Amid all the news about the budget 'agreement' announced by Governor Fallin and legislative leaders, there's something that's being missed.
Driving home from work this evening, I was listening to the news on the radio. Two of the top stories dealt with taxes. The first was on the federal level, the second was on the state level.
The news station played a brief clip of Sen. James Lankford, touting the President Trump's plan to cut taxes.
Two stories later, they played a clip of Governor Mary Fallin, touting her plan to raise taxes on Oklahomans in order to cover new spending.
How ironic that Oklahoma Republicans on the federal level are promoting lower taxes at the same time that Oklahoma Republicans on the state level are pushing higher taxes.
This is VERY ironic, as Ok has always been known as a conservative red state, one that holds to the Republican and conservative ideals. One of the foremost ideals is lower taxes, and definitely, do not raise taxes. It has been proven, over and over again, that lower taxes, mean higher income which means higher redistribution via people buying more, which means more job opportunities as there is more money to higher people. Higher taxes equals less for people to spend in the community, which means job loss and which means, ultimately, teacher position loss. The object here is to do what any father or mother in charge of the household income does: look at what you already have, don't spend what you don't have and don't overextend. Something to be tossed around which has not been even touched on yet -- we have WAY too many Superintendents for the few schools that we have in OK. Combine the schools under Superintendents and get rid of the surplus. For instance, in the Durant area, all the schools in Durant and Silo and can be combined, and maybe even more. We do not need one for each school. That would save at least $100,000 or more . Fallen and Hofmeister definitely need a course in budgeting.
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