OPEA

15 comments (Add your own)

1. Pamela wrote:

Just when I think that I might start getting ahead a little, gas goes up, groceries go up, or worse yet, I get an OUTRAGEOUS electric bill during a month when my electricity was out for four days (how does that happen?). I just wish that we (state employees) had an annual cost of living increase that we could depend on. We need legislation that would insure we stay at the national average every year.

January 16, 2008 @ 5:48 PM

2. Lynn wrote:

"The Good Life" has never been attainable by those that are Civil Servants. However, "an OK Life" or staying above water has been assumed and met. I may only be 40 years of age, but I have never seen or heard of State Employees having to tread so hard. Cops and Firefighters have always had 2nd jobs, and a bookkeeper may have taken in extra work in order to get a bit further ahead. Nurses can sign up for extra shifts and overtime. But we are at a point now where a second job is not keeping our heads above water. I have worked in other states, but as a County Employee. There state jobs there were generally paid better and had better benefits. And this was a state that had no State Income Tax. Oklahoma pays almost nothing into retirement pension accounts. They do not come near the matching amounts in 401/457 IRAs or other accounts. Many Oklahoma residents obviously live in their own world; services are expected and demanded, yet there is no concept of what it costs. They are going to have to make some tough decisions in the next decade or so - some of these expected services will not exist.

January 16, 2008 @ 10:19 PM

3. Ldm wrote:

I really like your "will work for food" on the web page. I think that sums up how difficult times are getting for state employees. I would like the sign to say "will work for food & roof over my family's head" We need a raise. If I take a second job right now, my 5 yr old will be equal to being an orphan living in a day care. He would never get to see me. When I was single, working two jobs was fine but now I have a small child who needs me. I've been with the state just over 15 yrs.

January 22, 2008 @ 10:54 AM

4. Ken wrote:

Look at the bright side, in July of 08 the minimum wage goes up to $6.55 in July of 09 to $7.25, soon we will be making minimum wage and be eligible for food stamps. Woohoo!

January 23, 2008 @ 1:03 PM

5. Raymond wrote:

Soon the State employees will all be on food stamps or on the unemployment lines because the Governor has robbed the other state agencies to give the Teachers another pay raise while the state workers do without. The Governor plan calls for cutting waste in the other divisions of Government to give the Teacher another $1200.00 acrosss the board pay raise unti the teachers are brought up to the regional average of $43000.00, while the rest of the state workers are left working for the table scraps.

We as state worker need to make our voices heard otherwise we will be facing furlows and increased work loads because or budgets had been robbed to give the Teachers another pay raise.

The Teacher walked off the job and left the kids stranded in the classroom with a teachers aid or the kids found the schools closed. We as state workers, if we walked off the job what would happen to our jobs?

Do not state workers have Student loans that need to be paid back just as the teachers do?

So we need to make our voices heard and rise up and tell he Governor Enough is Enough it is time thatthe State worker come first.

January 23, 2008 @ 9:06 PM

6. ldm wrote:

Wow, I just read briefly about House Bill 3108. There is also House Bill 3108 by Representative Ron Peterson, R-Broken Arrow, which lowers the state employee dependent benefit allowance. Here's another blow to state employees!!!

January 24, 2008 @ 1:02 PM

7. Tom McDonald, DHS Council Director wrote:

We have teachers getting pay raises for the last 5 years in a row, the House of Representatives with a $8M+ in surplus of funds, yet we the people whom actually keep the functions of the State of Oklahoma running are still making less than teachers, most legislators and continue to be looked at as the RED HEADED STEPCHILD of Oklahoma. I am calling upon all State Employees to tell their legislators that enough is enough, WHEN DO WE GET OUR FAIR SHARE. To quote an anonomous source, "When did educating a child become more important than protecting that child".

January 25, 2008 @ 9:02 PM

8. Ken wrote:

I just have to make a comment about our teachers.

I have children in the public school system. One of the new practices is the student having to provide a red pencil with the supplies at the beginning of the year. This is so the teacher can have the students grade other student’s tests.


1. Is this not what we pay our teachers for? How can a teacher know the level of comprehension the student has if the teacher is not even seeing the type of performance that child has or areas that need more attention.

2. This is a invasion of privacy and opens the door to other students ridiculing another and making fun of them if they don’t comprehend the lesson.

3. How well is that other student grading that paper, what if there is a problem between two students and intentional false scoring occurs.


There are other things the teachers are pawning off on the students these days but, this one in my opinion takes the cake.

A teachers workday is 6 hours with a one hour planing period. They still owe the tax payer two more hours, time that could be spent grading papers.
What teachers are getting away with these days is just wrong.

Funny teachers are doing less, receive a summer vacation and are getting paid more.
The State employee is doing more with fewer people, less pay and most of all we work the entire year!

Something is rotten in Denmark.

January 28, 2008 @ 6:03 PM

9. jjy wrote:

I have a masters degree in engineering and have been working for the state for 10 years. If the teachers get another raise this year, I think I will get my alternative certification and teach school. Summer vacation, Christmas vacation, spring break...AND better pay!!

January 31, 2008 @ 6:13 PM

10. dj wrote:

i think legislation should be passed that no one can ran for office who has a public servant in his/her immediate family. how big does the writing on the wall need to be? 1. the gov's wife is a teacher and 2. teachers have gotten raises every year of his term...
perhaps we just need to get a social worker to run for office.

February 11, 2008 @ 3:50 PM

11. Ice wrote:

Have any of you TAUGHT in a classroom?? PRICELESS!!

February 16, 2008 @ 2:10 PM

12. state employee wrote:

#11..
At least you get spring break and summer to recover from what I'm sure are just "horrible" working conditions. State employees, on the other hand, don't get a break from a sometimes disrespectful public. We cannot send a rude "customer" to the principals office or counsel their parents on the child's bad behavior - we simply suck it up and provide the best customer service we can. There is no way on earth you can compare what some DOT and DOC workers do all day long with being in a classroom with kids! I think teachers need to get over themselves. Teaching children 7 hours a day, 8 months out of a year is not more important than State Employees serving the entire population of Oklahoma all year long.

February 20, 2008 @ 10:09 AM

13. wrote:

Teachers are good when they teach. You have a handful of good teachers that care about their students, and you have those that care about a paycheck along with forcing their political agendas/beliefs on their students. You see this from kindergarten to the college and University classrooms. Many false teachers that teach lies and half truths. They start by teaching your child that they evolved from an ape. That there is no God. That being "me first" is better than caring for your fellow man. That the government's role is to take care of every aspect of your life. That the life of the unborn is not important. Life is cheap. That the life of the murder/rapist is important. Convicted dangerous criminals have rights you know! They say no to your second amendment rights to keep and bear firearms. They say things like honesty, kindness, and manners in the business world is a form of weakness. That good manners are not cool. That money is all powerful and that love and faith in God and country means nothing anymore. That work has no value. That Freedom in the United States of America is just an experiment or a concept and not a reality. You know those men that died on the battlefields for the cause of freedom mean nothing. Most of them were baby killers right? If their students do not graduate their classroom by following after their lies, they will be nothing but failures the rest of their lives. This is partly why we have to have more funding for agencies like DOC and DHS, because of all the lives these so called teachers played with.

February 20, 2008 @ 10:12 AM

14. JEB wrote:

My pay check does not make it until the next pay check. Due to high gas prices everything else has gone up as well. I agree with the above statement about state employees soon will be making about the same as minimum wage---maybe then I could get daycare assistance. Since the state will not give us a raise as state employees maybe the could raise the amount that you make a month to draw assistants.

June 25, 2008 @ 3:42 PM

15. wrote:

Why would so many republican State Reps vote to give oil and gas companies millions of dollars in tax breaks? I think if you are an elected republican State Rep. the people should just vote you out and start all over.

October 10, 2008 @ 10:12 AM

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