Oklahoma GOP tax cut axes tornado shelters after storms killed seven students in 2013

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Today in stupid.

A plan to put shelters in schools after seven children died in 2013 from a series of devastating tornadoes has been scrapped because Republican leaders are pushing for corporate tax cuts instead.

The Associated Press reported on Monday that Gov. Mary Fallin (R) and other lawmakers have called to eliminate a so-called franchise tax that forces corporations to pay $1.25 for every $1,000 invested in the state.

The tax had been temporarily suspended in 2010, but Democratic state Rep. Joe Dorman had called on using the $40 million annual revenue it would generate to fund the tornado shelters.

“That just seemed like the best place to draw the money without hurting the budget,” Dorman told the AP.

Republican leaders, however, have argued that it’s more important to attract businesses to the state by cutting taxes.

“Just adding on a new tax burden on Oklahomans is not the answer,” Republican Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Janet Barresi insisted.


-more-

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/16/oklahoma-gop-tax-cut-axes-tornado-shelters-after-storms-killed-seven-students-in-2013/

[Demo_Chris]

1. Yeah, except it's not actually stupid at all..

According to the link at the end of this post, there are 1831 public schools in the state of Oklahoma servicing almost 630,000 students and likely several hundred thousand more employees. To protect that number of people and schools would require really REALLY big underground shelters. Think shelters larger than the lunch rooms or auditoriums these schools currently have, only buried underground and equipped with emergency ventilation and all that normal shelter stuff.

For simplicity, lets pretend it would only cost ten million per school. It would cost more, but let's pretend and keep it simple.

If it only cost ten mil per bunker the total cost to the state would be $183,120,000,000

That's 183 BILLION. If the state spent every penny they collected, just blew off every other obligation, it would still take them two decades just to pay it off. And all to mitigate a tragedy so astonishingly rare that it's international news when it happens. Note I didn't say prevent, because these shelters wouldn't do that. It takes time to pack a thousand people into a bunker, and the warning for tornados isn't necessarily that great.

Want to know why schools didn't build nuke shelters in the fifties? That's your answer. Money.

http://oklahoma.educationbug.org/public-schools/