SENATOR BLOWS WHISTLE ON REPUBLICAN COLLEAGUES

++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

++  SENATOR BLOWS WHISTLE ON REPUBLICAN COLLEAGUES

++  99% SURE SENATOR JOLLEY DIDN’T SABATOGE ME’S FREEZER

++  ANNOUNCEMENTS

++  AGENDA FOR THIS WEEK’S MEETING

Our 12 noon luncheon for Wednesday, May 23rd will be held at

Italiano’s restaurant, 4801 North Lincoln in OKC. We will continue

interviewing candidates at this week’s meeting. Invited candidates are

Brian Graham and Mark McBride of Moore as well as Paula Sullivan of

Norman, all candidates for the HD-53 seat which covers the Moore and

Norman area. In addition, one other candidate is invited, but I will

not reveal that name at this time.

Congratulations to Jeff Renner, the candidate challenging

Representative Elise Hall for district 100, and Mike Turner, the

candidate opposing Representative Guy Liebmann for district 82 as they

received OCPAC’s endorsement at our meeting last week. In addition, HD

26 candidate Michael Shaw out of the Shawnee area received our

endorsement as he is vying to replace Representative Kris Steele who

is also the current Speaker of the House. This election by our members

went into a run-off vote and Mr. Shaw won by 2 votes over Mr. Justin

Wood. Both of these candidates appear to be solid conservatives and

regardless of who wins should be a marked improvement over Speaker

Steele for next year’s legislative session.

++  SENATOR BROWN BLOWS WHISTLE ON REPUBLICAN COLLEAGUES

On Wednesday, May 9th Senator Bill Brown (R-Broken Arrow) left a

message on my voice mail indicating his concern about the direction

taken by our Senate Republicans. He asked me to call him on Thursday,

so I complied that afternoon and was I really pleased with the good

Senator’s valid concerns and honesty as he confirmed what so many of

the close observers have come to realize about the performance of the

majority of Republicans in the legislature.

He told me strait out that the Republicans are simply LYING to the

voters in Oklahoma. He said, when we run for office, we tell the

voters we want to reduce the size of government and cut taxes, but in

reality we spend like the Democrats and change is way too slow as we

govern much in the same way as the Democrats did for the past 100

years.

Senator Brown indicated that he recently sent a letter to every

Republican Senator expressing his disappointment for the reality of

the situation and his frustration with his colleagues. At that point,

I asked Senator Brown if he was willing to take the heat and allow me

to re-publish his letter in this week’s e-mail? He said absolutely and

that he would bring the letter to our meeting, which occurred this

past Wednesday. When he arrived I asked him if he were willing to

allow that portion of our meeting to be video recorded to be seen on

you tube and he agreed. To see that portion of our meeting log on to:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ocpacvideo.

I believe the only way to make change is for the citizens to become

informed and more aware of what is going on in Oklahoma. If Republican

lawmakers are going to insist on paying more attention to the big

government lobbyists and ignoring our platform and the issues

important to grass root citizens, then they must be replaced by better

lawmakers. Following is the letter sent by Senator Brown to his

colleagues:

“April 24, 2012

Senator …

Room …

Dear Caucus Members:

The issue of state budgeting has been bothering me for some time and I

feel the need to let everyone know my concerns.

Many of us ran for office on a platform of reforming government and

protecting the interests of taxpayers. After becoming the majority

party, I believe we are continuing to pass the same type of state

budgets as have been done for the past 100 years without reform of

state agencies.

I have proposed for several years that the legislature go to a state

budgeting process in which we would spend one session crafting a two

year budget. We could break the House and Senate into small committees

each formed to examine the budget of a particular agency or program.

All state agencies should be required to follow a zero based budget,

examining each item of their appropriation request. The following

session would be devoted to non-budget matters.

The legislature has forgotten one of the core tenets we proposed as

candidates-the appropriations required for our state to function, not

the use of taxpayer money to fund projects enacted decades ago without

examining each one and justifying its existence and funding

requirements. Located below are just some of the appropriated agencies

I believe need such examination and review:

Arts Council         $4,101,087.00

OETA 3,822,328.00

Physician Manpower Training Commission 4,379,254.00

Teacher Preparation Commission 1,526,179.00

Horse Racing Commission 2,072,167.00

Insurance Department (self funded) 1,871,937.00

J.M. Davis Memorial Commission   306,009.00

Will Rogers Memorial Commission   740,486.00

Consumer Credit Commission   331,730.00

Space Industry Development Authority   394,589.00

Rural Economic Action Plan         11,500,000.00

Telecommunication Audit & Hiring Reform  8,400,000.00

I believe that unless we look at the way we spend taxpayer money, we

will continue to be challenged by opponents more fiscally conservative

than we have proven to be.

Sincerely,

++++++++

Sen. Bill Brown”

Senator Brown should be applauded for his courage and honesty. I am

sure many of his colleagues will not be happy that an ever larger

number of citizens are becoming informed as to the games the moderate

Republicans play with the serious issues of the day. The members and

friends of OCPAC are always looking for fiscally conservative

candidates to run against these game playing, big government loving,

moderate Republicans!

++  99% SURE SENATOR JOLLEY DIDN’T SABATOGE ME’s FREEZER

Especially since he has become budget chairman, Senator Clark Jolley

(R-Edmond) has become one of the more adept game players in the

Republican controlled Senate. At the behest of the Edmond Chamber, the

Edmond “Economic Development” office and of course UCO which consumes

revenues like “Jabba The Hut” consumed food, Senator Jolley has

determined to fund the building of a new medical examiners office on

the campus of UCO. A law was passed a couple of years ago to relocate

the ME’s office from its current location near the OU Health Sciences

facilities to a location on the campus of UCO. There it can be close

to the new OSBI headquarters and the Forensic Science Institute.

While I believe we could expand the current ME’s office and regain

accreditation for much less than building a new office on a college

campus, which will require it to be an over priced edifice to man, it

does have a synergy that makes sense to locate it near these other

facilities. However, the main rub is how it is going to be funded.

Senator Jolley has come up with a precedent setting “scheme” to fund

the building of the new office by borrowing the money without his

lawmaker buddies having to vote for this increased bonded

indebtedness. I believe the original estimate for a new ME’s office

was $30 million dollars, Senator Jolley is now proposing a $42 million

dollar facility to be financed under what is called, THE OKLAHOMA

STATE REGENTS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION’S MASTER LEASE PROGRAM. As a point

to remember, this program was created in 1999 when the Democrats were

in full control of the legislature.

The original intent of the program was to give Universities the

flexibility to enter into lease agreements and or improve real

property up to a total of ten million dollars. In other words, lease

computers or other equipment, repair leaky roofs or build small

buildings using bonded indebtedness.

However, Senator Jolley figured his little pet project could be funded

under this program without the legislature having to vote for $42

million in additional bonded indebtedness. Under his scheme, UCO would

borrow the money and then all the legislature would have to do would

be to increase the budget for the ME’s office by 2 or 3 million each

year for the next 20 to 30 years to pay the University back for the

money they borrowed. Of course my problem with borrowing the money is

that by the time it is paid back with interest it will end up costing

the taxpayers 60 to 70 million dollars depending on the interest paid

and the length of the loan.

Last week the freezer which stores bodies awaiting examination broke

down which played right into the hands of Senator Jolley. One thing

for sure, when that happened, you didn’t want to get between Senator

Jolley and a TV camera or he might run you over on his way to be

interviewed. He couldn’t wait to try and play on people’s emotions by

telling folks how shameful it was to have to put loved ones in freezer

trucks what we wait a week or so for parts to fix the old out of date

freezer. Of course his solution was, build the new building now.

I can’t tell you how many folks have joked about the possibility of

Senator Jolley sabotaging that freezer to advance his pet project.

However, I have done my best to squash that “unfounded” conspiracy

theory. Now folks, it is a serious problem, the office has lost its

accreditation, it is too small and the equipment is out of date. Here

is my problem with Senator Jolley and other big government borrow and

spend Republicans like him. Truth is, we already have the money on

hand to build the new facility without the need to borrow any money!

Following the session last year, following the formula, over $240

million dollars were deposited into the State’s Rainy Day Fund. Over

60 million dollars of that money is non-obligated and could be used

immediately to fund this project. If losing our accreditation is

really a serious problem, an emergency, then use this money, don’t

violate the intentions of the Master Lease program. They could pull

the money for the over priced $42 million project out of the Rainy Day

fund and get to work building the facility much quicker than having to

scheme and slither through the University to get it done.

To take this a step further, the legislature should also be able to

take additional money from the fund to repair the State Capitol. As

one lawmaker told me, if it is truly raining down limestone off the

Capitol building then why not use the “raining down” fund to fix that

problem?

Back to the ME’s office, ask yourself this, if you had a large savings

for emergencies as a part of your personal home budget and had a

serious problem arise, maybe even an emergency, would you borrow the

money to fix the problem or would you dip into your emergency fund to

take out 20% of that fund to fix the problem? Intelligent people would

not borrow the money, but rather use what they have on hand to fix the

problem.

A couple of other thoughts, revenues being collected in this fiscal

year thus far are running over $300 million dollars more than what the

budget predicted. It looks like another large amount of money will be

deposited in the Rainy Day Fund following this year’s session. While I

don’t recommend pulling money from this fund every year, I know of no

other “emergency” needs arising in the state other than the ME’s

office and the need to repair the Capitol that would require these

large withdraws in the future.

This is what each of us needs to do, call our own personal State

Senator and State Representative and tell them, DO NOT BORROW MONEY

FOR ANY PROJECTS THIS YEAR! We need to prioritize and pay as we go! In

the past, I have of course urged people to have at your finger tips

the contact information for your personal representatives. I don’t

care if you put it in your phone device, on your refrigerator or

tattoo it on the back of your hand, to be an effective citizen you

must have that information and be ready to contact your lawmakers when

the time is appropriate.

If you don’t have that information simply call the House or Senate

switchboards and ask the operator to connect you with your respective

lawmaker’s office. The House number is (405) 521-2711 and the Senate

number is (405) 524-0126. This call needs to be done preferably today

or at least by tomorrow. If you don’t have the name of your personal

lawmakers, call your local county election board, give them your

address and they will give you the names.

++  ANNOUNCEMENTS

*  THIS PAST WEDNESDAY  -  During our meeting this past Wednesday,

OCPAC Vice President Richard Engle announced his continued pursuit of

verifying the outcome of the election for Republican National

Committeeman. Since OCPAC gets involved in certain Republican primary

races, even to the point endorsing and financially supporting one

Republican over another, out of principle, Richard believed it

necessary for him to resign his long held position of Vice Chairman.

Richard has served in that capacity since our founding as a PAC nearly

15 years ago. Richard is exceedingly talented, competent and has

always been a loyal assistant to me, someone I have always had

complete confidence in to conduct our meetings. Richard deserves a

huge thanks from everyone, it sometimes takes a good deal of time to

run an organization, especially one that meets on a weekly basis and

Richard was always willing to help when I needed help. He did all that

on the pay of volunteer which is zero. Thanks Richard from all of

us.

*  TONIGHT, MONDAY  -  TULSA AREA  -  Sorry for being so late with

this announcement. Mike and Kathy Mears are hosting a fundraiser for

Insurance Commissioner John Doak in their home with the featured

speaker being former Arizona Congressman, Barry Goldwater Jr.  The

location is 2134 E. 27th Street, Tulsa with the event beginning at

6:00 and ending at 7:30 p.m. The cost to attend is $125 per person. To

RSVP, please contact Lauren Rahill at (405) 521-0900, fax 866

224-6686or e-mail lauren@sagaconline.com

*  TUESDAY NOON  -  OKC AREA  -  The OKC Host Committee will also

sponsor a fund raiser for Commissioner Doak in the Main Dining Room at

the Faculty House, 601 Northeast 14th street in OKC. The time is

between 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. and will again feature former Congressman

Barry Goldwater Jr. as the speaker. You must RSVP for this luncheon-

fund raiser by contacting Lauren Rahill at the same numbers given in

the previous paragraph. Again, the price to attend is $125.

*  TUESDAY EVENING  -  SHAWNEE AREA  -  The Shawnee chapter of OK2A

(Oklahoma 2nd Amendment) will host their monthly meeting, Tuesday

evening, 6:30 p.m. at Billy Boy’s Bar-b-q, (123 West MacArthur) in

Shawnee.

*  RADIO PROGRAM ARCHIVES  -  The past 2 Sunday’s I have guest hosted

for Glen Howard on his Senior World Radio Program which airs each

Sunday from 10 until 11:00 a.m. (during church services for most of

us). By sometime this evening, both of those programs should be posted

and available to hear by logging on to www.SeniorWorldRadio.com. The

program aired on May 13th featured State Representative Jason Murphey

and State Senator Anthony Sykes. We discussed a number is issues, but

especially important was the discussion about the influence of

lobbyists. The program aired yesterday, May 20th featured My dad as a

senior citizen still serving his country and making a difference at

age 87 and the Dan Kissick, founder and executive director of Right

Hand Ministries. Part of what we discussed was the treatment of

seniors in India and my opinion that similar treatment of seniors may

happen in our nation if we don’t get our fiscal house in order. As a

point of interest, Saturday evening, 4 of us went to see the new movie

release, The Exotic Marigold Hotel, based on financially challenged

British Citizens moving to India to retire and the struggles they went

through. What timing for the radio program and the movie to come out

at the same time. By the way, I don’t recommend the movie. The movie

industry can’t seem to make a movie today without filling it with

homosexual propaganda.

In addition, I was a guest on Gwin Falkner Lipperts show last night

which airs live starting at 7:00 p.m. every Sunday on KTOK 1000 AM. We

discussed the Republican State Convention, the Conservative Index as

published in the Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper and how OCPAC uses

the index to determine in which Republican primary races we get

involved. That program will be posted sometime after 2 this afternoon

and can be accessed by logging on to www.KTOK.com.

I look forward to seeing everyone this Wednesday.

Charlie Meadows

Charliemeadows7@gmail.com