For once, put Oklahomans first.
Significant reforms are required in Oklahoma. Teachers are leaving the state, our schools are packed, and our state is bankrupt. Corporate monopolies are driving up the cost of prescription drugs and health care, while rural hospitals are shutting.
Despite all of these difficulties, it appears that our governor and legislature are more concerned with safeguarding corporate lobbyists than with serving the public interest. This lack of leadership is hurting our children, our families, our farmers, and our small businesses.
What should we do in light of this mess?
Ideological radicalism from either side is unnecessary in Oklahoma. Platitudes and partisanship are unnecessary. To get our state functioning again, we need capable, seasoned leadership, the guts to oppose special interests, and a well-thought-out plan:
Fix our schools first.
We are currently failing our children, who are our future. We need entrepreneurs and skilled people to assist our firms if we are to expand them and draw in new ones. If we don’t invest in Oklahomans, how can we expect businesses to invest in Oklahoma?
Over the next 10 years, our teachers will require many compensation increases. For their tireless efforts on behalf of our children and our state, our state must adequately recompense them.
Teacher compensation is only one aspect of school finance. Duct tape holds the textbooks for our children together. Smaller class sizes, more instructors, and administrative accountability are all necessary.
Every student should have access to Pre-K in every school. Children in Oklahoma should have access to top-notch education. Pre-K is where it all begins.
Even while our schools require significant funding, we can reduce our bureaucracy and reinvest more funds in the classroom.
Mend our broken government.
Oklahomans, not lobbyists, should be the target audience for the budget.
Our priorities have been abandoned, and our budget process is flawed. While rewarding special interests, lawmakers are ignoring middle-class households.
I would address corporate tax loopholes in the state and increase tax deductions for small companies and middle-class Oklahomans in order to invest in our people.
Let’s punish those who violated it; in order to combat the lobbying business and shady political donations, we need new transparency regulations.
To support the public’s right to know, I’ll create an Office of Open Government in the governor’s office. I am the last victim of the Fallin administration’s strategy of obstructing public communication.
Oklahoma families will not pay more taxes.
Families in Oklahoma are not to blame for this problem, and I will not force them to bear the burden of fixing it. My proposal covers educational expenditures without increasing Oklahoma households’ taxes:
Restore the gross production tax on horizontally drilled wells to its previous level in order to terminate the preferential tax benefit for oil and gas companies: 7%
Close the capital gains deduction loophole, which primarily helps taxpayers earning more than $1 million annually.
Increase the cigarette tax by 50 cents per pack.
Income tax should not be raised.
Prioritise people’s health care.
Every Oklahoman should have the freedom to select the healthcare provider that best suits their needs. In addition to depriving tens of thousands of people of health care, our governor’s decision to deny Medicaid expansion established an insurance monopoly that denied Oklahomans choice and allowed insurance corporations to set exorbitant premiums. It also severely strained local economies around the state and made it impossible for our state’s rural hospitals to treat low-income Oklahomans.
Let’s prioritise healthcare for people:
I’ll overturn the detrimental decision made by our lawmakers to deny Medicaid expansion funding.
To ensure that our health care market is competitive, cheap, and serving our families—not insurance companies—we must bring both sides together and weigh all of our options.
We will demand price rises to be negotiated, bring legal action against cost-manipulation corporations, and import medications from Canada when it is safe and efficient to do so in order to address unmanageable prescription prices.
Lastly, we need to honour our pledge to our veterans by ensuring they receive the respect they deserve. This begins with boosting education benefits, career opportunities for veterans, and providing the finest physical and mental health care possible.
For Oklahomans, the fall of the Fallin government signifies a fresh start.
None of this will be simple, and we must be honest with ourselves. There is no miraculous wand, and our state is in grave danger.
However, we are not deterred by hard effort. We’re from Oklahoma. Fixing our schools, protecting our veterans, and gaining affordable access to healthcare are all things we can do if we set aside our differences and get to work. This is a battle for Oklahoma’s future, not a political one. And we have a chance to win.
That’s my responsibility, and I hope you’ll agree.
