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To paraphrase: a Republican controlled legislature that gave out deep tax cut is wrecking the state. Oaklahoma can't afford to pay teachers, state workers were told to only work four days a week, schools also are only open four days a week, Highway patrol were told to not fill up their gas tanks, some bureaucracies are completely shut down like those who revoke drunk driving licenses. Teachers are fleeing the state, and schools would give teaching licenses to anyone with a passing knowledge just so classes can stay open. One principal had to emergency certify his secretary to teach a class.
Healthcare cost in Oaklahoma is through the roof. Some state workers actually have higher insurance cost than their pay, which means they pay the government to work there.
The roots of the fiasco are not hard to determine. As in Oklahoma’s northern neighbour, Kansas, deep tax cuts have wrecked the state’s finances. Oklahoma has also cut income taxes, first under Democrats desperate to maintain control over a state that was trending Republican, and then under Republicans, who swept to power anyway. Mary Fallin, the Republican governor, came to office pledging to eliminate the income tax altogether. Since 2008 general state funds for K-12 education in Oklahoma have been slashed by 28.2%—the biggest cut in the country. Property taxes, which might have made up the difference, are constitutionally limited.
Other state agencies are broke, too. Highway patrolmen are told not to fill their petrol tanks to save money. Those caught drunk-driving are able to keep their licences because there are no bureaucrats to revoke them. Prisons are dangerously overcrowded, to the point that the state’s director of corrections publicly says that “something is going to pop”. Meanwhile some Republicans, intent on cutting more spending, have an eye on the state’s Medicaid programme.
But, you know. Blue states have high housing cost. So there!
The problem in Oklahoma is that a tax bill that raises a tax must be approved by 75% of the legislature. No other state requires it to be that high.
Anyway, most people don't give a damn about Oklahoma, since it's in the middle of flyover country. I don't think most Oklahomans give a damn about their own state, either. Too much corruption and incompetence in government there. People living there, who are very unhappy and miserable about how the state is being run need to move out.
destroyed, huh?
should i let my buddy in guthrie know?
Let him know? That's it?!
What kind of friend are you?
.
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