++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
++ OCPAC BY-LAWS & WHICH PRIMARY RACES WE CONSIDER
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ THE DIFFERENCE, BIG GOVT. REPUBLICANS VS. DEMOCRATS?
++ ACTION ITEM
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, April 18th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this
week will be nationally known author, speaker and former congressional
candidate from St. Louis, Bill Federer. Counting radio, TV and many
public speaking engagements, Bill speaks over 400 times per year. He
has authored around 15 books, his most famous being: AMERICA’S GOD AND
COUNTRY ENCYCLOPEDIA OF QUOTATIONS, which has sold over 750,000
copies. He has also produced an excellent DVD set on radical Islam and
has appeared on almost every TV and talk radio program in America.
Please arrive as early as possible and bring your seat belts. Bill
puts information out so fast it is like driving a car over a hundred
miles per hour or taking a drink out of a fire hydrant (get the
picture).
In addition, early in the program we will have a short debate and then
our dues paying members as of April 4th and present at the meeting,
will vote to determine, which of the 6 lawmakers qualifying for our
“Conservative Incumbent Protection Fund” will receive funds from our
treasury. We set aside 20% of everything we raise for this fund. It is
an incentive for lawmakers to govern conservatively as they must score
an 80 or above in the first year of the legislative session and then
draw an opponent to qualify to receive our support. Even at that high
standard, our members don’t always support some that qualify.
++ OCPAC BY-LAWS & WHICH PRIMARY RACES WE CONSIDER
Filing period ended last Friday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. Our by-laws
determine which Republican primary races in which we get involved and
the ones we don’t. We try to only get involved in what are considered
“safe Republican seats” knowing that the winner of the Republican
primary will most likely win in a general election. Therefore, the
primary winner is the most important part of the race and we want to
help find and support the most conservative candidates in those
primaries. Remember, the need in Oklahoma is not to have larger
Republican majorities in the legislature, but, better quality and more
conservative lawmakers.
Our by-laws determine a seat is “safe” as long as a Democrat candidate
has not received more than 38% of the vote during the most recent
Senate race or the 2 most recent House races. We will always get in a
Republican “only” primary race if it is an open seat (meaning no
incumbent is involved).
The only time we interview a Republican candidate challenging a
Republican incumbent, is when the Incumbent’s score on the Oklahoma
Constitution Newspaper’s most recent Conservative Index is a “63” or
lower. Even then, we consider if the challenger might be more
conservative than the liberal to moderate Republican Incumbent before
we support such a challenger.
With all that said, for the Republican PRIMARY races we will invite
one or more candidates to our interview process for 4 of the senate
seats, district #17 out of Shawnee, #33 out of Broken Arrow, #39 out
of Tulsa and #45 out of OKC and Mustang. Over in the house we will
invite the candidates for 10 of the house seats, district #25 out of
Ada, #26 out of Shawnee, #39 out of Edmond, #53 out of Moore, #60 out
of Yukon to Hinton, #70 out of Tulsa, #79 out of Tulsa, #82 out of NW
OKC & Edmond, #100 out of NW OKC and #101 out of Midwest City.
Though not all candidates will attend our interview process, 29 will
be invited and we need to get this done in 7 weeks, starting on
Wednesday, April 25th through no later than June 26th. It is important
not to take any longer, because the primary race is June 26th and we
must get any funds to candidates approved by our members to them as
soon as possible so they have the time to plan on how to best use
them. Our qualified dues paying members will be voting each Wednesday
to either support a particular candidate in each of the races or not
to make an endorsement. A qualified dues paying member is one who is
present at our meeting and has paid their dues at least 2 weeks prior
to that current Wednesday’s meeting.
After June 26th, we will try to have some of the candidates for county
offices and congressional candidates as speakers. We will probably
wait until after the primary but before the primary run-off election
to interview the final 2 candidates for the 2nd District
Congressional race, assuming there is a run-off, which is likely.
Following all of this and our participation in creating the
Conservative Index for the Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper, we will
begin interviewing the Republican nominees for general election races
which will occur on November 6th. There are up to10 senate seats
contested and 16 house seats that will be contested. Most of these are
in the more rural parts of the state.
As you can see, we will be busy over the next 5 months with the main
business of OCPAC and that is interviewing candidates and helping the
best to get elected. Let me suggest, OCPAC is filling a niche, and
that is we have become the most significant funding source for limited
government conservatives, who aren’t in the pockets of the big
spending, big government special interest groups. Those groups that
circle around the Capitol passing out sugar dollars through their
lobbyists to all candidates or lawmakers they believe they can
influence.
With that in mind, I want to urge folks reading this e-mail to become
a dues paying member at this time if you have not already done so thus
far. I have just had one of our friends offer to match every new
membership through the end of April with a $50 contribution up to 20
memberships. To join, just follow the instructions at the end of this
e-mail. You can double your dollars by joining now.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* MONDAY EVENING - EDMOND AREA - Please remember, Brigitte
Gabriel will make her final appearance of which I am aware on Monday
evening April 15th at Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond. The meeting
begins at 7:00 p.m. (the church is located at 1230 North Sooner Road
in Edmond). I would advise arriving early, even thought it is a
Monday, the church only seats about 500 people and a good crowd is
expected. She has a riveting story and is well prepared to debate
radical Muslims and liberal leftist enablers as to the dangers of
radical Islam. This is an extremely important subject. If you
understand it, then grab a neighbor or friend and bring them to either
of these meetings so they can be informed.
* TUESDAY EVENING - OKC AREA - The OKC metropolitan area chapter
of OK2A (Oklahoma 2nd Amendment) will have their monthly meeting this
Tuesday evening, 6:30 p.m. at H&H Gun Range which is located at 400 S.
Vermont, Suite 110. That is on the North side of I-40 and about 2
blocks East of Meridian Ave.
* THURSDAY EVENING - TULSA AREA - The Tulsa metropolitan area
chapter of OK2A will have their monthly meeting at the 2A Shooting
Center which is located at 4616 East Admiral Place in Tulsa. The
meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.
* THURSDAY EVENING - MOORE AREA - Our speaker this Wednesday,
Bill Federer, will address the Capitol Baptist Association and the
Union Baptist Association which are partnering to host Bill for this
important event. The location is the First Baptist Church of Moore,
located at 301 N.E. 27th street in Moore. The meeting begins at 6:00
p.m. and is free and open to the public. If you weren’t able to hear
Bill at our meeting or want to hear him again, this will be your
opportunity.
* SATURDAY EVENING - OKC - The statewide chapters of the John
Birch Society will host the 2nd semi-annual Patriot Celebration and
awards Banquet (business attire recommended) at The Character Inn, 520
West Main Street in downtown OKC. There is free parking on the South
side of the Inn or across the street to the West in the parking lot
enclosed by an Iron fence. The banquet begins at 6:00 p.m. and costs
$15 per person or $10 for students. Glen Howard will MC the event,
with area coordinator Mike Sawyer speaking on the national activities
of the Birch Society. I will be talking about grass-roots activism,
what it is, how to do it and what it accomplishes. With all that said,
reservations must be made by no later than Monday evening April 16th.
For reservations contact Bob Donohoo at (405) 436-5412. You do not
have to be a member of the Society to attend, visitors are welcome.
This will be a fun and memorable evening.
++ THE DIFFERENCE, BIG GOVT. REPUBLICANS VS. DEMOCRATS?
At the OCPA banquet this past Wednesday evening I was visiting with
some folks, disappointed by the performance of the Republican
controlled legislature so far this year. When it comes to taxes, fees,
borrowing and spending for government, I suggested an understanding of
the difference between big government, big spending Republicans and
Liberal Democrats. Let me know what you think about this definition as
it seemed to really strike a cord with those at the banquet.
Liberal Democrats are quite willing to increase taxes, increase fees,
and borrow huge sums of money to fund big government. On the other
hand, Republicans don’t like to raise taxes, but they are willing to
raise fees and quite happy to borrow money to fund big government.
They talk big about cutting taxes, but significant cuts aren’t likely
to occur because they don’t seem to have the courage or ability to
think outside of the box when it comes to de-funding the improper and/
or non-core functions of government.
The current leadership and majority of Republicans in the legislature
are proving to be inept at prioritizing government spending, thus they
are likely to continue to fund big government as we are poised to
create new bonded indebtedness to the tune of approximately $300
MILLION dollars!
Perhaps 200 MILLION or so borrowed dollars to perform needed
maintenance on the Capitol and other government owned buildings. It
looks like momentum is gaining at the Capitol toward borrowing $40
MILLION dollars to complete the Indian Heritage and Cultural Center in
OKC. Then there is the slick shell game (now you see it, now you
don’t) by Senator Clark Jolley (R-Edmond) to borrow $42 MILLION
dollars to fund the new Medical Examiners office on the campus of UCO
in Edmond. Then the legislature will have to come up with the money to
pay the rent to the university on the new building paid for by
borrowed money.
Governor Fallin is proving to be inept at putting pressure on the
members of the legislature to make the necessary cuts to make her tax
reduction and eventual elimination plan have substance. Without more
effort on her part, her plan is not likely to be anything other than a
pie in the sky dream, blue smoke and mirrors.
Let me suggest a couple of ideas to think outside of the box on these
issues. In a recent article in the Oklahoman about the Indian Cultural
Center, former State Senator and former Chief of the Seminole Tribe,
Kelley Haney, complained that the tribes never get to tell their story
from their perspective and this cultural center would also not
accomplish that effort. Reading between the lines, that means the
white man can’t present Indian issues the correct way.
Therefore, why not let the 39 federally recognized tribes step up to
the plate and form a corporate consortium to fund the final cost of
the Indian Cultural Center. It would cost each tribe just a little
over $2 million dollars each, just a drop in the bucket for most of
the gambling revenue rich tribes. That way each of the tribes could
have a place in the Cultural Center to tell their story the way they
want and they could use each area to point visitors to the unique
points of interest in the areas of the state that were their tribal
lands. In exchange, the center would no longer be state owned, but
owned by the corporate tribal consortium.
However, I would not stop there. I would offer a law to let the
corporate consortium build a casino/hotel and conference center on the
grounds, next to the Cultural Center, if the tribes would pay the
state back the $67 MILLION or so we have already invested in the
Cultural Center. The tribes would have to agree not to put the land in
trust, but rather operate the casino through a corporation like the
Chickasaw Tribe agreed to do when they acquired Remington Park. The
tribes could have this lucrative location for a casino to reap the
profits to pay back their investment, tell their story the way they
want and all additional profits could go to each tribe.
The state could then pay back the $25 MILLION dollars it has already
borrowed to build the Cultural Center and then use the remaining $42
MILLION dollars to fund the new Medical Examiners Office.
To continue, last year we put over $200 MILLION in the state’s rainy
day fund and we will probably put another large chunk in the fund this
year. Let me ask this pointed question of any reader of this e-mail.
If you created a column in your personal budget for a rainy day or
emergency and had the funds in the bank, would you spend the money set
aside for that purpose to take care of an emergency or would you go
out and BORROW the money for the emergency so you could leave your
emergency money in the bank?
I hope you would not do the latter as it would be so foolish. In
addition, it will take some time, probably several years to make the
necessary repairs to the Capitol and other buildings, so the emergency
fund wouldn’t have to be completely drained, assuming new revenues
will probably be flowing into the fund over the next few
years.
Then 2 more ideas, Representative T.W. Shannon (R-Lawton) is
successfully pushing through legislation to accurately document all
the properties owned by the state, approximately 9,000 with perhaps as
many as 4,500 with buildings on them. He is suggesting we prioritize
them for usefulness and need, then sell off, at least initially, the
bottom 5% of the properties. He then wants to use the proceeds to
repair and maintain the higher priority properties such as the Capitol
or the leaky roof at the Corporation Commission.
Secondly, State Auditor Gary Jones recently released a scathing report
about the irresponsible lack of a plan and discipline to budget for
repairs for state owned properties. The nearly 90 years of Democrat
control at the legislature leaves quite a legacy of irresponsible
governance. The Republicans are making some improvements, but they
lack vision, ideas and have need for better leadership.
Rather than jump off and borrow a quarter of a BILLION dollars or
more, we need to have some patience, develop a plan and work toward
it. In 2 or 3 years these critical maintenance problems could be
solved, we could reduce our state debt and then we could give state
employees needed raises. We could do all this and at the same time
reduce our state income and corporate taxes. It is doable, the only
question is whether or not the current bunch of Republican lawmakers
have the will and discipline to get the job done.
++ ACTION ITEM
* MONDAY OR TUESDAY - Please call your state senator AND state
representative to ask them to stop increasing the state’s bonded
indebtedness. Tell them you want to fix the Capitol and build the new
Medical Examiners office through a better prioritization of spending
and the use of the rainy day fund rather than borrowing more money.
Tell them that under NO circumstances do you want them to borrow more
money to finish the Indian Cultural Center. Tell them you want the
state out of the deal and to find a way to sell it to the tribes or
the city of OKC, the real beneficiary of the Cultural Center.
* Make sure you are on the e-mail distribution lists for ROPE
(Reform Oklahoma Public Education), OK2A (Oklahoma 2nd Amendment), OK-
SAFE (Oklahomans for Sovereignty And Free Enterprise) as well as OCPA
(Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs) as they all have excellent
information and action items to make Oklahoma a better state. I don’t
always have the time to publish their projects. I know we are asking
for a lot of action, but this is the time of the year when it counts,
especially in an election year.
Please remember, our meetings are now on you tube. They are archived
and you can access them at http://www.youtube.com/user/ocpacvideo.
This Wednesday with Bill Federer will be the last meeting we will
record for a while as we will not record our candidate interview
meetings.
Thanks for your time and attention and I look forward to seeing
everyone this Wednesday. To join OCPAC, follow the instructions below.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
++ OCPAC BY-LAWS & WHICH PRIMARY RACES WE CONSIDER
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
++ THE DIFFERENCE, BIG GOVT. REPUBLICANS VS. DEMOCRATS?
++ ACTION ITEM
++ AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING
Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, April 18th will be held at
Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. Our speaker this
week will be nationally known author, speaker and former congressional
candidate from St. Louis, Bill Federer. Counting radio, TV and many
public speaking engagements, Bill speaks over 400 times per year. He
has authored around 15 books, his most famous being: AMERICA’S GOD AND
COUNTRY ENCYCLOPEDIA OF QUOTATIONS, which has sold over 750,000
copies. He has also produced an excellent DVD set on radical Islam and
has appeared on almost every TV and talk radio program in America.
Please arrive as early as possible and bring your seat belts. Bill
puts information out so fast it is like driving a car over a hundred
miles per hour or taking a drink out of a fire hydrant (get the
picture).
In addition, early in the program we will have a short debate and then
our dues paying members as of April 4th and present at the meeting,
will vote to determine, which of the 6 lawmakers qualifying for our
“Conservative Incumbent Protection Fund” will receive funds from our
treasury. We set aside 20% of everything we raise for this fund. It is
an incentive for lawmakers to govern conservatively as they must score
an 80 or above in the first year of the legislative session and then
draw an opponent to qualify to receive our support. Even at that high
standard, our members don’t always support some that qualify.
++ OCPAC BY-LAWS & WHICH PRIMARY RACES WE CONSIDER
Filing period ended last Friday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. Our by-laws
determine which Republican primary races in which we get involved and
the ones we don’t. We try to only get involved in what are considered
“safe Republican seats” knowing that the winner of the Republican
primary will most likely win in a general election. Therefore, the
primary winner is the most important part of the race and we want to
help find and support the most conservative candidates in those
primaries. Remember, the need in Oklahoma is not to have larger
Republican majorities in the legislature, but, better quality and more
conservative lawmakers.
Our by-laws determine a seat is “safe” as long as a Democrat candidate
has not received more than 38% of the vote during the most recent
Senate race or the 2 most recent House races. We will always get in a
Republican “only” primary race if it is an open seat (meaning no
incumbent is involved).
The only time we interview a Republican candidate challenging a
Republican incumbent, is when the Incumbent’s score on the Oklahoma
Constitution Newspaper’s most recent Conservative Index is a “63” or
lower. Even then, we consider if the challenger might be more
conservative than the liberal to moderate Republican Incumbent before
we support such a challenger.
With all that said, for the Republican PRIMARY races we will invite
one or more candidates to our interview process for 4 of the senate
seats, district #17 out of Shawnee, #33 out of Broken Arrow, #39 out
of Tulsa and #45 out of OKC and Mustang. Over in the house we will
invite the candidates for 10 of the house seats, district #25 out of
Ada, #26 out of Shawnee, #39 out of Edmond, #53 out of Moore, #60 out
of Yukon to Hinton, #70 out of Tulsa, #79 out of Tulsa, #82 out of NW
OKC & Edmond, #100 out of NW OKC and #101 out of Midwest City.
Though not all candidates will attend our interview process, 29 will
be invited and we need to get this done in 7 weeks, starting on
Wednesday, April 25th through no later than June 26th. It is important
not to take any longer, because the primary race is June 26th and we
must get any funds to candidates approved by our members to them as
soon as possible so they have the time to plan on how to best use
them. Our qualified dues paying members will be voting each Wednesday
to either support a particular candidate in each of the races or not
to make an endorsement. A qualified dues paying member is one who is
present at our meeting and has paid their dues at least 2 weeks prior
to that current Wednesday’s meeting.
After June 26th, we will try to have some of the candidates for county
offices and congressional candidates as speakers. We will probably
wait until after the primary but before the primary run-off election
to interview the final 2 candidates for the 2nd District
Congressional race, assuming there is a run-off, which is likely.
Following all of this and our participation in creating the
Conservative Index for the Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper, we will
begin interviewing the Republican nominees for general election races
which will occur on November 6th. There are up to10 senate seats
contested and 16 house seats that will be contested. Most of these are
in the more rural parts of the state.
As you can see, we will be busy over the next 5 months with the main
business of OCPAC and that is interviewing candidates and helping the
best to get elected. Let me suggest, OCPAC is filling a niche, and
that is we have become the most significant funding source for limited
government conservatives, who aren’t in the pockets of the big
spending, big government special interest groups. Those groups that
circle around the Capitol passing out sugar dollars through their
lobbyists to all candidates or lawmakers they believe they can
influence.
With that in mind, I want to urge folks reading this e-mail to become
a dues paying member at this time if you have not already done so thus
far. I have just had one of our friends offer to match every new
membership through the end of April with a $50 contribution up to 20
memberships. To join, just follow the instructions at the end of this
e-mail. You can double your dollars by joining now.
++ ANNOUNCEMENTS
* MONDAY EVENING - EDMOND AREA - Please remember, Brigitte
Gabriel will make her final appearance of which I am aware on Monday
evening April 15th at Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond. The meeting
begins at 7:00 p.m. (the church is located at 1230 North Sooner Road
in Edmond). I would advise arriving early, even thought it is a
Monday, the church only seats about 500 people and a good crowd is
expected. She has a riveting story and is well prepared to debate
radical Muslims and liberal leftist enablers as to the dangers of
radical Islam. This is an extremely important subject. If you
understand it, then grab a neighbor or friend and bring them to either
of these meetings so they can be informed.
* TUESDAY EVENING - OKC AREA - The OKC metropolitan area chapter
of OK2A (Oklahoma 2nd Amendment) will have their monthly meeting this
Tuesday evening, 6:30 p.m. at H&H Gun Range which is located at 400 S.
Vermont, Suite 110. That is on the North side of I-40 and about 2
blocks East of Meridian Ave.
* THURSDAY EVENING - TULSA AREA - The Tulsa metropolitan area
chapter of OK2A will have their monthly meeting at the 2A Shooting
Center which is located at 4616 East Admiral Place in Tulsa. The
meeting begins at 6:30 p.m.
* THURSDAY EVENING - MOORE AREA - Our speaker this Wednesday,
Bill Federer, will address the Capitol Baptist Association and the
Union Baptist Association which are partnering to host Bill for this
important event. The location is the First Baptist Church of Moore,
located at 301 N.E. 27th street in Moore. The meeting begins at 6:00
p.m. and is free and open to the public. If you weren’t able to hear
Bill at our meeting or want to hear him again, this will be your
opportunity.
* SATURDAY EVENING - OKC - The statewide chapters of the John
Birch Society will host the 2nd semi-annual Patriot Celebration and
awards Banquet (business attire recommended) at The Character Inn, 520
West Main Street in downtown OKC. There is free parking on the South
side of the Inn or across the street to the West in the parking lot
enclosed by an Iron fence. The banquet begins at 6:00 p.m. and costs
$15 per person or $10 for students. Glen Howard will MC the event,
with area coordinator Mike Sawyer speaking on the national activities
of the Birch Society. I will be talking about grass-roots activism,
what it is, how to do it and what it accomplishes. With all that said,
reservations must be made by no later than Monday evening April 16th.
For reservations contact Bob Donohoo at (405) 436-5412. You do not
have to be a member of the Society to attend, visitors are welcome.
This will be a fun and memorable evening.
++ THE DIFFERENCE, BIG GOVT. REPUBLICANS VS. DEMOCRATS?
At the OCPA banquet this past Wednesday evening I was visiting with
some folks, disappointed by the performance of the Republican
controlled legislature so far this year. When it comes to taxes, fees,
borrowing and spending for government, I suggested an understanding of
the difference between big government, big spending Republicans and
Liberal Democrats. Let me know what you think about this definition as
it seemed to really strike a cord with those at the banquet.
Liberal Democrats are quite willing to increase taxes, increase fees,
and borrow huge sums of money to fund big government. On the other
hand, Republicans don’t like to raise taxes, but they are willing to
raise fees and quite happy to borrow money to fund big government.
They talk big about cutting taxes, but significant cuts aren’t likely
to occur because they don’t seem to have the courage or ability to
think outside of the box when it comes to de-funding the improper and/
or non-core functions of government.
The current leadership and majority of Republicans in the legislature
are proving to be inept at prioritizing government spending, thus they
are likely to continue to fund big government as we are poised to
create new bonded indebtedness to the tune of approximately $300
MILLION dollars!
Perhaps 200 MILLION or so borrowed dollars to perform needed
maintenance on the Capitol and other government owned buildings. It
looks like momentum is gaining at the Capitol toward borrowing $40
MILLION dollars to complete the Indian Heritage and Cultural Center in
OKC. Then there is the slick shell game (now you see it, now you
don’t) by Senator Clark Jolley (R-Edmond) to borrow $42 MILLION
dollars to fund the new Medical Examiners office on the campus of UCO
in Edmond. Then the legislature will have to come up with the money to
pay the rent to the university on the new building paid for by
borrowed money.
Governor Fallin is proving to be inept at putting pressure on the
members of the legislature to make the necessary cuts to make her tax
reduction and eventual elimination plan have substance. Without more
effort on her part, her plan is not likely to be anything other than a
pie in the sky dream, blue smoke and mirrors.
Let me suggest a couple of ideas to think outside of the box on these
issues. In a recent article in the Oklahoman about the Indian Cultural
Center, former State Senator and former Chief of the Seminole Tribe,
Kelley Haney, complained that the tribes never get to tell their story
from their perspective and this cultural center would also not
accomplish that effort. Reading between the lines, that means the
white man can’t present Indian issues the correct way.
Therefore, why not let the 39 federally recognized tribes step up to
the plate and form a corporate consortium to fund the final cost of
the Indian Cultural Center. It would cost each tribe just a little
over $2 million dollars each, just a drop in the bucket for most of
the gambling revenue rich tribes. That way each of the tribes could
have a place in the Cultural Center to tell their story the way they
want and they could use each area to point visitors to the unique
points of interest in the areas of the state that were their tribal
lands. In exchange, the center would no longer be state owned, but
owned by the corporate tribal consortium.
However, I would not stop there. I would offer a law to let the
corporate consortium build a casino/hotel and conference center on the
grounds, next to the Cultural Center, if the tribes would pay the
state back the $67 MILLION or so we have already invested in the
Cultural Center. The tribes would have to agree not to put the land in
trust, but rather operate the casino through a corporation like the
Chickasaw Tribe agreed to do when they acquired Remington Park. The
tribes could have this lucrative location for a casino to reap the
profits to pay back their investment, tell their story the way they
want and all additional profits could go to each tribe.
The state could then pay back the $25 MILLION dollars it has already
borrowed to build the Cultural Center and then use the remaining $42
MILLION dollars to fund the new Medical Examiners Office.
To continue, last year we put over $200 MILLION in the state’s rainy
day fund and we will probably put another large chunk in the fund this
year. Let me ask this pointed question of any reader of this e-mail.
If you created a column in your personal budget for a rainy day or
emergency and had the funds in the bank, would you spend the money set
aside for that purpose to take care of an emergency or would you go
out and BORROW the money for the emergency so you could leave your
emergency money in the bank?
I hope you would not do the latter as it would be so foolish. In
addition, it will take some time, probably several years to make the
necessary repairs to the Capitol and other buildings, so the emergency
fund wouldn’t have to be completely drained, assuming new revenues
will probably be flowing into the fund over the next few
years.
Then 2 more ideas, Representative T.W. Shannon (R-Lawton) is
successfully pushing through legislation to accurately document all
the properties owned by the state, approximately 9,000 with perhaps as
many as 4,500 with buildings on them. He is suggesting we prioritize
them for usefulness and need, then sell off, at least initially, the
bottom 5% of the properties. He then wants to use the proceeds to
repair and maintain the higher priority properties such as the Capitol
or the leaky roof at the Corporation Commission.
Secondly, State Auditor Gary Jones recently released a scathing report
about the irresponsible lack of a plan and discipline to budget for
repairs for state owned properties. The nearly 90 years of Democrat
control at the legislature leaves quite a legacy of irresponsible
governance. The Republicans are making some improvements, but they
lack vision, ideas and have need for better leadership.
Rather than jump off and borrow a quarter of a BILLION dollars or
more, we need to have some patience, develop a plan and work toward
it. In 2 or 3 years these critical maintenance problems could be
solved, we could reduce our state debt and then we could give state
employees needed raises. We could do all this and at the same time
reduce our state income and corporate taxes. It is doable, the only
question is whether or not the current bunch of Republican lawmakers
have the will and discipline to get the job done.
++ ACTION ITEM
* MONDAY OR TUESDAY - Please call your state senator AND state
representative to ask them to stop increasing the state’s bonded
indebtedness. Tell them you want to fix the Capitol and build the new
Medical Examiners office through a better prioritization of spending
and the use of the rainy day fund rather than borrowing more money.
Tell them that under NO circumstances do you want them to borrow more
money to finish the Indian Cultural Center. Tell them you want the
state out of the deal and to find a way to sell it to the tribes or
the city of OKC, the real beneficiary of the Cultural Center.
* Make sure you are on the e-mail distribution lists for ROPE
(Reform Oklahoma Public Education), OK2A (Oklahoma 2nd Amendment), OK-
SAFE (Oklahomans for Sovereignty And Free Enterprise) as well as OCPA
(Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs) as they all have excellent
information and action items to make Oklahoma a better state. I don’t
always have the time to publish their projects. I know we are asking
for a lot of action, but this is the time of the year when it counts,
especially in an election year.
Please remember, our meetings are now on you tube. They are archived
and you can access them at http://www.youtube.com/user/ocpacvideo.
This Wednesday with Bill Federer will be the last meeting we will
record for a while as we will not record our candidate interview
meetings.
Thanks for your time and attention and I look forward to seeing
everyone this Wednesday. To join OCPAC, follow the instructions below.
Charlie Meadows
Charliemeadows7@gmail.com
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