Isaiah McCaslin for House District 44

The budget is the most important issue facing our state legislature today, as it affects all other priorities.  Because of the recession and irresponsible tax cuts, state agencies have been forced to make painful reductions in services. In many cases, cutting services today will be more expensive in the long run because of increased crime, drug addiction, and poor education for our young people.

The most responsible action of state government is to save during good times and spend more in a downturn, so we do not take away services when people need them most. If crucial state services like public safety, transportation, education, and mental health go unfunded for too long, we are in danger of setting ourselves back for years to come.

For the current crisis, we should look at the following short-term solutions:

• Reduce tax exemptions: Oklahoma gives up hundreds of millions in revenue every year due to tax exemptions and incentives. Yet so far they have been largely left out of our attempts to reduce the deficit. Incentives are a valuable tool for state government, and many serve important purposes. However, when balancing the budget in difficult times, they should be examined as closely as any other form of spending.
• Increase public dialogue: Oklahomans need to better understand the effects of cutting the budget. We should hold additional public hearings for citizens and agency officials to discuss the difficult choices that we face, and government leaders must do a better job of explaining where the money is going.
• Prioritize spending: We should assess the most and least important state services rather than making across the board cuts to every agency. These decisions will very difficult. However, it is the job of our elected leaders to make them. Governing is easy when times are good, but the current situation requires political courage.
• Use the Rainy Day Fund: We should immediately tap the Rainy Day Fund to limit further cuts. While it is important to eliminate waste from the budget, we will do more harm than good by slashing essential services.

We must also think about long-term solutions for budgeting more responsibly and alleviating future downturns:

• Save more during good times: Oklahoma should raise the cap on the Rainy Day Fund, as well as pursuing other measures to save during good times. One example is the energy stabilization fund proposed by Republican Speaker Chris Benge that would cushion us from fluctuations in oil and natural gas prices.
• Improve budget forecasting: Instead of looking only one year ahead, we should calculate budgets based on multi-year revenue forecasts. We can improve these forecasts by having them be evaluated by many stakeholders rather than a single agency.
• Dedicate full legislature session to budget: We should follow Jari Askins’ proposal to have a legislature session dedicated solely to the budget and put all other policy issues in the second session. This would allow legislators and citizens to focus their attention on the issues and avoid political distractions when making our most important decisions.

If you have any comments on the issues discussed here or on anything else that our state government should be doing, please contact me using the form below.