Editorial
The Oklahoman
MEMBERS of the Legislature apparently have decided the Oklahoma Department of Transportation has had it pretty good the past few years, so it’s time the agency give a little something back. This is no way to govern.
A Senate committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would divert money from ODOT’s long-range road and bridge repair fund and give it to public schools. Sen. James Halligan, R-Stillwater, is pushing the plan, saying: “I am absolutely committed to trying to find some way to give additional funds for common education.”
A former president of Oklahoma State University, Halligan’s emphasis on education is commendable. Yet it’s worth noting that common ed and higher ed combined already get more than half of all the money the Legislature appropriates each year. This has been the case forever. And while the swarm of teachers and administrators who rallied at the Capitol on Monday believe lawmakers have given them short shrift, the spending data debunks the notion that education “isn’t a priority.”
Transportation concerns, on the other hand, have only been important to the Legislature for the past decade. For 20 years, beginning in the mid-1980s, ODOT’s appropriation from the Legislature was unchanged. It wasn’t ever adjusted for inflation — lawmakers simply cut ODOT the same check as the year before and moved on.
Oklahoma paid dearly for this neglect with roads and bridges that deteriorated to the point of becoming a national embarrassment. Only after a motorist was killed by a piece of debris falling from the underside of a bridge in 2004 did lawmakers act.
In a movement led by Republicans, the Legislature in 2005 approved a transportation funding bill that provided ODOT with more money. The following year members approved another bill, to incrementally increase funding from about $200 million per year to nearly $570 million annually.
