Sen. Darcy Jech issues statement on teacher pay raise legislation

Late Wednesday evening, the State Senate passed a pay raise bill that would provide a 12.7% pay increase for all state teachers and state employees (SB133), but then failed by two votes to garner enough support on HB 1033xx, the legislation that would have funded those raises.

Senator Darcy Jech, R-Kingfisher, issued the following statement:

“I’m frustrated we didn’t have enough votes to fund the mechanisms that would have provided the 12.7% teacher pay raise.  I was hopeful we’d have enough bipartisan support to pass the measure.”

“Oklahoma’s provisions to raise revenue are the strictest in the nation.  Under SQ 640, which was passed in 1992, any revenue raising measure must gain 75% support in the House and Senate.  These provisions have subsequently led to the current legislative gridlock and made it nearly impossible to approve reasonable revenue raising plans to shore up the state budget and provide long overdue state teacher pay raises.”

“It is my hope we can still find common ground and cooperate on a compromise that will provide our state teachers and state employees a long overdue pay raise.  We are committed to continue to work toward a solution that will deliver a responsibly funded pay raise.”