Following is a statement from House Democratic Leader Scott Inman, D-Del City, in response to the report that Governor Fallin is considering calling the Legislature into special session to consider a pay raise for public school teachers:
“Once again Mary Fallin and the Republican majority have decided to play games with the lives and salaries of Oklahoma teachers, by calling for a special session just three months before the voters go to the polls to vote on SQ 779, the education sales tax proposal.
“If the Republicans truly cared about teachers, they would have used their legislative supermajorities to pass a teacher pay raise at any time during the past eight years – when teachers last had a pay raise. And that included years when oil was bringing $100 a barrel.
“Instead, the GOP focused on cutting taxes and authorizing myriad tax credits. We wouldn’t be in this situation if the Governor and the Republicans who control the Legislature had had the courage to roll back those irresponsible tax cuts and tax credits when we were still in session.
“And, to add insult to injury, the Republicans are once again looking at allocating one-time dollars for a long-term, recurring expense – something that Republican State Treasurer Ken Miller has warned against time and time again – and wasting nearly a quarter of a million taxpayer dollars per week to do it, at a time when our agencies and core services have been gutted.”
