Articles

In a recent column in The Journal Record, law professor Andrew Spiropoulos lauded a proposal which “requires state agencies to publicly report the amount and nature of the federal funding they receive and, most importantly, the conditions they accept in exchange for the money.”

It’s time to expand federal funds transparency in Oklahoma so that policymakers and the public can have the best information about state agency use of federal funds and so that we can be better prepared to provide for core services of government.

State legislators should shrink the Department of Human Services budget and enlarge your family budget: Redirect a portion of Oklahoma’s daycare subsidies toward a tax break for families with a parent at home.

An important piece of legislation this year, House Bill 1748, required Oklahoma state agencies to publicly report the amount of federal funding they receive and the strings attached to that money.

Oklahoma’s legislative session has ended. Policymakers made policy changes that are significant, but passed a state budget that insults the reality Oklahomans face.

While this year’s budget agreement was hastily announced and appropriates more than last year, most taxpayers can rest assured they likely won’t see any tax increases this year to pay for the fiscally irresponsible increased spending.

Government transparency is a good thing for citizens; luckily, both still have a fighting chance this session.

There is fat, plenty of it, to trim in state spending. There are conservative elected officials, plenty of them, working on the next state budget. Whether they have the Tom Delay Disease or not, we’ll soon find out.

In the long term, to maximize the economic-development impact of the ROZ and to establish the north-south corridor of processors, Oklahoma should continue to pursue a methodical, responsible phase-out of its income tax.

Fifty years ago the state of Oklahoma began collecting money for union dues from the paychecks of public school teachers. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been collected free of charge, to benefit the union activity and political agenda of both the Oklahoma Education Association (OEA) and the Washington, D.C.-based National Education Association. As a matter of principle, politics do not belong in the paychecks of teachers.