Fallin Previews Details Of Her State Of The State Address

<p>Gov. Mary Fallin gave the media a kind of sneak peek into her upcoming state of the state address, which takes place on Feb. 1.</p>

Thursday, January 28th 2016, 2:48 pm



Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, Thursday, gave the press a preview of her State of the State address, which will take place on Monday. She says her first priority, obviously, is the state’s estimated $1-Billion budget shortfall.  But she also outlined other priorities, like teacher pay. 

“So in my budget I will be offering a very specific proposal to give our teachers a pay raise,” the governor said. “And by the way it will not be based on raising our sales tax.”

The governor says she is opposed to the proposed penny sales tax that would raise about $615-million per year to fund a pay raise for teachers. 

Fallin says that would just lead to more online shopping, hurting Oklahoma businesses. She also announced that she is allocating $1.4 million to further research the increase in Oklahoma’s earthquakes.

“To be able to develop better research to have science based factual policies that are made in our state so that we do no harm to our economy but that we do address solutions that will help ease the number of earthquakes in our state,” Fallin said.

As for the massive budget shortfall, the governor says the state is bringing in enough revenue to avoid tax increases. But, she says, the budget process is antiquated and needs a complete overhaul.

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