EDMOND — It’s difficult to know where to begin when expressing displeasure with the Department of Human Services’ decision to cut the Aging Services Division across the state by $7.4 million. Part of that cut deeply impacted the Senior Nutrition program, and fully eliminated the meal program at Edmond’s Senior Center.
It is grossly unjust to penalize the community of Edmond for doing the right thing. Because the City of Edmond gives a small budget to the Mobile Meals program through its Social Agency Review Committee annually, the mindset at the state Capitol and inside DHS is that obviously our city can afford to just pick up the slack and pay the $53,000 for our seniors’ meals fully without state aid. Never mind the fact that these same senior citizens pay their fair share of taxes and deserve the same services as their fellow senior citizens elsewhere in the state. Never mind the fact that our city’s sales tax revenue is off by 7 percent and that the city government already is reviewing potential cuts in the coming weeks.
In the same time frame the nutrition cuts were announced, a legislator highlighted the fact that a number of DHS upper management received a total of about $200,000 in raises this year. No one in state government should be accepting raises in this economic climate when we all know that painful cuts are on the way in 2010.
We could join the bandwagon and berate DHS for making such an atrocious decision that impacts many of our state’s most vulnerable citizens, but it doesn’t really change the situation. Instead, this catastrophic political stunt brings us back to a long-held belief that Oklahoma government, in general, remains too bloated and is in dire need of more review and better efficiencies.
Rep. Jason Murphey, R-Guthrie, whose district includes a portion of Edmond, is chairman of the Government Modernization committee. We continue to be impressed with some of this committee’s research and ideas for improving Oklahoma government.
But with a dire budget situation looming before the next legislative session and an agency taking food directly out of our senior citizens’ mouths, it seems we can no longer be complacent in waiting for our government to “modernize” itself. It is time for taxpayers to uniformly call upon our state government to consolidate some of its 500 agencies, commissions and committees. Perhaps DHS should be the first agency to be reviewed.
If we as a state do not roll up our sleeves now and find some ways to lessen the government’s annual expenses, it will not be long before residents find themselves facing the next ghastly cutback. Tell your legislator what cuts you can live with and which ones you cannot stomach.
