How much more conservative could Oklahoma's legislature get?

By Mike W. Ray
Special to The Gayly

In an editorial today (14 April 2016) The Oklahoman asks, "How much bang do Oklahomans get from their legislative bucks?"

For starters, the editorial repeats the canard that Oklahoma has a "part-time" legislature. This is my 18th year working for the Oklahoma House of Representatives. During that time I've met and done projects for scores of legislators – and I never met even one who wasn't actively engaged assisting the public in myriad ways year-round, not just sitting at the State Capitol pushing red and green buttons four months out of the year.

The Oklahoman's editorial concludes with this: "...politics is a profession often devoted to buck-passing and evading tough choices. Even so, until Oklahoma lawmakers defy that stereotype and consistently advance more serious conservative policies, they will face an uphill climb in changing many Oklahomans' opinion that current legislative pay levels are excessive."

For me, the operative word here is "conservative". I'm unclear how The Oke's editorial writers define "conservative".

Let's start with the state budget.

Taking a leaf from the utterly discredited budget book of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and her Republican pals in the Legislature just kept chipping away at the state tax base until the income tax has been reduced from 6.65 percent to 5 percent, with another trigger set to drop it to 4.85 percent.

And to placate the GOP's oil-baron buddies, the gross production tax was slashed from 7 percent to 2 percent even though crude oil was commanding $100+ per barrel. Of course, the Republicans didn't bother to replace this lost revenue with alternative sources of cash – despite warnings from their Republican state treasurer who could foresee the looming train wreck – so now Oklahoma faces a ONE BILLION, THREE HUNDRED MILLION-DOLLAR budget hole.

For anyone who can't remember high-school math, that's a ten-digit number.

Consequently, schools across the state are adopting four-day schedules, laying off teachers, canceling academic offerings, art classes and even cutting out some athletic programs – and if you've lived in Oklahoma for any length of time at all, you realize how significant the latter is...

BTW, blithely unconcerned about shedding one day of instruction, the GOP hasn't explained what financially strapped parents are supposed to do with their children on Fridays when there's no school. If you think day-care centers have a special one-day-a-week rate, think again; you pay for five days regardless of how many days Johnny or Susie attend.

Nor did the GOP bother to consider the hundreds of thousands of Oklahoma children from low-income families who depend on schools for at least one hot meal each day, and now anticipate going without one from Thursday afternoons until the following Monday morning.

This whole fiasco conveniently dovetails with Republican hostility toward public education and their infatuation with charter schools and for-profit private schools.

This same Republican-controlled Legislature embraced a Ten Commandments monument that a Republican House member paid for and had installed on the north side of the State Capitol – contrary to Article II, Section 5, of the Oklahoma Constitution, which decrees that, "No public money or property shall ever be appropriated, applied, donated, or used, directly or indirectly, for the use, benefit, or support of any sect, church, denomination, or system of religion..."

Of course, the engraved granite monument generated a lawsuit, which, of course, the state lost. So the monument was removed from the Capitol and resettled at the headquarters of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, publicly visible but on private property nine blocks south of the Capitol. However, that's still not enough for the ultra-conservatives.

The right-wingers want to delete Article II, Section 5, from the Constitution, so they can move that monument back to the Capitol grounds – even though the ACLU has vowed it would file suit, and even though the Hindus and the Satanists both have said that if the Ten Commandments monument is permissible at the Capitol, they want their monuments installed there, too. Remember that pesky "equal protection clause" of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution?

Apparently having the freedom to read and study the Bible at length in one's home, and in a church of one's choice, is just not enough. To the Republicans it is absolutely imperative to display a Ten Commandments monument on public property that is supported through the tax dollars of not only Christians but also Jews and atheists and agnostics and Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists, etc., etc., etc.

Then there's that ultra-pro-business, ultra-anti-injured-laborer workers' compensation law the Republican-controlled Legislature adopted in 2013. Thankfully, that law is being dismantled one impermissible provision after another. To date, 29 provisions of the law have been found unconstitutional or unenforceable.

Turning to the topic of abortion: How many anti-abortion laws has this Republican-dominated Legislature passed in recent years? Answer: Several.

And how many of them have been overturned by courts at various levels, or are under challenge now, because they've been deemed patently illegal under the Constitution of the United States? Answer: Most, if not all.

And keep in mind that the United States Supreme Court has been led by Chief Justices appointed by Republican Presidents for the last 47 years. So spare me the hollow complaint about liberal judicial activism.

In a related matter: Who but a conservative legislator would introduce a bill to create "the Humanity of the Unborn Child Act"? House Bill 2797, as introduced by a House Republican, would direct the State Board of Education to use public funds to "establish, operate and maintain a public information program" to educate the public and students in grades 9-12 about "the humanity of a child in utero." As you may suspect, HB 2797 sailed through the Republican-dominated House of Representatives, 64-12, but, fortunately, was heavily amended in a Senate committee to a more palatable proposal.

There's more. A lot more. But this should suffice to prove my point, to wit:

Just what does a conservative legislature look like? Just how much more conservative could this Republican-controlled legislature get? And if it did, how much more irreparable damage would it inflict on the citizens of Oklahoma?

Mike W. Ray is the Media Director for the Democratic Caucus in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. He is the son of the late Homer and Beth Ray, and grandson of the late Ralph and Lessie Cain, newspaper publishers and lifelong, proud Democrats one and all.

The Gayly - 4/14/2016 @ 2:48 p.m. CDT