George Kaiser - arguably Tulsa's smartest and most generous man, and inarguably the richest - told a legislative committee to cut tax incentives for the oil and gas industry.

Short of that, he calls for capping those incentives so they go away if petroleum prices spike or if the state loses a certain amount of revenue.

Kaiser has been in oil and gas exploration and production for more than 40 years. So, in a way, he was speaking against his own interest.

In fact, he told the committee he wasn't representing Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. and joked he might lose his day job because of what he said.

But there were more important things on his mind than next year's bottom line.

Speaking for the George Kaiser Family Foundation and the struggling Oklahomans that foundation serves, and indirectly all Oklahoma taxpayers who see their taxes rise because of special interest handouts, Kaiser made two key points about state tax breaks to the politically powerful oil and gas industry.

First, the tax incentives don't affect decisions about whether to drill or not, or they haven't in Kaiser's case. So, as economic development incentives they're a bust.

Second, the incentives take money away from more important state priorities such as education, health care and tax incentives that might actually spur the economy.

In recent years, the Oklahoma Legislature has been less than prudent with tax cuts. That has certainly aggravated the situation the state finds itself in at the moment: A $600 million budget hole amid a global recession and extreme local need.

Attention lawmakers: Listen to the words coming out of George Kaiser's mouth: "Right now people are hurting, and the people most hurting are not oil and gas producers."