Congressman Jim Bridenstine tells Tulsa community and business leaders about upcoming federal issues that may affect Oklahoma.
The military is phasing out the F-16 fighters local Air National Guard pilots fly. Bridenstine said the state needs to consider pitching in funding for a fuel plant to keep the 138th Fighter Wing in the air.
"So that the line item that the Pentagon is looking at is no longer $19 million, but maybe it's $10 million or $9 million, I think then it will get funded," Bridenstine said. "So we're working on this with the state legislature, but I want to be really clear that we've got to keep the 138th Fighter Wing in Tulsa, and we need to get the F-35s to come here."
Pilots in the 138th Fighter Wing have flown missions in Turkey and Northern Iraq.
One question during the Tulsa Regional Chamber forum was how the next transportation bill will be funded. The current one is funded through a deal that lets corporations less-than-fully fund pension obligations. They get more cash to invest but pay more in taxes.
Bridenstine said they eventually have to catch up on pension funding.
"When they put more money into their pensions, then their retained earnings go down, their taxable income goes down, and the revenue to the federal government goes down in a much more dramatic way than we've already even seen," Bridenstine said.
The practice is called "pension smoothing." It is currently allowed until June 2015.
