Fallin's Own Words & Actions Come Back to Haunt Her

THE GOVERNOR'S OWN WORDS AND DEEDS

HAVE COME BACK TO HAUNT HER

The Watchman

For years many of us have said that politicians say what the people want to hear and do the opposite anyway. Often that is very hard to prove. In the case of Governor Fallin we have it in writing. We have her own words rewarding big business in Oklahoma while burdening the common working people with exorbitant taxes. She seeks to placate the majority of the people by eliminating the tax on groceries, yet she rewards those that donate the most to political campaigns by seeking to eliminate the business tax. We will use her own words from her State of the State Address, her 2014 Campaign site and a pledge she made in 2010 as a candidate for Governor to show you that she has sat here for the last six plus years and lied to the citizens of the State of Oklahoma.

We didn't have to go very far back to expose the lies that the Governor has made to the citizens of this great state. We went back to her first campaign for Governor when she made a promise to the people and even signed a statement to the fact that she would oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes. You can see that sworn pledge for yourself here

We do remember she wanted to give the citizens a tax cut. She did get one passed and signed into law. We were supposed to see the effects of it this year. It isn't going to happen. Poor planning led to a $1.3 billion dollar gap in the budget last year and the first item sacrificed by all the legislators and the Governor was our tax cut. They did cut $189 million dollars of tax credits from businesses that no longer do business in the state. That didn't really save us a lot of money. They also made the tax credit for the oil and gas industry permanent because they were having such a hard time.

As if the lawmakers weren't overpaid for the part time work they do anyway, last year they changed the rules a little. It seems they felt their vote was worth more. You can read how they rewarded themselves here Rule change will allow lobbyists to spend more on Oklahoma lawmakers | News OK. These people are making as much during a session as a single individual makes in a year. If you add their per-diem into it, they are making a killing.

The next article of interest we found was this http://www.muskogeepolitico.com/2017/02/fallin-pushes-17b-sales-tax-hike.html?m=1. This article blows her signed promise of no new taxes out of the water. She has asked for a $1.7 billion dollar tax increase and is taxing everything she can think off. This is due to poor management. Maybe it would help if there wasn't a drunk running the office responsible for distributing all these funds. We urge you to open the link on this report and read it.

There is a list of the services she has proposed taxing or raising taxes on.

The next article of interest we found was this article. We can't help but wonder what she is thinking. There have been little indications of a willingness to cut the workforce of the state. This year there were discussions of eliminating another $100 million dollars from the corporate welfare handouts. Those cuts would be coming from companies that mostly no longer do business in Oklahoma. She did recommend the elimination of the corporate income tax. If she was hoping that would attract new business to the state she better come up with a better plan. The corporations may not have to pay taxes, but their employees will be taxed even after their death. That's just plain stupidity.

The next article of interest we found was this A Deeper Look at Fallin's State of the State Address | Oklahoma Watch. This is an excellent report that includes a full copy of Governor Fallin's State of the State address. What's missing from her speech is the failure to get the states out of control spending under control. Two prime examples. With the state trying to close a $1.3 billion dollar hole in the budget the legislature still found the money, a total of $50 million dollars, to fund a pop music museum in Tulsa and a Native American Heritage Center in Oklahoma City. Those two projects will benefit Oklahoma City and Tulsa with added tax revenue once they are completed, but every citizen in the state will have contributed to paying off the bonds used to build them.

The next article of interest we found was this Mary Fallin - Wikipedia. This pretty well covers the Governor's entire political history. We urge you to open the link and read the article. In it you will see that she has really risen above her capability. What is not included here is any mention of her tenure as Chair of the National Governors' Conference. While in that position she aggressively pushed for the Common Core State Standards in education despite the pressure from her constituents here in Oklahoma. It was only after her term as Chair was over that we were able to take control of our education system back from the federal government.

As we had decided to look at her overall performance as Governor, the next article of interest we found was this Promises Made, Promises Kept | Mary Fallin for Governor. Now this is actually from her 2014 re-election campaign. We have gone through it bit by bit and can show you that the promises made have mostly not been kept.

 The first item on her list was this Fiscal Responsibility | Mary Fallin for Governor. We will give her credit for raising the amount of the balance in the States Rainy Day Fund. They have actually done a good job there. The cost of raising that balance has been far too great a price to pay for the tax payers. Last year there was a $1.3 billion dollar hole in the budget and the first people to feel it were the tax payers. Their tax cut was canceled, fees were raised and many other things were done. This year there's a $900 million dollar hole in the budget and the solution from her office is a $1.7 billion dollars in proposed tax increases. That's after she proposes to eliminate the corporate taxes all together along with the grocery tax. We sure would like to know what drugs she's on. We could ask Preston. We see a complete lack of fiscal responsibility out of this administration and this legislature.

The next item on her list was this Economy and Jobs | Mary Fallin for Governor. Her initial figures are correct to a point. There comes a time when even statistics lie. Since her 2014 campaign unemployment in Oklahoma is higher than the National average for the first time since the crash of 2008. It has gotten to a point that some companies are actually moving out of state. Despite all their attempts Oklahoma still remains an agricultural, oil and gas economy. No one at the state level has proposed any solutions to the problem. 

The next item we covered was government efficiency here Government Efficiency | Mary Fallin for Governor. She is pretty pleased with consolidating the IT departments of the various agencies into one group. Yes it did save a little money, but not enough to put a dent in what the state owes. She eliminated or consolidated 75 task forces, boards and commissions. We've lost track of the number she's created.

The next item on the Governor's list of accomplishments was this Education | Mary Fallin for Governor. Here we see that she claims to have exceeded her first year goal, which in fact she did. When you set such a low goal to begin with you are bound to exceed your goal. She created the A-F grading system for our schools, which isn't really working out to well. It seems to get changed every year. Perhaps the best thing she did accomplish was she ended the legal appeals process for underperforming teachers. That allowed the districts to terminate them without spending a fortune on attorney's fees defending the termination.

Next on her list of accomplishments was this Energy and Environment | Mary Fallin for Governor. Here her biggest accomplishment was the promotion of the use of natural gas in the state's vehicle fleet. Never mind the fact that some of those vehicles were traded in at a loss and were less than a year old. Yes Oklahoma is an oil and gas producing state, but we can't help but wonder when someone with a look towards the future of the state and the future of the citizens of this state is going to recognize that we need more than just oil and gas to propel this state into the future. She is so invested in the oil and gas industry that just because they were having a hard couple of years like most of us Oklahoman's, she approved a permanent tax credit for them last year.

Next came this Infrastructure | Mary Fallin for Governor. She established a bridge improvement and turnpike modernization plan. The problem is the bridges are not being repaired fast enough. Not enough of the funds are going to the County Commissioners to fix the bridges. There is a bill in the House this year that hopes to change that. In addition repairs on the turnpikes are not getting to the base of the problem. Instead of taking them down to the dirt level as they should be, they are just scraping away the top level of asphalt and relaying a new layer. Some of these base layers were designed to last fifteen to twenty years and have not been replaced since the 1950's. The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority's solution to this is to build more turnpikes. We are to a point now where after the completion of the proposed turnpikes already underway Oklahoma will have more Turnpike miles than any state in the union. It seems like every Governor waits until they are approaching the end of their term in office before they offer to build more turnpike miles. That's more money out of the citizen's pockets.

The next subject she brought up was this Healthcare | Mary Fallin for Governor. We will give her credit for keeping 30,000 Oklahomans insured during her first term. She's even managed, for the most part, to be successful through the half way point of her second term. We should not forget, nor should she and the legislature forget that through the repeated attempts to force Obamacare on us was stopped by the concerted efforts of the Grassroots movement in this great state exercising their 1^st Amendment rights that put an end to those attempts.

This next item she claims progress in has really turned into as big of a disgrace as the federal program has. You can see it here Veterans | Mary Fallin for Governor. She could have done more for our Disabled Veterans. Instead over the last year we got this Maggot-gate: VA Staff Quit After Maggots Found In Elderly Veteran. How can she claim credit for allowing our state run Veterans facilities to deteriorate to a point that is this bad? We have yet to see a report from the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs in regards to the death of this Veteran. Where is the House and Senate oversight of the department? The sad truth is this was just another prop to be used to get re-elected one more time.  This is not only disgraceful, but the failure to treat this patient was criminal.

She did her next victory lap based on this subject Vulnerable Oklahomans | Mary Fallin for Governor. Well she did help to launch a program that helped to feed over five million hungry Oklahoman's during her first term. Most of the leg work was accomplished by non-governmental agencies, local food banks and even churches. She should be giving the credit to them. She's also claiming credit for prison sentencing reform. We only have two questions for her on that subject. If the reforms were so successful why did you have them destroyed while they were still in the negotiation phase with former Speaker Steele? If her reforms were so successful why did the citizens of Oklahoma have to pass State Questions 780 and 781 for any real reform on sentencing was enacted?

She next laid claim to defending the 2^nd Amendment here 2nd Amendment | Mary Fallin for Governor. We did find this one to be credible. She is a gun owner. She has a concealed Carry Permit and is a member of the NRA. We would like to add that the former rifle range instructor on our staff would advise that she receive some guidance on how to properly hold and fire an MP-4 before she ventures out to the range again. Her current posture indicated in the photo would tend to leave her less steady in the standing position.

The next article of interest we found was this Mary Fallin appointment brings compliments, criticisms | KFOR.com. We actually found this to be a local attempt at derailing the Trump candidacy for President. This was on a very partisan line. It's a sad day in news reporting when even our local television stations start reporting on partisan lines with whoever their corporate bosses say to align with. Reporters should keep their personal opinions on any candidate to themselves. That is the only way they can report on all candidates fairly. If they are unable to do that then they are in the wrong line of work.

 The next article of interest we found was this. We welcome this and now know that these tax increases won't be a cake walk through the legislature. We also know that there are more than the ones listed here that have as of yet to step up to the plate.

The next article of interest we found was also a bit amusing. What we found amusing was in the title in part" Fallin opposes Fallin Budget." This is an article that we urge you to click on the link and open it to read. Just in November citizens of Oklahoma rejected a $668 million dollar tax increase and now she has come back and proposed a tax increase that is more than three times higher. Sure she's in her last term as Governor. She's upset because she wasn't offered a position in the Trump administration. What she and the legislature need to do is get down to the business of shrinking the bloated bureaucracy that our state government has become and learn to live within the frames of its income.

The next article we found was this article. We are finally seeing a glimmer of hope in the House of Representatives. It's a small glimmer but this nation was founded on such a small glimmer of hope.

Throughout this financial shortfall over the last two years we've seen the taxes for the citizens reinstated, a proposal to eliminate the grocery tax, the oil and gas industry get a permanent tax credit and a proposal to eliminate the corporate income tax. We have seen the deletion of $189 million in tax credits last year and there was talk of an additional $100 million this year. All of that is important. What's even more important that we haven't heard about except here is the legislature giving lobbyist permission to spend more on them each year? We haven't heard a word on the over $2 billion dollars in tax credits that the legislature hands out every year to those corporations that donate to their campaigns. The reason why is easily deduced. The people in power want to stay in power and that is how they see the way to do it.

Governor Fallin you have proven to be the snake in the grass that many of us thought that you were. May this term as Governor end your political career forever. For all of you citizen legislators be aware that we will be watching every single tax proposal for your votes. We will ensure that your constituents are informed of how you voted on this massive tax increase. We can almost promise you that a yea vote will be a challenged seat on the next election.