OKLAHOMA CITY —
In recent years, Oklahoma’s state government has played a vital supporting role to the private sector, helping to promote a business friendly environment that has lead to a net gain of over 62,000 jobs created since 2011. Unemployment is down, median income is rising, and the state Rainy Day savings account has gone from $2.03 to almost $600 million.
My role as governor is to keep the pedal to the metal, so to speak, and ensure that Oklahoma is well positioned in a national and international economy that is more competitive than ever.
In this year’s State of the State address, I outlined an agenda for the coming legislative session that will help to continue Oklahoma’s remarkable economic growth and job creation.
That starts with examining our tax climate. In today’s increasingly mobile society, businesses and individuals are leaving states with high taxes and moving to friendlier locations. Oklahoma needs to be at the top of their list. For that reason, I am committed to the gradual reduction of our state income tax. This year I have proposed a responsible, measured income tax cut of 0.25 percent that allows Oklahomans to keep more of their hard-earned money.
We also need to improve our schools, so that Oklahoma is producing the kind of highly skilled, highly educated workforce that can attract and retain high paying jobs. In recent years, the Legislature has passed — and I have signed into law — important reform measures designed to raise the bar on academic achievement and encourage greater accountability. The executive budget I introduced this year proposes a $13.5 million increase in common education funding specifically to suppor3t and implement these reforms, as well as an additional $8.5 million to pay for the rising cost of teachers’ health benefits.
Supporting job growth also requires eliminating cost-drivers to businesses. For decades, out-of-control workers’ compensation costs have been a burden on those doing business in Oklahoma. While recent reforms have effectively worked to reduce the total costs of claims, more needs to be done. This year, I will work with the House and Senate to pursue reforms that lower costs for businesses while treating injured workers fairly.
For Oklahoma to be friendlier to business, it will also have to be run more like a business. That means delivering a more responsible government that spends taxpayer dollars conservatively and wisely. In that light, I have worked with our agencies to develop a catalogue of state assets. I support a plan to evaluate and eventually sell those assets that are unproductive.
Many of our assets, of course, are worth keeping. Unfortunately, some of these same assets are in disrepair, including the state Capitol. My budget includes a $10 million supplemental funding request to immediately begin work restoring the Capitol exterior and to study future renovation needs.
Responsible government also means continuing our efforts to make government smaller, smarter and more efficient. The consolidation of Information Technology resources across dozens of state agencies has saved more than $80 million thus far, and we will continue those efforts to streamline government services and reduce waste in the future.
As I said in my State of the State speech, responsible government certainly means meeting the commitments we have made to state employees by addressing the unsustainable trajectory of our state pension systems. State pensions currently have $11 billion in unfunded liability. Essentially, that amounts to $11 billion in debt. That problem cannot be ignored and I will work with our legislators this session to begin addressing this problem.
Finally, I used my State of the State address to ask our lawmakers to increase resources aimed at boosting the physical health of our residents and improving mental health services. To that end, my executive budget includes more than $56 million in increased funding for health and mental health, money that will be used to improve access to medical care, create a new prescription drug abuse prevention program, and expand counseling to the emotionally disturbed.
Improving health and mental health in Oklahoma is just as important to containing health care costs and promoting economic growth as it is to our quality of life. My budget and my agenda reflect my belief that Oklahomans can and will do better when it comes to health outcomes.
My plan for 2013 is a plan for a more prosperous Oklahoma and a more responsible government. I look forward to working with lawmakers and all Oklahomans to pursue initiatives that continue our state’s remarkable forward progress.
GOV. MARY FALLIN, R-Edmond, may be reached via her website at www.ok.gov/governor/.
Opinion
Governor's 2013 agenda: job creation, responsible government and a healthier Oklahoma
- Opinion
-
-
Excuses for data sweep sound hollow
Perhaps 2013 will go down as the year privacy and civil liberties became too inconvenient for government. Listening to assorted officials defend massive programs that scoop up vast amounts of data certainly gives that impression.
-
I pay property taxes ... please fix my road
Imagine paying thousands of dollars every year in property taxes and at the same time watching your roads literally crumble under the strain of increasing traffic. Unfortunately, some won’t have to imagine this because I’ve just described your reality.
Maybe you have even asked your County Commissioner why property tax money isn’t being used to maintain your road. He probably responded, “Almost all of your property tax money goes to public schools. Only about 15 percent goes to the county and most of that is not for roads.” -
Vision 2020 conference loaded with speakers
I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer — playing in the water, grilling, enjoying time with family; maybe preparing for vacation. But for Oklahoma educators, I hope your plans include a trip to Oklahoma City, July 9-11 to attend the State Department of Education’s Vision 2020 professional development conference.
The conference is free to all Oklahoma educators. -
The Oklahoma Standard
The “Oklahoma Standard” was a term coined during our state’s response to the tragedy of April 19, 1995. The connotation has many layers: the standard of trained first responders, the standard of non-trained first responders (neighbors helping neighbors), the standard of our faith community, the standard of welcoming out of state relief workers that arrived to help. In short, meeting the need and answering the call without reservation or inhibition.
-
The Mankato, Minn., Free Press: Stop gridlock on farm bill
The Mankato, Minn., Free Press: Stop gridlock
on farm bill
With a hopeful sound of gridlock cracking, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Wednesday that he will vote for the House farm bill even though he has “concerns.” He reasons that “doing nothing means we get no changes in the nutrition programs.”
He may be merely pragmatic but we’ll take it. Rural Republicans are tired of the delays and want the five-year subsidy measure enacted. -
Crazy Kim and the Tippy Twos
Kim Jong Un certainly seems crazy. But sound mind isn’t a requirement for predictable action. Tyrants often mask steady goals with wild behavior. One need only think of world pests like Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein to realize entire regions can be thrust into unwanted global crises.
Like Castro and Saddam, Kim Jong Un has made clear he’s dedicated to expanding his ability to harm America and her allies. The difference is, he has a nuclear capability, not a borrowed or boasted one. North Korea has a proven record of long-range missile development that could ultimately hit the American mainland. -
Don’t blame the President; it’s us
June 17 marks the 41st anniversary of the second Watergate break-in. This is a good time to take a look back and reflect on what can happen when a corrupt administration throws a protective cloak around the misbehavior of a gang of unscrupulous cheats, liars and crooks.
On the morning of June 18, 1972, millions of us were unaware of the festering corruption that would ultimately rot our confidence in the president. We did not know that his administration was using the FBI as a tool to wiretap telephones of reporters regarded as unfriendly to the White House. We were oblivious to the fact the administration encouraged the IRS to audit media representatives whose reporting criticized the president. -
2 bills aid Oklahoma students
I recently attended two ceremonial bill signings at the State Capitol to celebrate legislation I feel is of vital importance to Oklahomans.
-
Time to roll back the Patriot Act
It’s time. It’s time for President Obama to live up to his own words. It’s time for Congress to do its job. It’s time to contract the ever-expanding national security state. And it’s time to roll back the Patriot Act. In Washington, elected officials are circling the wagons. The Obama administration claims that its Internet and telephone surveillance programs are legal; the ones we know about, indeed, are. But just because something is legal and can be done does that mean that it should remain so and continue to be done? No. Laws are made and unmade all the time. And the argument that vast, dragnet-style surveillance has stopped terrorists at the lamentable expense of privacy is exactly the same argument that the Bush administration made about torture: Better to sacrifice our principles and a few people in the hope of saving many.
-
Time to roll back the Patriot Act
It’s time. It’s time for President Obama to live up to his own words. It’s time for Congress to do its job. It’s time to contract the ever-expanding national security state. And it’s time to roll back the Patriot Act.
- More Opinion Headlines
-
Excuses for data sweep sound hollow
