Who's ready for a sequel?!
Once again, Oklahoma is facing a budget crisis. And once again, we're counting on the same dimwits who created the problem to try and fix it.
Via The AP via NewsOK.com:
Gov. Mary Fallin says early projections are that Oklahoma will have a hole in next year's state budget of as much as $600 million, or nearly 10 percent of state spending on the current year's budget.
Fallin said Wednesday she expects a projected shortfall of between $500 million to $600 million when the State Board of Equalization meets next week to certify available revenues. The governor says that figure includes about $245 million in one-time sources of money that were spent on this year's budget.
Wow. Only $500 - $600 million? That's nothing compared to last year's $1,000,000,000+ shortfall that Preston Doerflinger still managed to miscalculate! Since Mary has experience dealing with budget shortfalls that are a result of A) her disastrous tax policies and B) our state's over-reliance on one cyclical industry to support the economy, she has a plan in place...
Fallin says she's optimistic that an increase in the price of oil and natural gas could reduce the shortfall before the final revenue estimate is certified in February.
There we go! We just need to wait for the price of oil and natural gas to increase and everything will be fine! Well, until it drops again like it always does and we find ourselves in the same exact situation because our elected officials suck the energy industry's teat and let them extract our state's resources like bandits.
Anyway, back in April we posted 10 ideas to help solve the 2016 budget crisis. They were mostly funny and satirical, but still a lot better than Mary's plan. You should check it out and share it. Also, if you're bored, go re-read that Reuters piece that exposed the roll our energy industry overlords played in creating the budget crisis. The way things are going, Reuters may have to produce a sequel for that, too.
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