Court Opinion

ID: 9627354
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 08:42:37.557505+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:06:45.038190
License: Public Domain

LAVENDER, Justice,
with whom OP ALA, ALMA WILSON and WATT, JJ., join, dissenting.
¶ 1 In construing the provisions of the Oklahoma Constitution we must give effect to the intent of its framers and of the people who adopted it. Boswell v. State, 181 Okla. 435, 74 P.2d 940, 942 (1937). In my view, the intent of OKLA. CONST. art. 10, § 23, coupled with art. 10, § 25, is that Oklahoma State government — including highway projects — are to be funded on a cash, or pay-as-you-go basis, i.e. on a fiscal year plan, and that long-term debt reaching beyond the fiscal year may only be incurred by a vote of the people at the polls. In other words, the requirements of our Constitution, in plain and simple language, mandate that the Oklahoma Legislature provide for an annual balanced budget and that multi-year debts are prohibited unless approved by the citizens of this State at a general election.
¶ 2 The majority opinion, contrary to this clear mandate, upholds as constitutional a proposed three hundred million dollar ($300,-000,000.00) bond issue on the basis the State has no legal obligation to repay bondholders, even though the holders of the bonds will have conferred a $300,000,000.00 benefit upon all of our State’s citizens by providing the funding for construction and improvement of Oklahoma’s highway/road transportation system. In my opinion, the majority is allowing State officials to circumvent art. 10, §§ 23 and 25 by mistakenly accepting the view that future Legislatures will not be bound to appropriate sufficient revenues to repay the bondholders. Future Legislatures will not be able, in good faith, to refuse to *779appropriate the money needed to pay this obligation because failure to do so, as Justice Watt has forcefully pointed out, “would be devastating to Oklahoma’s credit worthiness and [would] cripple our ability to finance any project by future bond issues.” From a realistic perspective, then, the State will, in fact, be obligated to repay the bonds and interest thereon, and if it does not a valid enforceable obligation would exist by virtue of the benefit conferred upon the State. To rule otherwise, as the majority does, simply ignores the economic reality of the situation and, at a minimum, permits violation of the spirit of our fundamental law, something I am unwilling to sanction.
¶ 3 If I were writing for the Court in this ease, I would hold that before this obligation of $300,000,000.00 in multi-year debt be incurred, it must be submitted to the people for their approval at a general election and such authorization must be accompanied by a provision providing for a direct annual tax sufficient to pay the interest and principal on such debt, as art. 10, § 25 of the Oklahoma Constitution requires. Because the majority places its stamp of approval on the proposed bond issue without demanding compliance with this essential requisite of our fundamental constitutional law, I must respectfully dissent to the majority opinion in this matter.