We Paid For It: Oklahoma Office In Washington, D.C.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- We all want our tax dollars to be spent wisely, especially in this unstable economy. News 9 is bringing back a segment I worked on nearly 20 years ago.

It's called We Paid For It, showing how the state is spending our money.

In 1993, I was surprised to find Oklahoma had a Washington, D.C. office.

Governor David Walters opened it inside the Hall of States in 1991, using almost $200,000 from the appropriations to the governor's office, that year alone.

He said it helped the state secure millions of dollars in additional federal funding for transportation, Medicaid and vaccinations.

I checked with the Oklahoma Office of State Finance and learned in 1995, newly-elected Governor Frank Keating closed the office. The budget for the last year of the Oklahoma D.C. office was $213,000, something we are no longer paying for today.