Unfortunately our State Senator, Bryce Marlatt and State Representative, Casey Murdock along with passing other unconstitutional bonds this year also voted to indebt us $125 million on the capitol renovation. More insight by OCPAC President, John Michener: Is Your Legislator Conservative? Part 2: Debt. The best way to tell how well a legislator’s policy corresponds to his espoused principles is to look at the Oklahoma Conservative Index. This is a comprehensive scorecard which rates how we

Unfortunately our State Senator, Bryce Marlatt and State Representative, Casey Murdock along with passing other unconstitutional bonds this year also voted to indebt us $125 million on the capitol renovation. More insight by OCPAC President, John Michener: Is Your Legislator Conservative? Part 2: Debt. The best way to tell how well a legislator's policy corresponds to his espoused principles is to look at the Oklahoma Conservative Index. This is a comprehensive scorecard which rates how well our legislators implement principles of good government. It is created by The Oklahoma Constitution newspaper in conjunction with OCPAC. You can reference the latest scores for your senators here and your representatives here. Part two of our series looking at Conservative Index issues will examine the policy of our legislators regarding debt. If you had lost your job and were going broke, you would not choose that time to borrow $125,000 to remodel your home. Furthermore, you certainly would not borrow that sum without consulting your spouse who has a shared interest in the home. Likewise, when the state is losing jobs and running a budget deficit, that is not the time to borrow $125,000,000 to renovate the Capitol. Renovation can wait until better economic times. Yet that is what the Legislature did by passing House Bill 3168, which was authored by Speaker of the House Jeff Hickman and Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman. Furthermore, as irresponsible as it was to borrow the money, the Legislature did it without consulting the people to whom the Capitol building—and now the debt—belongs. Both of these actions are the antithesis of conservative, and they even violate the specific direction of the Oklahoma Constitution which requires the budget be balanced and any bonded indebtedness be approved by a vote of the people at a general election. This vote was therefore, unwise, immoral, and unlawful. Note that this bill was sponsored by House and Senate leadership. We want future leadership to understand that using strong-arm tactics to move such egregious bills through the Legislature is unacceptable. We have high hopes that such measures will not be sponsored under the leadership of Speaker-designate Charles McCall (R-Atoka). Although Rep. McCall walked three important votes this year and voted for the Capitol bonds, he does have conservative instincts, having scored 90%!i(MISSING)n 2015. With a lifetime average of 74%!,(MISSING) he has the potential to become one of our more conservative Speakers. Only time will tell. The additional bond funding was approved by the House 51-43 and by the Senate 30-16. Gov. Fallin signed it into law on June 6. A vote against the bill demonstrates conservative principle and policy.

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