Legislature Adjourns For The Year

The Legislature approved a $475 million bond package Friday night before adjourning for the year.

A two-part bond plan that will devote $300 million to road and bridge repairs easily passed the House and Senate over protests that the state should not go into debt with a vote of the people.

Lawmakers had until May 30 under the Constitution to adjourn, but passed resolutions to quit by midnight Friday. Adjournment came at 10:23 p.m. in the Senate and House members went home 17 minutes later.

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Democrats Express Frustration With GOP House

Democrats in the Legislature today expressed their frustrations over how some of their bills have been handled in the Republican-cotrolled House.

Democrats said that bills to require insurers to provide a variety of medical coverage were killed in House committees and not allowed to be heard on the House floor.

They claim GOP House leaders are beholden to insurance companies and not the people they serve.

Senator Andrew Rice of Oklahoma City says a bill to require insurance companies to pay the routine health care costs of patients who take part in clinical trials is essentially dead.

Senator Jim Wilson of Tahlequah says his Patient's Bill of Rights would have required insurers to pay for any medically necessary procedure. It is also dead.

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Democrats Plan GOP Critique

Democratic legislators will be joined at a State Capitol press conference this morning by advocates for health care and insurance reform to discuss the fate of measures that have been killed by Republicans, Democrats announced.

Democratic members of the both the Senate and the House will also discuss legislation killed this session that they claim would help lower the cost of college for more Oklahoma families and provide important public safety measures for children. They will also discuss strategies to resurrect measures that have been killed by Republican members of both the Senate and the House, their announcement said.

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Legislature To Adjourn A Week Early?

The Oklahoma Legislature may be able to adjourn a week early, leaders say.

The Senate on Thursday Senate Concurrent Resolution 71, which sets adjournment by 5 p.m. May 23rd instead of May 30th.

House Speaker Chris Benge agrees early adjournment is likely.

Amber England, the Senate Democratic communications director, said the constitution requires the legislative session to end by the last Friday in May. Adjourning May 23 rather than May 30 allows members to return to their districts and families without having to return to Oklahoma City after Memorial Day, she said

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House Panel Okays Black Bear Hunt

A state House committee has given its blessing to legislation that authorizes a new license for hunting black bears.

The House Environment and Wildlife Subcommittee approved the measure Monday and sent it on to the House Natural Resources Committee for a vote.

Richard Hatcher, assistant director of the Department of Wildlife Conservation, says the agency is proposing a limited black bear season in which only about 20 of the animals would be taken each year.

Hatcher says the number of black bears in the state has steadily increased over the past 20 years. Officials estimate that between 300 and 500 of the bears roam the forests of eastern Oklahoma. Hatcher says they're becoming a nuisance in some areas and have broken into trailers and hunting camps.

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Coffee Outlines Senate GOP Plans For Session

By Senate Co-President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee, From Tulsa Today ~ Oklahoma is at a crossroads, and State Senate Republicans are providing the new leadership Oklahoma needs in the 21st century. Our vision for 2008 and beyond includes forward-thinking policies and reforms to make Oklahoma a more prosperous and secure place to live and work, raise a family, start a business, go to school, and retire.

The Legislature’s 2008 session opened on February 4, with Senate and House members convening in joint session to hear Governor Brad Henry’s State of the State address. Republicans in the Legislature want to work with the governor in a bipartisan fashion to do the people’s business.

Many legislators are concerned, however, that the governor did not provide money in his budget for more than $200 million of spending he proposed in his State of the State address. We hope Governor Henry soon provides more specifics about how he plans to pay for his laundry list of promises.
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are working to transform Oklahoma’s government, making it more accountable, innovative, and transparent. We will keep families safe by ensuring violent and habitual criminals stay behind bars and by repairing dilapidated roads and bridges. We support more tax relief to keep our economy moving. We’ll work for improvements in education and healthcare, and to promote critical economic reforms to attract jobs.

A bold initiative we have proposed for the 2008 legislative session is the creation of a Legislative Office of Accountability and Innovation to help prepare our government to meet the demands and needs of Oklahoma’s second century. It will be charged with conducting independent reviews of state agencies, programs, and taxes.

But the Office of Accountability and Innovation won’t just look for problems. It will identify innovations to make government more accessible, transparent, and accountable to the public. It will find reforms and best practices to streamline government and save money while providing better services for taxpayers.

Senate Republicans believe we must keep the promise of tax relief made to taxpayers. With the national economy slowing down, the Legislature can do its part to keep our state economy moving by ensuring the income tax is reduced to 5.25 percent as scheduled next January.

We are reviewing special interest tax breaks on the books to find those that are not creating jobs or growing the economy. By eliminating obsolete and ineffective tax incentives, these dollars can be directed to more meaningful tax reforms like lower income taxes.

Republicans have the led the way in providing reforms to fix Oklahoma’s roads and bridges. We want to expand recent reforms by redirecting existing motor vehicle taxes that now go to the general revenue fund and use this money for maintaining state, county, and municipal roads and bridges. This amounts to about $200 million a year.

Our proposal for meaningful lawsuit reform will help reduce healthcare costs and attract jobs to our state, and more reform is needed for Oklahoma’s costly workers compensation system, which fattens lawyers’ wallets at the expense of injured workers and businesses. Parents deserve more choices for alternative education opportunities for their children – especially those from low-performing schools. Improved accountability and transparency in student achievement and educational effectiveness remain a priority.

In closing, if you've opened the pages of a newspaper recently, you know there is a need for real and significant ethics rules governing the conduct of political campaigns and those of us entrusted to serve you. Recent revelations have shown that some members of both parties have breached that trust. Rest assured, the Senate will work with the new House leadership to enact significant, bipartisan change in ethics and oversight rules in 2008.

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Danny Morgan Says Cargill Controversy Could Help Boost Democrats In Fall Legislative Elections

The Associated Press' Tim Talley Reports ~ The Oklahoma House's top Democrat said Wednesday circumstances surrounding the resignation of Republican Speaker Lance Cargill could give Democrats a boost in this fall's elections and possibly return them to majority status.

"I think we have a very good opportunity to move forward," House Democratic Leader Danny Morgan of Prague told reporters, editors and broadcasters at The Associated Press' annual legislative forum.

"If I'm not named speaker next week, I'll be named speaker next January," said Morgan, the only Democrat among five House members who are actively seeking the speaker's job.

The House's acting speaker, Speaker Pro Tem Gus Blackwell, R-Goodwell, described Cargill's resignation as speaker as "a brave, courageous, selfless act" and said he does not believe the political divisiveness it has caused within the GOP caucus will have any effect on the upcoming elections.

"We're a long way from November," said Blackwell, who is also seeking the speaker's job. "I do not think it will hurt us. "Politics is local. It gets back to the person running," he said.

Other Republicans seeking the speaker's job are Reps. John Wright of Broken Arrow, Susan Winchester of Chickasha and Dale DeWitt of Braman.

The 101-member House plans to elect a new speaker shortly after the Legislature convenes on Feb. 4 to replace Cargill, who resigned on Monday following a series of embarrassing revelations.

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House Faces Mountain Of New Legislation

At the conclusion of the bill-filing process on January 17, the last day for state representatives to file legislation, 1,206 new bills, 57 joint resolutions, 10 concurrent resolutions and one simple resolution had been filed in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. Last year, members of the Housed filed 1,195 bills, 45 joint resolution and 11 concurrent resolutions. House records indicate that 909 of those measures carried over and could receive a vote during the 2008 session in addition to all newly filed legislation.

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Senate's Cups Runneth Over

Today was the deadline for members of the State Senate to file legislation for the 2008 session, the second of the 51st Legislature. By 5 p.m., 969 bills and 22 joint resolutions had been filed, with staff members working into the evening filing the final measures. There were also 806 Senate bills and joint resolutions carried over from the 2007 session. In 2007, the Senate considered 1,130 new Senate bills as well as 32 Senate Joint Resolutions.

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