Lynn Says

Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb visits northwest Oklahoma

 

September 13, 2017

Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb visited Woods and Alfalfa counties last Friday reinforcing his intention of running for governor. Lamb dropped by the newspaper office and agreed to an interview and a video cut (see "Videos" at http://www.alvareviewcourier.com).

There are many issues facing the state of Oklahoma. We asked Lamb to comment on the department of corrections, higher education funding, common education funding (including teacher's pay), rural hospitals and the problem-filled budget process.

Lamb lives in Enid with his wife of 21 years, Monica. They have two school-age kids, Griffin and Lauren. She is a schoolteacher.

Lamb went to Louisiana Tech on a football scholarship, and later played at OSU, USAO and OCU. He ended up getting his college degree at Stillwater. His career history includes being a special agent with the U.S. Secret Service. He has also worked as a landman and an executive in the telecommunications industry.

Budget

Lamb said, "The budget is a mess. Every year, the governor gives the State of the State address and outlines goals for the state such as teacher pay raises, infrastructure support, DOC reforms, and yet this is being done a month before the State Equalization Board certifies how much money is going to be available."

He proposes to split the four-month legislative session into two parts: the first month will be used to discuss policy ideas; the second part will be the final three months working on the budget.

Lamb would also like to examine with a very "stringent lens" all of the incentives and exemptions that cost the state up to $10 billion. "We need to examine each of the these to see if it is worth the revenue loss. Is it really helping Oklahoma?" he asked.

School Consolidation

When asked his position on the annual push by some legislators to consolidate more schools. Lamb replied, "I'm against it. I grew up in Enid and you can travel in any direction – north, east, west or south – and you will be in a consolidated school district. It has already happened. Also, I don't like the idea of kids spending hours before and after schools on long bus rides. They have to get up too early and arrive home too late."

He is also alarmed by the exponential growth of non-certified teachers in Oklahoma classrooms. He agrees the real solution is better pay. He said, "I don't want to insult non-certified teachers who are stepping up; they might be very good, but they might be very bad. There is a reason for certification. I believe our testing scores will continue to go down as the use of non-certified teachers increases."

Department of Corrections

The fact that Oklahoma is No. 1 in males incarcerated and No. 2 in females incarcerated (per capita) costs the state a lot of money to warehouse prisoners.

He said former speaker Chris Steele did a pilot program on non-violent female offenders to see if it might work to spend money on teaching job skills, such as how to balance a check book, and make them consumers. The idea is that the name is "Department of Corrections," not "Department of Prisons."

He said a fix is difficult because there are three sides to consider: prosecution, corrections and the law. "I think we need to do more with technology and ankle-bracelet monitoring that will save some prison beds."

Lamb said the tricky part of reform is illustrated by this example: if a guy does armed robbery and has illegal drugs on him, if the armed robbery charge doesn't stick, the prosecutors may settled for a plea on drug possession. That means the offender gets out of prison quickly. "But he may actually be a violent offender. I don't want a check-kiter to be in prison when we are letting a murderer loose."

When asked if anything regarding prison reform could be accomplished within a year, Lamb responded, "Expanding electronic monitoring, establishing statutory guidelines for good behavior points for non-violent offenders."

Lamb pointed out he has stood in the shoes of law enforcement officers when he was in the secret service. He mentioned that most people think of the secret service as guys who wear dark glass, dark suits and talk into wrist microphones while Air Force 1 sits in the background. He said the bulk of secret service work is not that. It is using search warrants, kicking down doors and arresting criminals. "I have literally chased, tackled and wrestled bad guys before taking them to jail. So I am very sympathetic to our law enforcement people."

Rural Hospitals

Lamb said, "Rural hospitals need to be saved. I've probably visited more rural hospitals than any guy in the state. There are so many convoluted regulations, yet access to quality health care is important to our rural citizens. Paradoxically, rural hospitals are financially healthy when people are sick because of chain smoking and diabetes. Yet when they cure people and the hospital beds become empty, they put themselves out of business.

Lamb said we have a problem in that a majority (over 50 percent) of babies born in this state are Medicaid babies. "Also, we can't afford for able-bodied adults to be on Medicaid. That problem drives services down because of lower reimbursement."

 

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