As thousands of Oklahomans come face to face with the  reality of unemployment, and as our state government deals with a  multimillion-dollar budget hole, Oklahomans believe very strongly that it’s time  for some government workers to participate in the unpleasantness.

A  scientific telephone survey of 1,000 likely voters registered in Oklahoma was conducted  February 25 through March 8, 2010 by SoonerPoll, the same firm that conducts the  Oklahoma Poll for the Tulsa  World. The poll, which was commissioned by OCPA, has a margin of  error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. Heres the  question:

In order  to deal with the budget crunch at the Oklahoma state capitol, a proposal has been  made to reduce the number of state government employees by 10 percent. Would you  support or oppose this proposal?

Support … 67.0 percent

Oppose … 25.5 percent

Don’t Know/Refused … 7.5  percent

Now you  won’t be surprised to learn that cold-hearted Republicans (76 percent support,  16 percent oppose) relish the prospect of terminating several thousand  bureaucrats. But get this: by nearly a two-to-one margin, Oklahoma Democrats favor the idea (61 percent to  32 percent). Ouch.

Its probably no surprise that evangelical Christians  (70 percent to 22 percent) wouldn’t mind rendering unto fewer Caesars. But even  the pagans are on board! A full 62 percent of those who never attend religious  services favor the idea, while 31 percent oppose.

Support for the idea is  also high among Oklahomans who describe themselves as very conservative (77 to  16), somewhat conservative (67 to 19), and moderate (63 to 33). But  surprisingly, even the somewhat liberal favor the idea by a margin of 61 to  33!

And I  almost hesitate to mention this, but, oh the indignity, even the very liberal  among us, by a margin of 48 to 46, would say to several thousand public  employees: You’re fired.

In short,  Oklahomans seem to realize instinctively what researchers have long known:  Oklahoma has  too many state-government employees.

University of Central  Oklahoma marketing professor Russell Jones  regularly examines the state-government employment data collected by the U.S.  Census Bureau, and regularly discovers that Oklahoma has an excessive number of state  government employees.

Moreover, a  booklet published this year by The State Chamber indicates that Oklahoma ranks  15th in the nation in the number of full-time state and local  government employees as a percent of the  population.

Oklahoma’s budget  crunch is real. We cannot sustain this level of bureaucratic  overhead.

Dutcher is vice president for policy at the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, Inc. (OCPA), a conservative think tank.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 15th, 2010 and is filed under Columns.