Editorial Roundup: Recent editorials in Oklahoma newspapers

Here are excerpts from recent editorials in Oklahoma newspapers:

Stillwater News Press. Feb. 4, 2018.

Imagine being an investor in a business and then hearing from that business’ CEO that they had been suffering from almost “10 years of neglect” where financial accountability and employee morale is concerned.

We really don’t have to imagine. The Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation is big business, and as taxpayers, we are all investors. When agency director Dick Dutton was recently grilled by a legislative committee, he was grilled by one that had also looked into the state health department’s financial misdeeds.

We find all of it troubling, but it’s definitely troubling when you consider that tourism is Oklahoma’s third-largest revenue stream generator. It benefits from international, national and domestic spenders.

Tourism spending, by most accounts, also generates a higher return on investment than many industries. That’s an awesome amount of responsibility for agency leaders, but that responsibility is very deserving of the kind of scrutiny we’re seeing now.

It should also be noted that many local, and often rural, tourism agencies across the state are making it work with small staffs and budgets.

They also provide a solid return on investment when we consider that Oklahoma municipalities are funding by sales tax dollars, and we need people coming into our area to eat, play and shop.

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The Oklahoman. Feb. 5, 2018.

This year’s legislative session will include votes on numerous tax increases and assorted government reforms, including those advanced by the Step Up Oklahoma coalition. Whether one supports or opposes those specific proposals, all citizens deserve to know where their elected lawmakers stand.

Unfortunately, there’s a good chance many Oklahomans won’t be able to find out what position their legislators take - because those lawmakers will refuse to vote.

In a recent column, Rep. Jason Murphey, R-Guthrie, highlighted this problem. Under current rules, lawmakers who are present during a vote are still allowed to “duck the vote completely by simply walking out of the chamber and refusing to vote at all. This deprives the constituents from holding their legislator accountable.”

Those who refuse to vote are simply recorded as “excused.”

Murphey recalled watching one of his House colleagues engage in this farce in an especially glaring fashion in a past session. A bill dealing with agency director salaries was on the board. The measure was opposed by agency heads. Murphey said he watched an unnamed colleague “slowly walk back to the voting box only to react with apparent feigned disgust when the vote was closed before he could register his vote.” That colleague then looked up at an agency head in the House gallery and received “an exaggerated and enthusiastic gesture of appreciation” from the agency director.

This isn’t a new problem. Just glance at voting records from practically any day of any session, and you’ll find a wide range of questionable examples of lawmakers missing votes. On March 7, 2017 at 4:17 p.m., only two House members were recorded as absent for a House vote. By 4:44 p.m., just 27 minutes later, suddenly 12 members were missing. Late-night sessions that run until 10 p.m. or later generally provide even more glaring examples. Several dozen lawmakers may miss any number of votes, only to reappear at random points of the evening.

Not all instances of vote-walking involve lawmakers bowing to outside pressure. Many instances involve simple laziness. Lawmakers aren’t interested in the bills being debated, so they don’t bother to show up and vote.

But every year there are “minor” bills that are later determined to have major consequences. Oklahomans deserve to have their elected representative on the job unless there are valid reasons for an absence - such as illness or a family emergency. While some lawmakers do run into such understandable obstacles each year, their number is far less than the number of lawmakers walking a vote on any given day.

Murphey argues legislative rules should be updated to include modern technology that allows a legislator to vote, no matter where he or she is located at the time. Yet this could lead to lawmakers allowing others to cast votes for them in secret, which isn’t ideal either.

This appears an area where public shaming and voter pressure are needed. Voters should demand to know why their elected representative or senator failed to vote on numerous bills. Politicians should have to defend not only the votes they cast each year, but those they don’t.

In the end, legislators are paid to do one thing - vote yes or no on bills. And this year, more than most, Oklahomans deserve to see exactly where their lawmakers stand.

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Tulsa World. Feb. 6, 2018.

With a sense of urgency and hope, Gov. Mary Fallin used her final State of the State address to demand a better future for Oklahoma.

Fallin’s speech broke with expectations. Instead of a valedictory review of two years in office and a pro forma budget presentation, Fallin used the moment as an opportunity to push for a fundamental reordering of state government along the lines of the recent Step Up Oklahoma agenda.

“Today is not to look over our shoulder … but today is a day to press on ahead for a better future for the state of Oklahoma,” she told lawmakers.

The Step Up Oklahoma plan Fallin pushed includes sustainable public revenue, a $5,000 state-funded teacher pay raise and a series of reforms to set the state on a better path moving forward.

Fallin spoke in urgent terms, comparing the moment to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the 2013 Moore tornado.

“This is an historic, defining moment before us,” Fallin said. “What we do as a unified group of people elected by the citizens of our great state could be considered the moment in time that changed Oklahoma.”

After Fallin’s speech ended, a heckler hurled insults at the governor and another protester displayed a banner with the words, “State of Despair” written across Fallin’s face.

We can’t see such good coming from that sort of action, which is politically counterproductive to progress and, frankly, rude, but we can recognize that it reflects that the state is very much on edge and the focal point is the state Capitol.

That tension - recognized by everyone from the governor to the heckler in the gallery - can, and should push the state to real change, which is what Fallin is offering.

“We have two clear choices,” Fallin told the state “We can continue down … the path of sliding backwards, or the second path which is to say ’Enough is enough! We can do better! We deserve better! Our children deserve better!’?”