Category: Capitol Updates

Fixing Oklahoma’s court fines and fees problem (Capitol Update)

Sen. Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville, has spent considerable time working to make the collection of court fines and fees both more efficient and less destructive to the lives of people who are legitimately unable to pay. She held an interim study… Read more [More...]

House Speaker unveils tax cut proposals (Capitol Update) 

House Speaker Charles McCall announced last week his intention to work on legislation to reduce the personal income tax and to eliminate the corporate income tax over five years. Last Tuesday, McCall removed his House Bill 2041 from the Rules… Read more [More...]

SB 704 would be step towards reducing Oklahoma’s incarceration rate (Capitol Update)

Sen. Dave Rader, R-Tulsa, introduced Senate Bill 704 that will eliminate piling on more prison time for sentences in most non-violent felony cases when the defendant has a previous conviction. The law already provides a range of punishment for criminal… Read more [More...]

Lawsuit challenges OHCA’s managed care proposal (Capitol Update)

For the past several months, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority has been in a race against the calendar to get contracts signed with private insurance companies to manage the state’s $2 billion Medicaid program before the Legislature was to go into session on Feb. 1. [More...]

Proposed bills again seek to undo will of the voters (Capitol Update)

From the beginning of statehood, Article 5, Section 1 of the Oklahoma Constitution has provided that, “The Legislative authority of the State shall be vested in a Legislature, consisting of a Senate and a House of Representatives; but the people… Read more [More...]

OK Policy’s Response to 2021 State of the State Address

In pointing Oklahomans towards his vision of Oklahoma as a Top 10 state, Gov. Stitt during his State of the State address shared a quote he attributed to Will Rogers: “Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.” However,… Read more [More...]

Confrontations between governor, legislature may continue over managed care proposal (Capitol Update)

Updated to reflect the OHCA board voted 6-3 to move forward with the managed care contracts. —  We have grown accustomed to confrontational government at the federal level. But the degree to which confrontation between the executive and the legislative… Read more [More...]

Legislators must work together to move forward (Capitol Update)

There was some committee work by the Appropriations Subcommittees last week as they began budget hearings with state agencies. But for me and for many, center stage this week was in Washington, D.C. Seventy-eight eventful days from the Nov. 3… Read more [More...]

OK Policy announces its 2021 policy priority areas

OK Policy has announced its 2021 legislative priorities, focusing on policy initiatives to help Oklahomans live healthier, create thriving families, and develop safe communities.  “Even before COVID-19 struck, far too many Oklahoma families and communities were struggling to provide and… Read more [More...]

New state audit agency makes recommendations regarding state revenue certification (Capitol Update)

The Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT), a supercharged legislative audit agency created in 2019, presented its first “rapid response evaluation” to the Legislative Oversight Committee last week. The evaluation was of the State Board of Equalization (BOE) and assessed the accuracy and communication of the revenue certification processes. This is likely because of the uncertainty created last session as the pandemic turned the February certification upside down — and perhaps a feeling by legislators that they did not get accurate data from which certification decisions were being made. [More...]