Legislative update March 28 - April 3

House lawmakers continued to wade through Senate bills as they entered the third of five weeks of committee activity.

Members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives have until April 27 to weight the merits of 534 bills and 13 joint resolutions sent to the House from the state Senate.

Measures which have been endorsed by committees are beginning to make their way to the House floor for a vote. One measure which was given priority was a nearly $9 million plan to almost double operational grants for rural firefighters and to provide assistance with equipment replacement and repair.

The appropriation comes on top of the $5.1 million the Legislature provided in February to offset the costs of fighting wildfires since November 1.

And the House will soon vote on a proposal that would cut state income taxes by nearly $190 million -reducing the income tax rate from 6.25 percent to 4.9 percent.

Senate Bill 2022 was approved recently by the House committee on Revenue and Taxation. The committee fast-tracked the measure, with the bill's title restored, allowing it to be approved quickly so it can be sent to the governor's desk soon.

Legislation that would better protect Oklahoma's elderly from sexual predators passed the House Corrections Committee this week.

Senate Bill 1707 authorizes the state Department of Corrections to submit an updated list of sex offenders residing in Oklahoma to the Commissioner of Health each month. The commissioner would then make the list available to nursing homes.
With around 350 long-term care facilities and nursing homes and over 5,000 registered
sex offenders in Oklahoma, hiring is a real problem for nursing homes and it is essential those facilities have an updated sex offender list made available to them to keep criminals out of the facility.

Pawn shops and payday lenders would be barred from selling lottery
tickets under a measure passed in the House Government Reform, Agency
Oversight and Administrative Rules Committee.

Senate Bill 1089 would prevent any "pawnbroker, supervised lender or... payday lender," or any company "whose primary business is categorized as a check casher" from selling
lottery tickets.

Lawmakers did not want low-income people to take out high-interest loans to purchase lottery tickets, leading to the filing of SB 1089.
SB 1089 now moves to the House floor for consideration by the full body.

In the coming weeks the state House will continue to examine bills that our committees refer to us for a vote. As the legislative session progresses, we will continue to refine the ideas contained in the more than 2,000 pieces of legislation that we began the session with. My hope is that the best of these ideas will also win approval from the state Senate and the Governor.