Krehbiel: Legislators Also Frustrated With Perception Of Performance
Legislators also frustrated with perception of performance
By RANDY KREHBIEL World Staff Writer
OKLAHOMA CITY — Voters aren’t the only ones frustrated with the Oklahoma Legislature. Legislators are, too.
As the session approaches Friday’s mandatory adjournment, lawmakers are bristling at the public perception they haven’t been working on the budget the past four months or that they don’t care about the effects of cuts to education, human services and other areas of state government.
And it’s true. Budget work has in fact been going on continuously since last summer.
The problem is a messy thing called representative democracy. The legislature has 149 members, each of whom has ideas about how the state ought to be run. And while only a handful are directly involved in negotiating the final revenue and appropriations package, that handful has to take into consideration their colleagues’ views enough to win their votes.