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Oklahoma should start making more use of its $3.9 billion in accumulated reserves, a panel of four state lawmakers agreed Friday, but whether that’s through tax cuts, expenditures or a proposed investment fund is unclear.
“We need to give those funds back, but we need to think about how we do it,” said Rep. Jeff Boatman, R-Tulsa.
The discussion — also including Rep. Meloyde Blancett, D-Tulsa; Sen. Kevin Matthews, D-Tulsa; and Sen. Dave Rader, R-Tulsa — was the main event on a Tulsa Regional Chamber breakfast menu that also included 1st District Congressman Kevin Hern, Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell, state Energy Secretary Ken McQueen and brief remarks from more than a dozen other area lawmakers.
Panel moderator Devery Youngblood, executive director of the Oklahoma Aggregates Association, asked a series of questions dealing mainly with education, taxes and the state’s cash reserves.
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Rader, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said the state’s tax structure is being reviewed but that he feels no great urgency to make sudden, drastic changes. The state “is in a good position,” he said, with a nice surplus and a relatively low tax burden.
“What I would like to see us do is take this broad look at: What are our tax incentives? What are our taxes? Is there a way to simplify it? Is there a way to make it more fair? And let’s see if we can go do that,” said Rader. “We have some time here. Let’s get together and see if we can pound it out, and if we can’t find a better way to do it, we’ll just keeping doing (the same).”
Boatman said there are ways to return value to taxpayers besides just cutting taxes.
“Sure, there’s going to be some tax cuts,” he said. “There’s going to be some things we invest in through agencies and through services we do as a state. We can give money back that way.”
Boatman then suggested using some of the reserves to fund “some pretty incredible” community projects that didn’t make the cut for American Rescue Plan distributions.
Blancett and Matthews, the two Democrats, recommended putting more money into public schools, workforce development and quality-of-life improvements.
“We have an education system, in terms of common ed and higher ed, that’s still not funded to where it needs to be,” said Blancett. “We have a couple of agencies that are under-resourced and could be so much better utilized if they were like OCAST (the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology). Strategic investment is important.”
Asked about school vouchers, Blancett replied, “Not only ‘no’ but ‘hell no.’”
Matthews said he is disappointed in Gov. Kevin Stitt’s attacks on diversity and on Tulsa Public Schools.
The Tulsa Fire Department’s chief personnel officer before entering politics, Matthews said: “When we had a firefighter we didn’t think was doing a good job, or a fire station, we learned the (best) way of dealing with it that was corrective rather than punitive. We should not put down public schools and say, ‘Vouchers are the only good, and you guys are terrible.’
“To just demonize the public school system where I went — where my kids went, where my parents and grandparents went and where my nieces and nephews go right now — is not right,” he said.
Hern, who has concentrated much of his attention on federal spending, reiterated his position that it must be slowed.
“We’ve got to do something about this,” Hern said. “For us to say that we shouldn’t have any conversation about spending or a debt limit crisis — I’ve asked reporters to point out one Republican who’s said we don’t want to pay our debt. What we’ve said is we should have a conversation … about how we’re going to stop this spending so we don’t see this debt limit crisis we’re seeing right now.”
Ginnie Graham talks with Bixby Superintendent Rob Miller about the state legislature potentially using merit pay raises for public school teachers, and why he feels the idea does not work.
Tulsa-area state legislators and how to contact them
Sen. Nathan Dahm
DISTRICT 33
Sen. Nathan Dahm (R)
Hometown: Broken Arrow
District area: South and east Tulsa County
Phone: 405-521-5551
Sen. Dana Prieto

DISTRICT 34
Sen. Dana Prieto (R)
Hometown: Tulsa
District area: Owasso and northern Tulsa County
Phone: 405-521-5566
Email Sen. Prieto
Sen. Jo Anna Dossett

DISTRICT 35
Sen. Jo Anna Dossett (D)
Hometown: Tulsa
District area: South and central Tulsa
Phone: 405-521-5624
Sen. John Haste

DISTRICT 36
Sen. John Haste (R)
Hometown: Broken Arrow
District area: Eastern Tulsa County, western Wagoner County
Phone: 405-521-5602
Email Sen. Haste
Sen. Todd Gollihare

DISTRICT 12
Sen. Todd Gollihare (R)
Hometown: Kellyville
District area: Creek County
Phone: 405-521-5528
Sen. Kevin Matthews

DISTRICT 11
Sen. Kevin Matthews (D)
Hometown: Tulsa
District area: Northern Tulsa, southeast Osage County
Phone: 405-521-5598
Sen. Joe Newhouse

DISTRICT 25
Sen. Joe Newhouse (R)
Hometown: Broken Arrow
District area: South Tulsa, Bixby, Broken Arrow and Jenks
Phone: 405-521-5675
Sen. Dave Rader

DISTRICT 39
Sen. Dave Rader (R)
Hometown: Tulsa
District area: Central and south Tulsa
Phone: 405-521-5620
Sen. Cody Rogers

DISTRICT 37
Sen. Cody Rogers (R)
Hometown: Tulsa
District Area: West Tulsa County
Phone: 405-521-5600
Rep. Meloyde Blancett

DISTRICT 78
Rep. Meloyde Blancett (D)
Hometown: Tulsa
District area: Midtown Tulsa
Phone: 405-557-7334
Rep. Jeff Boatman

DISTRICT 67
Rep. Jeff Boatman (R)
Hometown: Tulsa
District area: Southeast Tulsa
Phone: 405-557-7341
Rep. Amanda Swope

DISTRICT 71
Rep. Amanda Swope (D)
Hometown: Tulsa
District area: Brookside in Tulsa
Phone: 405-557-7361
Rep. Suzanne Schreiber

DISTRICT 70
Rep. Suzanne Schreiber (D)
Hometown: Tulsa
District area: Midtown Tulsa
Phone: 405-557-7359
Email Rep. Schreiber
Rep. Dean Davis

DISTRICT 98
Rep. Dean Davis (R)
Hometown: Broken Arrow
District area: Elm Place in east Broken Arrow, east to 248th East Avenue
Phone: 405-557-7362
Rep. Mark Tedford

DISTRICT 69
Rep. Mark Tedford (R)
Hometown: Tulsa
District area: Jenks, Bixby and Tulsa between those cities
Phone: 405-557-7331
Rep. Scott Fetgatter

DISTRICT 16
Rep. Scott Fetgatter (R)
Hometown: Okmulgee
District area: Okmulgee County and the southeastern tip of Tulsa County
Phone: 405-557-7373
Rep. Ross Ford

DISTRICT 76
Rep. Ross Ford (R)
Hometown: Broken Arrow
District area: West Broken Arrow
Phone: 405-557-7347
Rep. Regina Goodwin

DISTRICT 73
Rep. Regina Goodwin (D)
Hometown: Tulsa
District area: Downtown and northwest Tulsa
Phone: 405-557-7406
Rep. Kyle Hilbert

DISTRICT 29
Rep. Kyle Hilbert (R)
Hometown: Depew
District area: Westernmost Tulsa County, Creek County
Phone: 405-557-7353
Rep. Mark Lawson

DISTRICT 30
Rep. Mark Lawson (R)
Hometown: Sapulpa
District area: Sapulpa, Mounds, southwest Tulsa County
Phone: 405- 557-7414
Rep. T.J. Marti

DISTRICT 75
Rep. T.J. Marti (R)
Hometown: Tulsa
District area: East Tulsa
Phone: 405-557-7356
Rep. Stan May

DISTRICT 80
Rep. Stan May (R)
Hometown: Broken Arrow
District area: Southeast Tulsa County; small section of southwest Wagoner County
Phone: 405-557-7338
Rep. Monroe Nichols

DISTRICT 72
Rep. Monroe Nichols (D)
Hometown: Tulsa
District area: Southeast corner of Inner Dispersal Loop to Owasso; also includes Turley and Sperry
Phone: 405-557-7391
Rep. Clay Staires

DISTRICT 66
Rep. Clay Staires (R)
Hometown: Skiatook
District area: Sand Springs, west Tulsa between Arkansas River and Osage County line and Riverview
Phone: 405-557-7390
Rep. Terry O’Donnell

DISTRICT 23
Rep. Terry O’Donnell (R)
Hometown: Catoosa
District area: Catoosa, east Tulsa
Phone: 405-557-7379
Rep. Melissa Provenzano

DISTRICT 79
Rep. Melissa Provenzano (D)
Hometown: Tulsa
District area: East and southeast Tulsa
Phone: 405-557-7330
Rep. Lonnie Sims

DISTRICT 68
Rep. Lonnie Sims (R)
Hometown: Tulsa
District area: West Tulsa County from the bend of Arkansas River down to Glenpool
Phone: 405-557-7340
Rep. John Kane

DISTRICT 11
Rep. John Kane (R)
Hometown: Bartlesville
District area: Bartlesville, north Tulsa County including Collinsville
Phone: 405-557-7358
Rep. Mark Vancuren

DISTRICT 74
Rep. Mark Vancuren (R)
Hometown: Owasso
District area: Suburban Owasso
Phone: 405-557-7377
Rep. John Waldron

DISTRICT 77
Rep. John Waldron (D)
Hometown: Tulsa
District area: Northeast Tulsa
Phone: 405-557-7410
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