Contact: OCPA President Jonathan Small
Phone: 405-990-2689
Lawmaker makes false statements about bill
OKLAHOMA CITY (April 14, 2022)—State Rep. Josh West has made inaccurate and false claims about recent pension legislation approved by the Oklahoma House of Representatives, Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs President Jonathan Small said today.
“The importance of an informed citizenry is often stressed when discussing self-government, but it pales in comparison to the need for elected lawmakers to understand the laws they vote on,” Small said. “Based on his recent public comments, that he has failed to retract, it is clear that Josh West did not.”
In March, the Oklahoma House of Representatives passed House Bill 2486. The Legislation, as passed by the House, eliminated a nationally recognized and successful state defined-contribution retirement plan, similar to a 401(k) plan in the private sector, and instead placed most state government workers into a defined-benefit plan with a history of failure and politician enrichment.
That change would wipe away an estimated $3.8 billion in projected taxpayer savings over a three-decade period, thereby increasing financial stress on state government and also forcing state employees into a plan that is rigid and leaves state employees without portable assets.
Under the House version of the bill, members of the Oklahoma Legislature, including House members who voted for the bill, would have been shifted to the defined-benefit plan,...
A front-page article with the byline of veteran New York Times opinion writer Nicholas Kristof is the latest poisonous example of what I call the NGO “halo effect.” Headlined “The Silence That Mee...