THE fact that Oklahoma lawmakers voted this year to provide themselves with $5 million for remodeling, even as they left public safety needs largely unaddressed, has been a problem from day one. As the public relations experts say, the optics are bad. House Speaker T.W. Shannon is making this situation worse by defending plans to put a chapel in the Capitol building.

The real issue here isn't concern over separation of church and state. That the ACLU may sue could be a political plus for Shannon, R-Lawton. The ACLU's common practice of portraying the First Amendment's protection of the right to practice one's religion as a mandate to suppress religious expression is a routine that went stale years ago — and one that most Oklahomans find annoying.

Instead, the core problem is that the chapel proposal is another reminder that state lawmakers are diverting money from core government functions to fund capital improvements that would best be financed by a bond issue. Diverting money from core functions? That sounds like it describes liberal Democrats in Washington, but we're talking here about conservative Republican lawmakers in Oklahoma City.

We noted in May that the state budget includes $5 million for Capitol office renovations while providing no new money for the state prison system, even though only 62 percent of correctional officer positions were filled at that time. Those low staffing numbers can generate life-threatening situations for correctional officers, who get a starting salary of just $11.83 per hour — lower than rates in neighboring states and local oil field jobs.