By WAYNE GREENE Senior Writer on Apr 28, 2008, at 1:13 PM Updated on 4/28 at 1:13 PM
WAYNE'S WORLD
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There's talk today at the state capitol of
a state bond issue for roads. With the state budget in moribund shape and the roads full of holes and load postings, there's sense in that.
But it's critical for Tulsa that all of the bond issue funding NOT go to roads. In fact, most of it shouldn't.
The other big need for one-time funding in state government is endowed chairs at state colleges and universities.
The state has a program that allows benefactors to fund professorships for contributions of $1 million. The state agrees to match that money, which funds the chair in perpetuity, but the deal never happens until the state money shows up.
There are about 120 donations in the bank for the state right now. So, for the cost of $120 million, the state could buy and enormous amount of educational firepower that will impact the state forever.
For Tulsa it's important that the whole list get funded. The endowed professorships are funded in the order that private money shows up, and near the bottom of the list are 20 endowed professorships for the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa medical school. The private funding came from the George Kaiser Family Foundation earlier this year.
Roads can sop up an infinite amount of money, and guess what? After that's gone, the roads will still be a mess.
A higher education bond issue funds the educations of future Oklahomans, people who will pay taxes and build the state. That should be the flavor of this bond issue.
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