Drunken-Sailor Watch

The politicians at 23rd and Lincoln grew state government by a whopping 12.7 percent in the current fiscal year. Now they're at it again. Mark Nichols and I point out today in The Oklahoman: At a time when Oklahoma's population-growth-plus-inflation rate is only 4.2 percent, and Oklahomans' paychecks are growing at roughly 6 percent, the governor is proposing an eye-popping increase of $1.11 billion – 18.4 percent! – over the current year's appropriation of $6.03 billion.