Lawmakers almost always succeed in passing a budget on the first try – no special session necessary. But they all-too-often fail spectacularly on their primary assignment No. 2.
For proof, one must look no further than the fact Oklahoma’s rate of childhood hunger is the nation’s fifth highest. Nearly 1 in 4 go to bed hungry – about 200,000, depending on who’s crunching the numbers.
One hungry kid is too many, of course. But these numbers are especially disheartening when they’re happening in a state whose leadership early and often proclaims its devotion to Jesus.
Think about it: At a time when Oklahoma sits atop unprecedented fiscal abundance – $2 billion-plus in savings – the Republican-dominated Legislature has done little to help food insecure families, leaving about 675,000 Sooners of all ages without the nutrition needed for healthy, productive lives.
Worse, Gov. Kevin Stitt has for two straight years rejected a federal program that helps families feed their kids during the summer, when schools aren’t open to provide two squares a day during the work week.
The indifference – what else would you call it? – to the plight of the least among us reminds me of the late evangelical pastor Tony Campolo’s exhortations that Christ-followers practice the love and charity found in the Bible’s red letters.
“While you were sleeping last night,” he would tell the faithful, “30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition.
“Most of you don’t give a shit. What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said ‘shit’ than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”
The first session of the 60th Oklahoma Legislature affords an opportunity for the state’s elected leaders to practice what they often preach.
They could begin by enacting Sen. Carri Hick’s SB 28, which would make it easier for students from workaday families to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Or by supporting an increase in the minimum wage: Hicks’ SB 35 would hike it from the current $7.25 an hour to $15, while Sen. Nikki Nice’s SB 55 would mandate $13 an hour with additional 50-cent bumps over five years.
The hyperpartisan GOP supermajority isn’t likely to embrace either of the minimum wage proposals offered by two Oklahoma City Democrats – first, because some business interests oppose any increase, and second, because the issue will be decided by voters next year.
But Hicks’ school lunch proposal puts Republicans between the proverbial rock and a hard place. After all, they’ve campaigned endlessly on the notion of strengthening families. Hicks’ measure does that – increasing the threshold for qualifying to 250% of the federal poverty level, about $78,000 for a family of four.
If approved, an estimated 150,000 additional children would qualify for free or reduce-price lunches. Who could possibly oppose that … other than Marie Antoinette? Sadly, GOP lawmakers might. They’ve rejected similar proposals in recent years – without any consequence at the ballot box.
The truth is, if legislators are serious about helping workaday Oklahomans – and not just the wealthy elite already salivating over more income tax cuts – they’d cough up the money for the summer food program that Stitt’s hard-heartedness rejected. Money Sooner taxpayers already sent to Washington, by the way.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture program would have provided qualifying families about $40 per child per month on an Electronic Benefits Transfer [EBT] card to help feed them while schools out for summer.
Forty bucks may not sound like much, but it would be a godsend to struggling Oklahoma families.