The state should stop funding Oklahoma's public television system in the next five years, a lawmaker said Tuesday, saying individuals and corporations should pay the bill to televise shows featuring Elmo and award-winning documentaries on the Civil War and baseball.

Rep. Leslie Osborn, R-Tuttle, said the state should be putting the nearly $4 million it appropriated this fiscal year to the Oklahoma Television Authority into core services, such as public schools, roads and public safety.

“It's not the government's money, it's the hard-paying taxpayers' money,” Osborn said. “When we appropriate that tax dollars we always have to focus on funding priorities.”

Osborn said she intends to introduce a bill next year to phase out OETA funding over the next five years.