Good afternoon friends!
We are almost finished with the legislative process. The Senate completed week 3 of hearing House bills and will take up those bills that passed out of committee on the floor for the next 3 weeks. Session is, of course, to be completed by the last Friday in May. We are seriously hoping to conclude the budget talks with the Governor, House Appropriation chairman and the Senate Appropriation chairmen soon and be on our way home to the districts before the "Sine Die" call. We have made progress in the budget arena, but much still needs to be resolved before dollar figures can be handed down to the subcommittees for agency spending. The three entities of budgeting are trying to hash our how to keep state agencies whole from the federal cuts, or to cut agencies across the board. And that is to say nothing of the money that hasn't come in for our General Revenue budget. One thing we do know now, is that the Governor does not want to open up the "rainy day" fund to aid cities and towns with the ice storm cleanup. I believe this will hurt our towns greatly, and I will continue to prevail upon Gov. Henry to assist our towns with money for this effort.
We had a very long day hearing Appropriations bills on Wednesday. However, in light of what happened in the House committee hearing the "Only English" bill, it was good to be in the Senate, watching across the rotunda at the crowd. Bills that were heard and passed this week in committees are:
House Bill 2863 by Sen. Leftwich creates "Demarion's Law" which mandates that day care facilities have $200,000 liability insurance.
House Bill 3326 by Sen. Jolly allows for the Oklahoma Tax Commission to begin replacing car tags with those approved by the Car Tag Design Task Force.
House Bill 2547 by Sen. Schulz increases the trespass fine from $250 to $500 for private farm, ranch and forestry land.
House Bill 3122 by Sen. Jolly changes the school calendar from days to 1080 hours a year.
Senate Bill 1354 by Sen. Johnson/Crutchfield appropriates $11.5 million to Education as a supplemental to get schools through financially until the last of April. We are waiting to calculate exactly how much schools are short before we give them the rest of what they are owed.
And for those living in Sand Springs, SB 706 is one of the first bills to be finalized and signed by the Governor. This bill provides language in statute for Sand Springs to approve or disapprove a mine within the city limits of Sand Springs and allows municipalities the right to collect a bond up front for special use permits coming before the planning commission. This is incredibly exciting for me!!! This is the second mining bill I have put forth in several years to protect our town.
This week begins the floor process, once again. There have been many bills filed that were never heard in committee. I will have the statistics on House bills for you next week. Until my next report, I look forward to continue working for you!
Senator Riley
1-800-865-6490
rileyn@oksenate.gov
