Frank Keating in 2001 Governor's State of the State speeches
On Crime:
Target violent and career criminals
We have targeted violent and career criminals, those who are walking crime waves, those who prey upon our brothers and our sisters, our neighbors and our friends, and we’ve said that if you are violent and if you are chronic, we will use,
for the first time, private prisons and we will use public prisons for the purpose of keeping you out of circulation. At no great surprise, over the course of the last three years, crime rate has collapsed across the board.
Source: 2001 State of the State address to Oklahoma legislature
Feb 5, 2001
On Drugs:
Supports community sentencing in drug courts
This budget provides for increasing the use of community sentencing in drug courts to assure that costly prison cells are used for the most dangerous and violent offenders. We are admitting to our system non-violent, non-chronic drug offenders who need
to be in community sentencing, where they are punished at the community level inexpensively. We should not use scarce tax dollars for that purpose. First time drug offenders need to be clean and sober and community sentencing is the means.
Source: 2001 State of the State address to Oklahoma legislature
Feb 5, 2001
On Education:
More funding for schools and colleges
Funding for common education, higher education and career education is at an all time high. We have funded more chairs in the higher education system than ever before, and this budget proposes to fund more,
particularly in the technology areas, science and mathematics, in those areas where we are starved for available workers in Oklahoma to fill available jobs.
Source: 2001 State of the State address to Oklahoma legislature
Feb 5, 2001
On Education:
Supported largest teacher pay raise in state history
Last year, together, we passed the largest pay raise in state history for teachers. No great surprise, our ACT scores have now defeated every state in the south. We have defeated Texas in something other than football for a change.
Our ACT scores now beat Georgia, the Carolinas, Florida, Texas, and Tennessee, all of the states in the south. We have the number one ACT high school in the United States at the Oklahoma School of Science and Math, of which we are very, very proud.
Source: 2001 State of the State address to Oklahoma legislature
Feb 5, 2001
On Education:
$80M in block grants to schools
Today I propose a revolutionary system of block grants for schools that will encourage and reward success. These block grants [total] $80 million in three different areas:- “Matching grants” to schools that cut administrative overhead and devote
more dollars to spending in the classroom.
- “Reward grants” to recognize and support schools where learning is the focus.
- “Improvement grants,” to help districts achieve better performance and accountability to move toward the model, what I
describe as a 21st Century School Model.
Now, what will qualify for these grants? - Are you offering and are you requiring that each student take six academic hours a day?
- Do you offer and do you require four years each of math, science,
English, and social studies for every student?
- Have you ended social promotion?
- Is more money flowing to the classroom and less money going to administrative overhead?
- And most importantly of all, are your students learning?
Source: 2001 State of the State address to Oklahoma legislature
Feb 5, 2001
On Environment:
Regulate our precious environment because we love Oklahoma
Hog and poultry industries are growing in our state, without the kind of pollution problems others have experienced, thanks to foresight and wise regulation. We enacted the strictest swine regulation bill in US history and the first of the nation’s
poultry regulation bills. We understand the most precious thing we have is clear water and clear air. Our environment is exceedingly important as a quality of life issue for us, and we enacted these regulations, together, because we love Oklahoma.
Source: 2001 State of the State address to Oklahoma legislature
Feb 5, 2001
On Government Reform:
Attract people to Oklahoma to regain Congressional seat
I would like to discuss the result and the challenges of the result of the loss of the congressional seat. In 1908, we had eight representatives, and then it was seven, and then it was six, and now it is five. People move to a place because they see it
as prosperity filled and business friendly. They move away from a state because they don’t see it as prosperity filled and business friendly. Or they don’t go to a state, in sufficient numbers, to permit us to be truly competitive with the states
around us. But this year, our agenda must be to get our congressman back. That is our agenda for the 2001 session. Today, we have one overriding goal: To make Oklahoma so prosperous, so attractive, so energetic,
so reform minded, so desirable for business location for people and companies and jobs, that we will reclaim our congressional seat in 2011 and add one more. That is our agenda for the year 2001. We are going to get our congressman back.
Source: 2001 State of the State address to Oklahoma legislature
Feb 5, 2001
On Jobs:
Reform worker’s comp: administrative instead of court-based
We need real workers’ compensation reform now. The system is clearly broken. We’re among the five most costly systems in the nation, yet we were forty-eighth in benefits paid to injured workers. This is nothing less than an added tax on business.
It costs us jobs and growth. Previous reforms have helped, but now is the time for the next step in real reform. Replace the costly and anachronistic court system with a speedy, fair administrative system, as is the case in forty-seven other states.
Source: 2001 State of the State address to Oklahoma legislature
Feb 5, 2001
On Tax Reform:
Government spending is not the government’s money
We understand that the money we spend here is not our money. It belongs to the men and women of our state who earn it day-by-day, hour-by-hour, for the purpose of putting their children through school,
permitting themselves to have a safe and secure retirement. This year we will have a significant surplus to spend or to give back in the nature of tax cuts. But look what we’ve done in the course of the last five years -- nearly six years now.
We have made significant progress in giving back some of the money to the people. We enacted the largest tax cut ever in state’s history. We cut the income tax from seven percent to six-and-three-quarters percent.
And, no great surprise, because we are permitting more Oklahomans to keep more of their money, our state is more prosperous than ever before.
Source: 2001 State of the State address to Oklahoma legislature
Feb 5, 2001
On Tax Reform:
Lower state income tax rate from 6.75% to 3.75%
We have analyzed what has held us back, and one of those reasons is we tax everything. Oklahoma’s high marginal income tax rate chills savings and investment and it is at the same rate as the capital gains tax. So if you have a small business in
Oklahoma, you will leave the state to sell it and we will lose you, your productivity, your investment and your genius forever. That is unacceptable. I propose to cut the state income tax by half a point and to continue that half point cut over the
next six years. This will lower Oklahoma’s rate to 3.75%, which is lower than all of our neighbors, except Texas. Oklahoma’s current high marginal rate of 6.75% is a scandal. It is higher than Kansas, higher than Missouri, higher than Colorado. And, of
course, it is higher than Texas that has no tax at all. With a top rate kicking in at $10,000 for a single person, it is far more punitive to our lower income residents than even the tax systems of Arkansas and New Mexico. It’s time to lower it.
Source: 2001 State of the State address to Oklahoma legislature
Feb 5, 2001
On Tax Reform:
Reduce and ultimately abolish the estate tax
We have talked about the estate tax and we have worked around the edges, but we haven’t done what we have to do. To save Oklahoma’s family farms and businesses, we need to become a federal pick up state and slowly,
but ever so surely, reduce and ultimately abolish the estate tax. It is a non-budget item; we can do it this year.
Source: 2001 State of the State address to Oklahoma legislature
Feb 5, 2001
On Technology:
Tax credits for stock options and R&D
This budget proposes certain growth measures to attract and sustain exciting new businesses. Tax credits for gains on employee stock options for start-up businesses, research and development tax credits,
and a request that those research and development tax credits become refundable to boost capital and student loan relief for start-up employees in start-up high tech firms.
Source: 2001 State of the State address to Oklahoma legislature
Feb 5, 2001
On Welfare & Poverty:
Able-bodied people must stand on their own two feet
This legislature passed welfare reform, which I signed. And welfare rolls are down by over 70% in Oklahoma. We are not saying, in a mean spirited way, that we’re not in a position to help those who are frail or elderly or incapable of helping themselves.
What we are saying is if you are able-bodied, if you can take care of yourself, it is your responsibility as a human being to stand on your own two feet and contribute to the economic vitality of our state. Welfare reform has worked in Oklahoma.
Source: 2001 State of the State address to Oklahoma legislature
Feb 5, 2001
Page last updated: Mar 14, 2021