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Oklahoma's constitution requires something that the US Congress refuses to be subjected to... A balanced budget. It used to be a central plank of the Republicans' national campaign mandate for control of congress.
In Oklahoma govt., the Democrats controlled the state for the first 95 years, and maintained a very solvent state fiscal condition. Even in the lean years of the great depression, Democrats held to a fiscal austerity that neither today's Democrats or Republican legislators generally abide by. Our state and local governments now rely on bonds and other instruments of mortgage in a way that past generations strongly resisted. That's not to say our past generations of politicians didn't beg the federal govt. to pay for state projects. Our major lakes in the state are mostly a gift of the Army Corps of Engineers. Federal parks, Federal funding of Tribal govts., and other programs help mask the debt we've come to rely upon. |
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USdebtClock.org has a great widget for Oklahomans to monitor our state & local govt. debt. According to their running tabulations, every Oklahoma resident has a $4848 personal share of state & local debt. That means if we decided to start over as a state (including all our local govt subdivisions), we would each have an immediate bill from our creditors of nearly $5,000. Even our disabled, elderly, and our little babies carry this weight.
And it effects our daily lives in ways we have not been properly advised of. Our daily sales tax payments all go to paying the principal & interest on this debt. |
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Last year the pathetic decisions of the legislature & governor resulted in a worsened credit rating, causing future interest payments to climb even higher. The final bill to each taxpayer will be much higher than the $4848 of current debt-per-resident. And with each obituary we read, and every birth announcement, the debt gets transferred from one generation to the next.
Three years ago, then state senator, Brian Crain, openly called for the state to issue & sell $2.5 BILLION in state bonds (long term debt), and put that immediate funding into annual public education funding. It was a 'shell game' whereby the students would essentially have a student loan that they never co-signed. They would either have to move out of state or begin repaying just as soon as they entered gainful employment. But it's not a loan that only students repay. It would be put upon all of us.
Crain's scheme demonstrates an open hostility and defiance of our state constitution. We are mandated to stay out of debt. in our annual funding of government. Sure, some will immediately argue that capital improvements should rightly be amortized over the life of the fixed asset. To put that more simply, The Grand River Dam might last 100 years, so why not take 20 years to pay for it? That argument may hold sway with some. But former Senator Brian Crain wasn't calling for the funding of an arena, highway, school campus, or other deeded real estate. He was literally mortgaging our children. and planning to make them repay their own ransom. For the record, Crain's scheme was solidly rejected by the legislature; giving us hope that there remains some sanity in a few members of the legislature.
Three years ago, then state senator, Brian Crain, openly called for the state to issue & sell $2.5 BILLION in state bonds (long term debt), and put that immediate funding into annual public education funding. It was a 'shell game' whereby the students would essentially have a student loan that they never co-signed. They would either have to move out of state or begin repaying just as soon as they entered gainful employment. But it's not a loan that only students repay. It would be put upon all of us.
Crain's scheme demonstrates an open hostility and defiance of our state constitution. We are mandated to stay out of debt. in our annual funding of government. Sure, some will immediately argue that capital improvements should rightly be amortized over the life of the fixed asset. To put that more simply, The Grand River Dam might last 100 years, so why not take 20 years to pay for it? That argument may hold sway with some. But former Senator Brian Crain wasn't calling for the funding of an arena, highway, school campus, or other deeded real estate. He was literally mortgaging our children. and planning to make them repay their own ransom. For the record, Crain's scheme was solidly rejected by the legislature; giving us hope that there remains some sanity in a few members of the legislature.
