The Oklahoma Hospital Association came out last week in opposition to a proposed Oklahoma amendment that would boost aid to public education because the group said it would reduce the money available for Medicaid funding.
State Question 744, which will be on the November ballot, would require the state to fund public education at the per-pupil regional average.
Association president Craig W. Jones said the proposed amendment “threatens health care for many of the state’s most vulnerable citizens, including our senior citizens who live on fixed incomes, many of whom are in nursing homes, as well as the disabled children.”
Walton Robinson, communications director for the Yes on 744 group that supports the proposal, said the proposed increase would be phased in over three years.
Robinson said that would give the Legislature time to find the money needed for education.
Robinson pointed to a recent report by the State Tax Commission that cited what he called “special-interest pork projects.”
“We need to cut the waste and the fat and the fraud out of government, and that’s money we can use to pay for common education at the regional average,” he said.
