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FKG Legislative Report: April 24, 2010
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Legislature Meets Floor Deadline
The House and Senate reached another milestone this past week with the deadline for floor action on bills from the opposite house. In fact, the Senate finished their work early adjourning on Wednesday rather than Thursday, thus saving the state over $5,000. The House set a deadline of April 29th for rejecting Senate amendments to House bills and May 4th for requesting conferees. The Senate has not yet announced similar deadlines. Members will now turn their attention to working on bills in various conference committees and the General Conference Committee on Appropriations (GCCA).
The House and Senate would like to adjourn early so members can turn their attention to reelection campaigns, but few really believe that will happen. Realistically, it appears we are looking at a sine die adjournment of somewhere around May 28th, the constitutionally mandated date for final adjournment.
There have been no serious budget talks between legislative leaders and Governor Henry as of this date, but the Governor has offered his ideas on new revenue enhancements and legislative leaders are considering those ideas. The Governor’s suggested revenue enhancements would raise about $1 billion and are ideas which he believes to be non-controversial. His suggested enhancements include refinancing of bonds and suspension of certain tax credits but do not include a enacting a new hospital provider fee or taking the cap off the existing nursing home provider fee.
Legislative leaders are looking at across-the-board cuts to all agencies of anywhere from 8.5% to 11%. It looks like the initial plan is to cut every agency an equal amount and then to rebuild the health care and education agency budgets in order to restore as much of the cuts as possible. The amount of the ultimate cuts will, in large part, be determined by how many (if any) of the Governor’s revenue enhancements the legislature agrees with. Right now, the Governor and legislature simply aren’t close to any kind of agreement. There will probably not be many serious conversations about the budget for another week to 10 days.
Last Wednesday, the Senate passed the CCR for HB 2363 sending the measure to the Governor for his approval. The measure creates a statewide voluntary buyout program for retirement-eligible state workers. Also passing both houses was the companion measure, SB 1442, which appropriates $22 million from the Special Cash Fund to the Voluntary Buyout Agency Reimbursement Revolving Fund created by HB 2363.
In non-budget related news, this past week 312 bills were considered by the Senate and 425 bills considered by the House. Among the measures surviving last Thursday’s deadline is a bill intended to exempt made-in-Oklahoma firearms from federal regulation and registration. In a vote of 81 to 14, the House passed SB 1685 which creates the Oklahoma Firearms Freedom Act. The bill exempts firearms manufactured in Oklahoma remaining within the state's borders from federal law or federal regulation. The bill also requires that firearms manufactured or assembled in Oklahoma under the act to have the words "made in Oklahoma" clearly stamped on a central metallic part, such as the receiver or frame. Oklahoma would be the 8th state to enact this type of law assuming Governor Henry will sign the measure.
After hours of debate last Monday, the Senate approved five pro-life measures, sending three of them to Governor Henry for his consideration. The Governor vetoed two of those measures, HB 2780 and HB 2656, on Friday. In his veto message on HB 2780 he cited the lack of an exemption for victims of rape and incest as well as the unconstitutionality of forcing a person to undergo any medical procedure against his or her will. Regarding HB 2656, the Governor expressed concerns that the bill would have prohibited pregnant women and their families from seeking legal damages if physicians knowingly or negligently withheld important information or provided inaccurate information to them about their pregnancy. The third bill, which Governor Henry signed, requires abortion clinics to post legal notices stating it is illegal to perform an abortion against the patient's will.
The tort reform package passed in 2009 called for the creation of a Health Care Indemnity Fund which would pay awards to individuals in professional negligence cases where the jury verdict exceeded the $400,000 cap on noneconomic damages. This past week the House passed SB 2163, creating the Health Care Indemnity Fund Act with a seven-member board of trustees. Among other things, it directs the board to develop rules to request and review bids for insurance coverage required for the operation of the trust fund. The bill now returns to the Senate for consideration of the House amendments.
Two bills dealing with charter schools passed their respective houses this week HB 2753 modifies the Oklahoma Charter Schools Act. It adds language allowing a school district that has a school site listed on the school improvement list under No Child Left Behind to sponsor a charter. It also allows a technology center school district to sponsor a charter if it is located in a districted served by the technology center and if the school district has a site listed on the school improvement list. It also allows a comprehensive or regional institution of the State System for Higher Education to sponsor a charter when the charter is located in a district that has a site listed on the school improvement list. The measure also removes language restricting new charter schools to three each fiscal year in counties of more than 500,000 people. A similar bill, SB 1862, passed the House. Both bills now return to their chamber of origin for consideration of the opposite chamber's amendments.
A proposal to provide a new funding source for Insure Oklahoma faced opposition in the House during Wednesday's floor session. SB 1616, which was defeated by a vote of 44-53 would have created the Health Carrier Access Payment Revolving Fund to fund Insure Oklahoma providing access to health insurance to uninsured Oklahomans. Insure Oklahoma currently covers 31,000 individuals and has a maximum capacity of about 35,000 under the current revenue stream. The additional funding that would have been available under SB 1616 would have been used to get federal matching dollars and could have expanded the program’s capacity to 75,000 people.
In other news, Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee named Co-Chairmen and Co-Vice Chairmen of the 2010 Redistricting Committee. Senators Clark Jolley (R-Edmond) and Mike Schulz (R-Altus) will serve as Co-Chairmen of the committee, joined by Co-Vice Chairmen Senators Andrew Rice (D-OKC) and Sean Burrage (D-Claremore).
“Redistricting is a constitutionally mandated function of the Legislature in conjunction with the Census which is conducted every ten years,” said Coffee. “It’s vital that all Oklahomans are fairly and equally represented as we draw legislative and Congressional district boundaries, and I’m confident the leadership we have on this committee will see that vital duty is carried out in a very professional and bipartisan manner.”
| | Posted on Sunday, April 25, 2010 | | Return |
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