciated. SO much.

Cheers,

Andy Moore
Executive Director

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Podcast Ep. 81 | BudgetWatch 2019

Description

With less than a month 'til the end of session, we discuss rumors about the budget, the status of criminal justice reform, and Governor Stitt's use of the veto. We also curse more than usual. Earmuffs, kids. #SSGOTV.

Announcements

• A Night to Remember! May 4  letsfixthisok.org/prom

• Capitol Days: May 8th is Child Advocacy Day with OICA. Register at oica.org.

Episode Notes

Overview:

• Most bills thru both House & Senate. Those with issues headed to conference committee.

• Which means it’s time for...JCAB!

Budget Watch 2019:

1. OK House Dems release their budget proposal

   1. How does this stack up against the Governor’s proposal from February?

   2. Does it really matter? (Spoiler: No.)

2. Rumor has it that the House & Senate reportedly in agreement...which means the Governor is now the issue. (Dun dun DUUUUUN)

But also...where are we on Criminal Justice Reform?

1. Gov. Kevin Stitt rolls out new criminal justice reform package (Tulsa World)

   1. New funding structure for DAs and courts

   2. $10m to mental health

   3. Occupational licensing

   4. Expedited commutation for offenders convicted of drug possession crimes to other felonies that are now misdemeanors

   5. Expedited process for expungements

   6. HB1269: sentence modification by courts

2. Point of View: Moving on criminal justice reform (NewsOK)

3. Capitol Insider: Is Judicial Reform On Stitt's Agenda? (KGOU)

In other news...

1. Governor signs bill to make rib eye the ‘state steak of Oklahoma (KFOR)

2. Stitt vetoes bills on hunting, #oklaed, public workers

   1. No guides on publicly managed lands

   2. No mechanism to certify new police & fire unions

   3. No “instructional expenditure”

   4. No overtime for low-paid state employees