Kevin still so full of Stitt
On education, taxes, school choice, it's all about cash in hand to folks like him
I think I’ve figured it out.
Kevin Stitt, our governor for one more long year, really does want to serve Oklahoma, just as long as he’s serving folks like him.
On Monday, he offered his final State of the State address and the best thing about it, the result of an accident, embarrassment or both, was he spoke with his right hand so bandaged only his thumb was visible.
That meant, finally, he couldn’t be the first to applaud his own applause lines.
So that was nice.
Otherwise, not so much.
“As King Solomon prayed for wisdom,” Stitt said, “that’s been my prayer and will continue to be for this last [legislative] session and for those who come after me.”
Presuming he prays at all, which he might.
Presuming God remains on board with yet another agenda elevating the elevated and kicking everybody else to the curb, which seems opposite any god I can imagine.
Perhaps Stitt wouldn’t know wisdom or God if one was right in front of him and the other sitting beside him.
That must be it.
At about the 10-minute mark of his speech, Stitt explained that if only each of his vetoes from the previous legislative session had held, another point could have been shaved off our state income tax rate.
“We have to stand up for the taxpayers and advocate for the future of our state,” he said to a smattering of applause, though none from the three men behind him: Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton, Speaker of the House Kyle Hilbert and Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell, all Republicans just like him.
A while later, he decried the financial effects of Medicaid expansion, urging a new state question to override the old one, passed in 2020, paying no mind to the very real benefits expansion’s brought, insuring more than 300,000 additional Oklahomans, for starters.
A bit later, he moved to property taxes, inviting yet another state question.
“As our property values rise, so do property taxes,” Stitt said. “And too many Oklahomans — veterans, seniors and young families — are feeling the pressure. Many are concerned they’re being priced out of the American Dream.
“We owe Oklahomans real relief, not temporary fixes and election-cycle talking points … I’m calling for a state question that freezes property tax growth across the board. Send it to the people.”
Right after that, he hit education, saying a lot of dumb stuff about, for one, how spending has nothing to do with outcomes — which is a really asinine thing to say when Oklahoma is not only ranked 49th in education outcomes, but 49th in spending per pupil, too.
But here’s the real punch line.
“Finally,” Stitt said, “we passed the most impactful education reform in our history, the Parental Choice Tax Credit. To finish the work on this achievement, it’s time to make the program available to every Oklahoma family who wants it.
“Let’s eliminate the cap.”
The cap, right now, is $250 million.
So let’s take a moment and get this straight.
We must protect taxpayers?
We should cut the state income tax more than we already have, despite it taking an act of God — or 75 percent of both legislative houses — to raise it, despite a half-percent cut amounting to virtually nothing for households earning, say, an annual $75,000, yet quite a large chunk of change to those earning, say, $750,000?
We should also get Oklahoma voters to approve a property-tax freeze because veterans, the elderly and young families are feeling the pinch?
Sure, but do that and it’s the highest earners, the most wealthy, the folks who’ve already received an unneeded raise through the state tax code, who make out like bandits.
And even though the families most likely to take advantage of the Parental Choice Tax Credit were sending their children to private schools already, Stitt wants to remove the $250 million cap on the credit, thus allowing every family already sending their kids to private schools to take part in the bonanza?
Creating yet another payout to those already benefitting from an amended tax code and who own the most valuable property?
How to pay for so many wealth transfers to the already wealthy?
Let’s cut Medicaid.
Let’s make the most vulnerable Oklahomans more vulnerable.
The people not like us.
If Stitt and his party wanted to, they could just as easily create targeted programs to give veterans, the elderly and young families direct help with their property taxes. They could send them checks. Or, better, create means-tested programs that do the same, benefitting only those in real binds.
You know, presuming it’s a problem at all and not a made-up one designed to send more money to their rich friends and donors.
If they wanted to go all in on choice, they could make the tax credit available only to families with incomes less than $75,000, $100,000, $150,000 or $200,000.
Pick a number. Just not too high.
But no, every program designed to give Oklahomans a leg up is no good unless it gives Republican friends and donors another handful of cash, too.
It’s obscene.
And we wonder why the wealth gap is so great, the vast majority of Oklahomans failing to recognize a rigged system when it surrounds them — rigged by the very people, from the same party, they keep electing.
Of course, Stitt still hates the Indians.
“We need to come together and protect the vision cast in 1907,” he said.
Right. Because it was so great for them then.
We built schools and everything.
Even more obscene.
Also predictable.
Because they’re not him.
Not a word about doing more for people of the state that need services! The one and four children hungry stay hungry. They have to go to work I guess. Also don't get sick or hurt. Medical services ain't for you.
Just read about all the alleged vote fraud. I am guessing the Election board for the state is saying no fraud here.