Time to Get Serious

Revenue to the state coffers is down. The political leadership of our state is facing a reduction in the amount of money they have to appropriate. This should provide an opportunity for long-term strategic thinking about our income streams and our spending habits.

One of the areas we have successfully worked on as a state over the past few years has been Oklahoma’s public pension system. Through the leadership and perseverance of Representative Randy McDaniel, Oklahoma – unlike many other states - has addressed the issues created by an under-funded pension system. For decades it was easy to increase benefits without paying for those increases. A more responsible approach was implemented by Representative McDaniel. Through his leadership, our pension spending habits was linked to our income.

His efforts have resulted in decreasing Oklahoma’s unfunded pension liability by more than $7 billion. With the changes made to ensure that benefits aren’t increased without a corresponding way set out in statutes to pay for them, we have been able to increase the solvency of all of our public pensions.

This historic effort cannot be wasted. And any legislator who proposes increases in Cost Of Living Allowances (COLAs) in public pensions just to be able to pander to his or her constituents while knowing that the money isn’t there to pay for those COLAs is doing a serious disservice to our ability to keep our promises to Oklahoma’s public workers. 

We need to follow Rep. McDaniel’s example when addressing our current budget shortfall. We can’t break the promises made to job-producing industries who we encouraged to move to Oklahoma or grow their Oklahoma-based operations. Our spending must balance with our income. The economic incentives we promised have worked to diversify our economy and grow Oklahoma’s strong job base. Since 2000 Oklahoma’s personal per capita income has increased by 74%! That’s the fourth largest improvement in the nation. And it didn’t come about by accident.

Let’s keep the promises we made to entice these companies to invest in our state and diversify our economy. Legislation that will jeopardize our economic base should not be considered. Instead, we should reduce our spending in non-core areas and consolidate where needed. We can do this, but it will take serious ideas and leadership.

This article was posted in The Journal Record as part of Fred Morgan's monthly opinion editorial.