Our children are our most valuable resource and our future; invest in them and Oklahoma will thrive.
What I would promote in the legislature
Improve Education Funding
Improve Health Care
Increase job growth outside of the oil industry.
Fund roads and prisons adequately
"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men"
Fredrick Douglas
LIST OF ISSUES
EDUCATION
Education is the biggest challenge that Oklahoma is facing today. The continued cuts to education over the last 8 years have pushed students, teachers and parents to demand better funding from our legislature. Students class size will get bigger next year in almost every school district and they are already too big. Without substantial funding increases, Oklahoma is in danger of becoming last in the nation in funding education. Oklahoma students deserve better than this, as well as our dedicated teachers who struggle to make ends meet while educating our students. I will be a very strong advocate for increased funding, high teacher salaries, and small class sizes. We are losing many great teachers to surrounding states. Indeed, we have become a farm club in training teachers for states like Texas, to steal a term from baseball. The cuts for the coming school year will cause many districts to lay off teachers and some districts to go to a 4-day school week. These are both bad for our students and may cause hardships for some families to find daycare for students for only one day a week. Most of us send our children to public schools, not private schools. Shouldn’t we have a strong representative who understands public schools? Marsha and I sent our children to 13 years of public schools. Fredrick Douglas said “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men”. I believe that we will be repairing too many broken adults if we continue to ignore our educational crisis. Our children and grandchildren are our future. We should be investing in our greatest natural resource and not continuing to hinder their development. Will Rogers said, “People’s minds are changed through observation and not through argument.” My observation is that the current state leadership has failed the children of Oklahoma. They can argue otherwise as Will Rogers said, but actions speak louder than words. What is your observation? Please show your support for Oklahoma’s children by voting for me in the general election in November. Please mark your calendars, or set notifications on your computers or cellphones, “Vote for Tom Bates on Tuesday, November 8, 2016.”
State Budget and Business
The cornerstone of the Oklahoma business plan should be education. Until we show a strong commitment to education, will we be able to attract large numbers of businesses with quality jobs to Oklahoma? Today’s companies want highly educated employees. There is a famous saying “if you build it, they will come”. They will come if we build a reputation as a state know for the quality of its public education, not for one that doesn’t value education. It is imperative that we find a way to diversify our economy from the oil business. The 1.3-billion-dollar deficit is not all caused by the decrease in revenue from the oil industry. Indeed, much of it comes from the loss of revenues through tax cuts, incentives, and exemptions that amount to hundreds of millions of dollars that have been granted by the Oklahoma legislature over the last eight years. The oil industry has been and will continue to be a cyclical business. As a native Oklahoma and one whose dad was involved in the oil and gas business for decades, this has been drilled into my head. It is unsound business planning to make budgets based solely on the price of oil and increased production. Most Oklahomans and small business owners have benefited much more from the lower gasoline prices than they ever have from the tax cuts touted by the Governor and legislative leaders. The average amount Oklahomans are saving from the tax cuts is less than $100 a year. Ask yourself this question, “How many dollars do I save every time I fill up my gas tank?” For a family with two cars that are each driven 12,000 miles per year and get around 20 mpg, the math looks like this: 24,000 miles a year divided by 20 =1200 gallons a year, multiplied by $3.50 (where the price of gas had been) =$4,200 for gas per year. If gas is $1.75 (around where gasoline prices have been), you get $2,100. This results in a savings of $ 2,100 for your family. Which would you rather have-- the governor’s much touted less than $100 tax cut per year unless you are among the wealthiest Oklahomans for which it could be thousands of dollars, or the $2100 a year savings you are getting from lower fuel costs? I think the answer is obvious. If you own a small business that requires multiple vehicles that are driven extensively, do the math for your business. Schools will take a huge hit when gas goes up again because of their bus programs. The oil industry in Oklahoma is a vital part of our economy and we should treat it as such, but we should build other strong business segments of our economy as well. If you want to see your representative fight for a common sense budget that takes into account all these things, please mark your calendars, or set notifications on your computers or cellphones, “Vote for Tom Bates on Tuesday, November 8, 2016!”