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Taxpayers will get bill
for the dome
By Bill Walter, The Hennessey Clipper
Oklahoma taxpayers are going to wind up paying off the $5.5 million dollar loan, which was required to complete the dome on the Oklahoma State Capitol Building.
The dome was finished in 2002 and cost $20.8 million.
State officials have claimed businesses and individuals had pledged about $20 million toward the cost of the dome. The legislature had previously appropriated $1.25 million.
The state even used the claim that the dome would beatify the view from some interstate highways in Oklahoma City in a feeble attempt to get federal highway beautification money to help pay for it.
In 2003, state officials admitted that a $5 million loan is still outstanding and had to be paid off through either a legislative appropriation or a bond issue.
"There was never any attempt to hide this, the question never got asked," said Howard Barnett, former Gov. Frank Keating's chief of staff, said about $5 million loan negotiated to finish the dome in the fall of 2002.
Scott Meacham, Gov. Brad Henry's finance secretary, described the dome financing as "a mess that we inherited."
The problem is that the Oklahoma Constitution requires any state debt to be approved by a vote of the citizens.
One exception was okayed by a supreme court decision decades ago. It allows the state to borrow money without a vote if it finances a revenue-producing project, which will pay off the debt - such as a turnpike.
The capitol dome doesn't produce any income - since you don't have to pay to see it - so this bond issue should have been presented to the citizens for their decision.
I believe the dissenters in a recent 6-3 supreme court decision okaying the bond issue were correct.
The vote to allow the state to go into debt without approval by the citizens is contrary to language in the constitution and sets a dangerous precedent.
It appears to e one of those cases where the majority found a need, and ignored the constitution to make good on an illegal loan.
When the legislature makes the appropriations for the payments on the bond issue next year, ask your representative and senator if the money came from funds which could make our roads and bridges safer, the funds to educate our children or provide secure prisons for criminals, etc.
The dome is a beautiful addition to our state capitol.
But $25 million worth of better roads or schools would have been more appreciated by a lot of Oklahomans.
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