CITY OF TULSA & SPECIAL ELECTION IN McCURTAIN CO. ++ BORROW MORE MONEY OR PAY AS WE GO?

++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ CITY OF TULSA & SPECIAL ELECTION IN McCURTAIN CO.
++ BORROW MORE MONEY OR PAY AS WE GO?


++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, November 9th will honor all active
duty, reserves and military veterans. Our speakers this week will be
veterans of World War II, the last war we fought that was properly
declared according to our U.S. Constitution. At the height of the war
we had around 16 million men in uniform as well as many women who
served as WACS or WAVES. With the youngest of those veterans being
around 84 to 85, we are losing those who served at a rapid rate so it
is important that we honor them while we can. I have asked our
speakers to start with where they were when they heard about Perl
Harbor, what did they think, and then go on from there.

++ ANNOUNCEMENTS

* WEDNESDAY - TULSA AREA - The Tulsa Republican Men’s Club will
have their monthly meeting on Wednesday the 9th, 12 noon, at Siegi’s
Sausage Factory, and Restaurant, 81st street and Sheridan Road. They
will also host WW II Veterans. Ladies are welcome to attend these
meetings.

* THURSDAY - MOORE AREA - The Sooner Republican Assembly will
meet at Earl’s Rib in Moore, 6:45 p.m. on Thursday the 10th. Special
guest will be Paul Maus candidate for H.D. 20. This is a newly created
district as a result of re-districting. H.D. 20 is currently held by
Paul Roan of Tishomingo, but he will be term limited out after next
year’s session and the district shifts up toward the Moore area, where
Republicans are expected to pick up this seat. The keynote speaker
will be Jack Moore, a retired attorney. Jack will be speaking on The
Truth About Islam.

* THURSDAY - DUNCAN AREA - On Thursday, November 10th, the
Stephens County Republican Party will stage a mock debate featuring
local Republicans portraying eight GOP presidential candidates. The
surrogates have researched the candidates positions and will try to
give an accurate presentation for their candidate. The candidates will
be asked probing questions by a three person panel who will be
portraying members of the national media. This should be informative
as well as entertaining. The debate will be held at the Red river
Technology Center in Duncan (in the Seminar Room) beginning at 7:00
p.m. There is no admission, if you need further information contact
Steve Fair at (580) 252-6284 or okgop@aol.com

* SATURDAY - OKC AREA - Radio talk show host and minister Glen
Howard along with The Judeo-Christian Fellowship of OKC, will host a
timely update on recent events in Israel and the Middle East. A
buffet breakfast will be available at the Biltmore Hotel (North of
I-40 on Meridian) beginning at 8:30 a.m. followed by a presentation on
the Biblical basis for the support of Israel by Glen Howard of Senior
World Radio (heard at 10:00 a.m. Sundays on 1000 AM). At 10:00 a.m.
this Saturday Avi Lipkin will be speaking to those in attendence via
Skype for an update on the current events in the Middle East. There is
no cost other than the breakfast buffet, but it would be very helpful
to have an idea of how many plan to come. Therefore, please contact
Glen with that information at (405) 760-4536 or ghoward@jcfokc.org.

++ TULSA CITY ELECTIONS & SPECIAL ELECTION IN McCURTAIN CO.

Today, November 8th voters in the Tulsa City Limits will go to the
polls to vote on several of the city council seats as well as several
changes to the city charter. I highly recommend logging on to the
Tulsa Beacon Newspaper’s web-sit for their take on these elections, if
you don’t take that paper. By the way, I believe the Tulsa Beacon (a
weekly) and the Oklahoma Constitution (a quarterly) are the two best
newspapers in the state. I urge all conservatives to subscribe as it
is just $35 per year for the Beacon for those in Tulsa County ($40 for
all others) and the Oklahoma Constitution is just $12 per year.

With the passing of Rusty Farley (R-Haworth) this past Summer, we are
just now getting around to a special primary election on November 8th
to fill his vacated seat. The Democrats have 2 in their primary and
the Republicans have 4 candidates. There will be NO primary runoff for
the Republicans. Therefore, the Republican candidate with the largest
number of votes will be the candidate to face the Democrat candidate
along with 2 independent candidates. If you live in the district
(Idabel, Broken Bow, etc) please do your research and vote as I expect
that less than 800 will vote in the Republican primary. I have only
had contact with Joe Silk, but hesitate to give an unqualified
endorsement for Joe since I just don’t know anything about the other
Republicans. Joe is a serious Christian who spent many years on the
mission field and home schooled his children. He currently manages
vacation cabins (it is a huge business in the area since so many
Texans love to come to this beautiful area) and also operates a bed
and breakfast. Again though, please do your own research. We will
invite the winner to OCPAC for our interview process in the near
future.

++ BORROW MORE MONEY OR PAY AS WE GO?

There was an interesting article in the Oklahoman on October 25th
titled “Bond proposals face resistance.” The gist of the article was
that Oklahoma is facing capital improvement needs approaching nearly 1
billion dollars, yet many lawmakers, especially in the House are
resistant towards passing additional bonded indebtedness.

The article lists serious needs such as crumbling masonry at the State
Capitol, buildings with mold problems, a need for a new medical
examiners office and etc.

However, the article goes on to quote State Representative Jason
Murphy as follows: “ ‘There’s a reason that you’ve seen the number of
approved bond issuances drop off in the last few years,’ said Rep.
Jason Murphy (R-Guthrie), who considers himself among those with a
strong distaste for taking on additional taxpayer-backed debt.
‘Especially with all the freshmen elected in 2010 - voting for
indebtedness isn’t politically acceptable in a lot of areas in
Oklahoma now.’”

I would suggest Representative Murphey knows what he is talking about.
In 2004 the District 31 seat he now occupies was open and Murphey lost
a close primary race to Dale Depew. That was the year that Republicans
gained control of the House and as such leadership gave Depew the task
of finding ways to fix many of these on-going repair needs.

If my memory serves me correctly, Depew suggested a 150 million dollar
bond issue. Murphey seized upon the issue, making Depew out to be a
big spender with a poor sense of priorities (the state budget was
running sizeable surpluses of new tax dollars) and exposed Depew to
the voters. We voters tossed Depew out and Murphey has served for the
past 5 years now, working to cut the size of government, lower taxes
and improve the valid services, which is what nearly all Republicans
tell the voters they are going to do when they seek our votes.

The article stated that during the 2011 session, the Senate approved
more than 100 million in bonded indebtedness for purposes such as a
new Veterans Affairs office, a new medical examiners office and money
to finish the American Indian Museum (the state has already spent 65
million on the museum, much of it through bonded indebtedness). The
article lamented that none of those bond proposals were even
considered in the House.

State Representative Earl Sears, Chairman of the House Appropriations
Committee said that a transportation bond proposal only passed by 1
vote in the House, even though it had been pre-approved by the Senate
and the Governors office.

Of all the issues considered by the members of OCPAC to be used for
this year’s Conservative Index published in the Oklahoma Constitution
Newspaper, that bond issue received the largest number of votes. It
was such a bad deal.

The State Constitution does not allow the legislature to borrow money
for the general fund to make up the annual budget. Therefore, Governor
Fallin and the big spending Republicans in leadership devised a clever
scheme to get around that wise prohibition. As such, the legislature
dipped into the state transportation department’s road and bridge
funds and took 100 million dollars out for the general fund to balance
the budget. The transportation bond mentioned above, which passed by 1
vote, was for $70 million and was used to replace all but $30 million
they raided from the department of transportation. Sadly, once the
bond underwriter fees and interest is paid, it may cost the taxpayers
nearly double the 70 million dollars to get 70 million dollars to use
for roads and bridges.

Representative Sears indicated he has compiled a survey listing all
types of issues, with plans to send to every House member to see what
projects they would support using bond issues to fund? One item on the
survey will be endowed chairs at government run universities. Folks,
borrowing money to fund endowed chairs is insanity, even if it draws
matching money from the private sector.

The article along with an editorial in the Oklahoman a few days later
indicated the state debt level is low and the state could easily float
another 300 million dollars in bonds without risking our credit
rating.

My question is, why would we want to do such a foolish thing? Why not
pay as we go and save the hundreds of millions in bond underwriter
fees and interest? It is all a matter of priorities. State revenues
have been increasing for the past year and we even put over 200
million dollars into the rainy day fund after the session ended this
year.

How about using some of these new surplus revenues along with further
reductions in wasteful government spending and improved efficiencies
to pay for these needed capital improvements? Of course state
employees and teachers will be screaming to get their hands on these
new revenues, but they need to be patient as neglected capital
improvement items need to receive some attention.

The state commission that sets the salary for the members of the
legislature just voted not to give a raise the state lawmakers for at
least 2 more years. It has been 14 years since lawmakers have had a
raise, so part time teachers who make an average $6000 dollars a year
more than lawmakers and full time state employees who average about
$3000 dollars a year less than our part time lawmakers, surely can
wait another year or two for a raise. In all reality, while some
lawmakers put in a minimal amount of time, other lawmakers put in more
time than teachers or state employees.

Bottom line, I read an article several years ago about a community
back east that was deeply in debt and anytime a need arose they had to
borrow more money to meet the need. One city councilman persuaded his
fellow members to stop that wasteful cycle and use taxpayer dollars
wisely. They went to the public and asked for a sales tax increase,
with all new revenues from the tax increase to be used to get out of
debt. The public agreed and after about 5 years they were out of debt,
the sales tax went away, the council began to set aside revenues from
the existing tax base for future needs which were paid for with cash.
After some time, that should also allow for the existing tax base to
be lowered and yet, vital services should be taken care of.

That is a definition of good government and something the state of
Oklahoma should strive for. We do not need to borrow one additional
penny if we will simply limit government to its proper functions, do a
good job of prioritizing and stop wasting taxpayer dollars on wasteful
bond fees and interest.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday

Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com


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