Issue Position: Middle Class

Issue Position

By almost any measure, the middle class of our society is shrinking at a rapid pace. Unfortunately, those leaving the middle class are falling into the lower economic category rather than rising into the upper level. Why is this and what can be done to reverse the trend? Well, I don't pretend to know all the reasons, but it seems to me that some of it can be traced to recent legislative decisions. In our rush to cater to big business and money, we've created an environment where the bigger companies and their executives are able to thrive, many times at the expense of the employees who perform the brunt of the work. Profits are increasing, but the employee salaries are stagnant. I don't have a problem with creating an environment in Oklahoma where businesses are welcome, but we need to make sure that the pendulum does not swing too far in favor of bigger businesses and bigger profits without seeing those consequences and the impact they have on the workforce. Government needs to keep an eye on the middle class employees before it completely sells out to profit.

Additionally, state, county, and city agencies employee many people in Oklahoma in one way or another. We cannot continue to make decisions as a state to cut and cut and cut state budgets without seeing how those cuts hurt good, hard-working employees who need, and deserve, pay raises at times. We pay our state employees below the average of states in this area, but that's largely ignored at the Capitol. And, when something is done, it's followed by a tax cut which makes little fiscal sense. Always doing what sounds good is not always good sound policy. From our underpaid teachers to correctional officers, to every other state employee in between, these middle class employees should not continue to be ignored.

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