Our green speaker
It’s easy being green these days, but if you’re a conservative Republican it’s not so easy being known as being green. Yet the man taking the lead on alternative energy at the state level is Republican House Speaker Chris Benge of Tulsa. He wants to make it easier for vehicles to run on natural gas instead of gasoline or diesel. He wants to reward people for using solar power and wind power. Conservatives and Republicans are widely represented in the alternative fuel movement. Benge, R-Tulsa, is pushing House Bill 1952, which offers incentives for increasing the number of vehicles powered by compressed natural gas. The bill also addresses the problem of the paucity of CNG fueling stations. Benge is also pushing initiatives creating incentives for wind power and solar power. The state will be better off for his efforts.
Smile of cars
What’s it going to take to put you in the driver’s seat of that new car? This should put a smile on your face: Part of the federal stimulus package is a deduction on taxes paid when new cars are purchased. Congress considered, but rejected, another deduction for the interest paid on new car loans. Oklahoma doesn’t assess sales taxes on vehicles. Instead, it takes 3.25 percent of the purchase price on new cars (used cars also have an excise tax, but it’s figured differently). Motor vehicle excise tax collections led all categories in declines for January, compared to January of 2008. The vehicle tax decline was nearly 60 percent. Most car buyers will qualify for the new federal deduction. So in addition to those dealer incentives, Uncle Sam is offering one of his own. Of course all of us will ultimately pay for this deduction through the increase in the federal debt.
Wasting time
Tough budget times tend to leave lawmakers with too much time on their hands. We’re glad to see they didn’t waste much time on yet another unnecessary proposal that would infuse science classes with faith and morality discussions. Science teachers and their students already have sufficient freedom to explore scientific issues. Teachers must use their best judgment in guiding the discussion and keeping students on track. The proposed Scientific Education and Academic Freedom Act, which was killed in a Senate committee this week, and similar bills would just further muddy the academic waters. Lawmakers should stick to problems that need fixing. Academic freedom in the science classroom isn’t one of them.
Meanwhile, in Illinois …
Zoinks! After nurturing the impression he was above the muck of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s pay-to-play scandal, U.S. Sen. Roland Burris now acknowledges he made some calls to try to raise funds for Blagojevich at the behest of the governor’s brother — while Burris was seeking appointment to the seat vacated by President Barack Obama. Burris, a Democrat, says he’s open to a Senate ethics investigation, which probably is the least he could do after making everyone believe he steadfastly rebuffed Blagojevich’s money grubbing. Illinois is a blue state, as blue as any in the country. But you’ve got to wonder if the stink of corruption isn’t going to linger with Illinois voters long enough for them to vote for change of their own next year, to the GOP.
Open your wallets
If you think government budget shortfalls are bad now, wait and see what will happen if various advocacy groups, judges and bureaucrats get their way. For starters there’s the Oklahoma Education Association funding proposal, set to go before voters next year, which would increase the education budget by $850 million a year. The cost of a verdict in a lawsuit against the Department of Human Services is unknown if the state loses. But it would be in multi-million-dollar category. Also consider the U.S. Justice Department’s scathing criticism of the Oklahoma County jail and how that may ultimately lead to major spending to correct deficiencies. Most of the above doesn’t involve one-time spending. It involves recurring expenses in perpetuity. One thing’s certain: A handful of trial lawyers will be making a lot of money, so personal income tax receipts should be going up as well.
Hold the pork
Stimulus package? Who needs pork when you can schedule an election that pumps nearly $19 million into Oklahoma’s economy? A Tulsa World analysis of 2008 election spending reveals a massive amount of cash coming from lawyers and lobbyists (some of it to fight tort reform), a nearly equal amount coming from the oil and gas industry and sizeable chunks coming from health care professional and Indian tribes. The World says the spending figure is a conservative estimate and further digging will swell the numbers. Twenty cents of every dollar contributed came from lawyers, lobbyists or the petroleum industry. Lawyers and lobbyists alone coughed up nearly $2 million. The oil and gas industry was right behind them. Do we need more elections to generate economic activity? Perish the thought! By the way, trial lawyer spending to stop tort reform was a bad investment: Republicans still took over the Legislature.
Economic development endowment funding
Will the envy from the other end of the turnpike ever end? Doubtful. Reaction to Gov. Brad Henry’s State of the State speech is the latest evidence. Henry called for lawmakers to approve a dedicated funding source for the EDGE endowment, boosting the amount of money that can be used for research and growing the principal. The Tulsa World’s reaction was to call into question – once again – whether Tulsa was unfairly shut out of the first round of funding awards. While calling the fund’s goals “laudable,” an editorial noted the awards’ “apparent imbalance” that tilted toward the Oklahoma City area. The newspaper had a similar reaction when the awards were announced late last year. The fund’s oversight board reviewed nearly 100 proposals before deciding on five to split the $12 million in available funding. One of the projects proposed creating 100 jobs in Oklahoma City. Does that mean it’s time for Tulsa to cry discrimination? Hardly. To question the integrity of the selection process based on one year’s results is presumptuous, to say the least. It would be fabulous for the state if the EDGE fund can eventually finance projects in every corner of the state and at many points in between. But merit not geography must be the determining factor.
Works both ways
Turnabout is fair play. In response to a lawmaker’s ill-advised proposal to crack down on homeschoolers, Russell E. Spiars of Zionsville, Ind., suggests that a pro-homeschool legislator author a bill to let homeschool parents crack down on public schools. A pending bill would require parents to alert local school districts of their homeschool plans and offer academic progress reports. Spiars, in a letter to The Oklahoman, says, “I have observed many kids from both homeschools and government schools, and it is apparent to me that the most effective means of improving educational achievement would be to give homeschooling officials oversight over government schools.” Of course there’s not enough homeschool parents to go around, but it’s apparent that public schools need more oversight than homeschooling parents. Indiana has fairly lax homeschooling regulations, but it’s not as free of government interference as is Oklahoma. The proposed bill would change that.
Child safety seat laws
AAA Oklahoma’s Chuck Mai wrote this week that it’s been 31 years since Tennessee passed the nation’s first child safety seat law. For parents of young children, it’s hard to imagine not stressing out over which car seat to buy, whether a child needs a rear- or front-facing seat and when they can graduate to the much cheaper and much easier to lug around booster seats. Mai thinks Oklahoma’s law regarding child safety seats is due updating. Current law allows children ages 6 and older to be seated in booster seats or a seat belt. That means many parents let their 6- and 7-year-olds use regular seat belts before they’re big enough, he said. The safer route, he said, would be to require booster seats for children up to 80 pounds. That would be a huge change for Oklahomans, and one not all parents will be happy about. But Mai’s concerns are worth listening to.
Legislator butting in again
State Sen. David Myers is back with another effort to clamp down on restaurant smoking areas.
Myers, R-Ponca City, wants to abolish such smoking areas by Sept. 1 of next year, and prevent new or existing restaurants from adding these rooms after Sept. 1 of this year.
Myers pursued a similar course of action during last year’s session, without success. The Oklahoma Restaurant Association stayed out of that fight but has come out against this newest version. Perhaps that’s why Myers told the Tulsa World, “To be honest, it is going to be difficult to get this bill passed.”
Let’s hope so. Banning smoking areas would further pinch restaurant owners who paid handsomely to have their separately ventilated rooms operational by March 2006 as required by law. Lawmakers ought to stomp out this latest proposal.
