Agreement near on Oklahoma Highway Patrol funding/gas costs busting budget

[UpInArms]

http://www.kten.com/Global/story.asp?S=4687273

OKLAHOMA CITY State lawmakers say they're close to agreeing on a plan to provide emergency funding for the state Department of Public Safety.

The budget crunch has threatened to lead to the layoff at the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. State Senator Kenneth Corn says an agreement on funding is close and an announcement could be made this afternoon. Public Safety commissioner Kevin Ward told

The Associated Press last Friday that he was asking for four (m) million dollars to pay bills through the end of the fiscal year on June 30th.Ward says the high cost of gasoline is the biggest factor....

...more...

[Redstone]

1. Good deal! If the cops run out of gas, we can speed without

getting a ticket! I like it.

Redstone

[donco6]

2. Dude, when THEY run out of gas . . .

. . . we'll all be on bicycles. :)

[BlueEyedSon]

3. not if they run out of gas FIRST!

[Redstone]

4. Nah. I got two 55-gallon drums in the back yard.

Everything goes to hell, I'm using to have a last bit of fun.

Redstone

[donco6]

7. Can I watch?

That would be pretty spectacular.

[Redstone]

9. Sure. the drum of regular is for the generator. But the drum of

premium is for me to spank Missy a last few times.

Redstone

[twiterpatted]

11. I'm guessing Missy has a 289

[Redstone]

12. No, but she's got fourteen and a half pounds of turbo boost:

Redstone

[twiterpatted]

13. I dare you to drive through Texas with that sweet ride, with the top

down and your cowboy hat on.

I would back you up all the way.

[Redstone]

14. I'm there. Give me about twenty-six hours,

and a handful of Black Beauties.

Redstone

[CornField]

5. In Iowa, we made them clean toilets at rest stops

I shit you not (no pun intended)

[RoyGBiv]

6. I have a sneaking suspicion ...

I have this tingling feeling in the back of my head telling me the education budget is going to be targeted. After all, we have the great and glorious lottery now solving all our education funding woes. It's ripe for the picking.

I could be wrong, of course, and the direct "solution" may not target education funding at all, but it some round-about way, I bet that's where this goes.

[donco6]

8. It's always a ripe plum.

Mainly because K-12 is the largest single state expenditure. I wouldn't be surprised if they start supplanting any additional revenue generated by lottery/gambling/et al.

[CornField]

10. As a side note

I was amazed in February when I ventured back to my Oklahoma high school. I had known about one school addition which added several classrooms, an auditorium/cafeteria and so-forth (it went up the summer after I graduated), but I had no idea the school had added 3 new gymnasiums, rebuilt the football field, track and baseball diamonds. (I was also unnerved to see barbed wire fencing around my elementary school's playground -- but that's probably for another post.) One of the new gyms had a big light box in the middle and I swear it had titan-tron screens. There was a new concession stand, new bleachers, new locker rooms, new everything athletic you can think of.

I made my way across the old commons area and into the high school media center. Whoa... talk about your time warp. There was only one change -- about a third of the space had been taken over by a computer lab.