A Bad Habit that is Hard to Break

For some time our City and State governments have been practicing a bad habit. This habit has gotten pretty expensive to the average taxpayer and (hopefully) will cost some elected officials their jobs.

Oklahoma and locally Tulsa have practiced the nasty business of money mismanagement, or a more general practice, when there is a problem, throw money at it hoping it will solve the issue.

Take our state. Our legislature, with the help of many Republicans I'm ashamed to say, voted to give roughly $60,000,000 (notice the number of zeros) of tax payer (read YOUR and MY money) to a bunch of rich businessmen to relocate the Super Sonics to Oklahoma City. To add insult to injury, the team will be named the Oklahoma City Super Sonics. Check out Michael Bates and Mad Okie's blogs for more information. Why is our state in the practice of favoring one type of business over another? Let all those zeros rattle in your head the next time you drove over a pot hole marked road. BTW, how many roads can 60 odd million fix?

Our City government is guilty of the same crime. Whether it's Corporate Welfare approved in the Vision 20/25 packages a few years ago, or our leaders, unable to control or prioritize their spending, decide to raise utility rates, the result is the same. Hard working Tulsans, already tapped out by the rising cost of gas and groceries, are expected to pick up the tab by paying more taxes. I've even heard our government wants to raise taxes to fund rode maintenance. Noble gesture doing what government should be doing in the first place, but why not look for other solutions FIRST and not last?

Now the powers-that-be are at it again. On May 13th, Tulsa Community Collage is asking for a property tax increase for higher education. I've lost count how many commercials I've seen begging hard working Tulsans to fork over more of their money to fund TCC. Even News Channel 2 has gotten in on the action. A couple weeks ago they ran a story about the petition generated by TCC. Of course, not one part of the story was devoted to the opposition. For more information, check out Michael Bates blog.

I'm really sick and tired of our leaders in both parties seeing me and the rest of the taxpayers as nothing more than a piggy bank. Tulsa, and the rest of Oklahoma, you have a choice. Either settle for the status Que and pay higher taxes or send a clear unmistakable message to our elected leaders. Tell them you're sick and tired of them giving money to pay for their pet projects.

Vote NO May 13th.

Next time your elected official is up for reelection, check their voting record. If they are wasting your money on projects government has no business doing, send them packing.

Remember, it's YOUR money, not THEIRS.

Help our elected leaders break the bad habit of not spending your money correctly. It can be done.