Taylor Comments on GOP’s GA Bill Flip Flop

Statement by Senator Stratton Taylor,
Senate President Pro Tempore

“The only way that there will be a government shutdown is if Governor Keating, Senator Dunlap and Representative Morgan engineer one to try to score some political points. Right now, we’re passing the budget bills that are required to fund government operations for the next fiscal year. At the pace we are going, we will finish that work well before our scheduled adjournment date. There will only be a budget crisis if Governor Keating and Republican allies try to sabotage that process in an effort to manufacture one.

“I am surprised to hear Governor Keating and Republican leaders suddenly embrace the GA bill, given their past comments and complaints about that piece of legislation. A few years ago the governor threatened to never sign another GA bill and Republican lawmakers routinely voted against it claiming it was inefficient and irresponsible budgeting. Maybe they want to retract all those previous statements and actions, just like the House GOP did with a press release earlier this year.

The GOP and the GA bill’s “Greatest Hits” (actual quotes from actual newspapers)
Courtesy of the Tulsa World and the Daily Oklahoman

• Keating signed the general appropriations bill in 1995, his first year in office, but he vowed never to sign another one – Tulsa World, 4-1-2001
  
  
• Republicans said they didn’t like the form of the (GA) bill and accused the Democrats of cutting them out of the budget process. GOP lawmakers said they want to consider each appropriation individually rather than in a single bill… Sen. Jim Dunlap called the massive budget bill “backdoor” budgeting – Tulsa World, 3-21-01
  
  
• Keating criticized the process “that puts everything into one (GA) bill, that doesn’t permit a surgical examination of the spending categories of each bill, rushes it through, asks that it be signed quickly.” – Daily Oklahoman, 4-5-95
  
  
• The (GA bill) process is flawed “when nearly 97 percent of the public’s money is spent with a whisper and quick handshake,” said Gov. Keating – Daily Oklahoman, 4-22-01

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Senate Communications Division - (405) 521-5605