Juniors can soon apply for Oklahoma’s Promise under signed legislation
Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK
Staff Report
OKLAHOMA CITY –More of Oklahoma’s students will soon be able to take advantage of Oklahoma’s Promise, the state’s free tuition program, following Governor Kevin Stitt’s signing of Senate Bill 132 on Tuesday (April 20).
The bill’s author, Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, said it will provide students more time to decide whether they want to go to college or a career tech by allowing public and private school students to apply up through the Eleventh Grade or up to the age of 17 for home-schooled students.
“Kids mature at different rates, and while some may know in the Eighth grade that they’re going to college, others may not make that decision until they’re in high school,” Bullard said, in a legislative staff press release sent to CapitolBeatOK.com and other news organizations.
“This will provide more opportunities for Oklahoma students to pursue a higher education and fully utilize this outstanding program.”
Currently, public and private school students can apply for the state tuition scholarship program, also known as the Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program (OHLAP) any time between their Eighth and Tenth grade years while nontraditional students can apply up to the age of 16.
The bill further expands eligibility to Eleventh grade public and private school students and 17-year-old home-schooled students. Applicants must also be an Oklahoma resident and have a federally adjusted annual gross family income of $55,000 or less, which will increase to $60,000 starting with the 2021-2022 school year.
Rep. Rhonda Baker, R-Yukon, is the principal House author of S.B. 132.
“Allowing an extra year for students to sign up for the Oklahoma Promise scholarship will ensure a greater number of students are able to attend college,” Baker said in this week’s press release. “Equipping our young people with college degrees will pay dividends for our state far into the future.”
There are currently about 30,000 high school students enrolled in the program and around 15,000 students attending college on an OHLAP scholarship.
The new law will become effective July 1, 2021.
Juniors can soon apply for Oklahoma’s Promise under signed legislation Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK
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Bill that rolls back vital criminal justice reforms of State Question 780 passes in Oklahoma House4/23/2021
Staff Report
Oklahoma City – Kris Steele, executive director with Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform, released the following statement in response to the recent passage of Senate Bill 334 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives:
“Oklahoma lawmakers have taken a step backwards on criminal justice reform today by passing Senate Bill (S.B.) 334, sending the bill back to the Senate.
"S.B. 334 (https://ift.tt/3dIHwkA)
will roll back certain parts of State Question 780, which reclassified low-level property offenses to misdemeanors. It will double the length of time in which prosecutors can aggregate multiple property offenses to create a felony offense.
"It will cost Oklahoma taxpayers about $20,000 a year to incarcerate a person convicted of stealing $1,000 worth of items. S.B. 334 will only lead to more felony charges, longer sentences and will increase our prison population. Research has shown that this will not increase public safety nor deter crime.
"The passage of S.B. 334 goes directly against the will of the voters who passed State Question 780 into law and still support it today. Recent polling from WPA Intelligence (https://ift.tt/31teoXM) shows 69 percent of Oklahomans want criminal justice reform and 76 percent continue to support State Question 780.
"Justice reform advocates across the state are deeply disappointed in the passage of this bill. The bill now heads back to the Senate, and we urge the Senate to not pass S.B. 334 and instead focus its efforts on policy that improves public safety and invests in treatment and rehabilitation.”
Introducing Steele’s comments in a press release, OCJR staff summarized the likely impact of S.B. 334, if enacted, saying the measure “damages the impact of prior criminal justice reforms that safely reduce Oklahoma’s prison population and reinvest in alternatives.”
Bill that rolls back vital criminal justice reforms of State Question 780 passes in Oklahoma House Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK
Staff Report
Oklahoma City -- Senate Appropriations Chair Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, gave an update on Wednesday (April 21) about key areas of the budget as negotiations between the Senate and House continue for Fiscal Year 2022. Thompson touched on some of the items under discussion and his priorities for the budget.
Education Funding
“On the Senate side, one of the big items we’re looking at is providing additional funding for science textbooks,” Thompson said. “We always have $33 million as a line-item, but we’ve added $27 million to that for a total of $60 million.”
Thompson said education received an additional $600 million in CARES funding, and an additional $1.49 billion under the American Rescue Plan.
“I think you’ll see some bills coming out trying to define how they can use some of that money, but education remains a top priority for us. They’ll be well-funded.”
Medicaid Expansion
Thompson said the projected cost for Medicaid expansion, which was approved by voters last year, is just over $164 million. Discussions about how to cover that cost continue.
“We have several hundred million dollars coming in, much from the American Rescue Plan, but the critical point is this is one-time money. There’s a thought out there that simply says let’s use that money for Medicaid expansion. I am not for that,” Thompson said.
“I don’t care how big the pot is, you don’t use one-time money to pay for an ongoing expense. The people of Oklahoma voted that they wanted Medicaid expansion, but this will be an annual expense and it must be paid for, so we’re continuing to have discussions on that.”
Pensions
Thompson said in order to protect education funding last year, some of the apportionment directed to pension funds was redirected to education funding for two years. After the redirection for two years, those pension systems would receive a slightly higher apportionment for the next five years to repay those funds. Because revenue collections have come in much stronger than expected, the redirection is not needed.
Sen. Thompson said there are basically three options moving forward.
1. Stop the redirection for FY ’22, which would require a $133 million appropriation to education. The pension systems would be paid back the amount redirected last year, which would be $128.7 million, with a total cost of $261.7 million.
2. Stop the redirection for FY ’22 and allow the redirection from FY ’21 to still be paid back over the next five years. Total cost would be $133 million.
3. Allow the current plan to remain in place. This would result in no cost to the FY ’22 budget.
Pensions would simply be made whole by the end of FY ’27.
“Again, discussions on this are ongoing,” Thompson said.
Film Rebate Program
The Oklahoma Film Enhancement Rebate Program currently has an $8 million rolling cap per fiscal year. Rebate funds are pre-qualified for eligible applicants on a first-come, first-served basis. The rebate offers a base percentage of 35 percent on qualified Oklahoma expenditures.
Thompson said he would like to see that cap raised to $50 million, while the House has proposed a $20 million cap.
“Thanks to this rebate, "Killers of the Flower Moon" is being filmed in Oklahoma now and represents a $120 million investment in our state. This is an Oklahoma bill boosting the production of major motion pictures and streaming series, helping promote the creation of Oklahoma companies and jobs, and helping us diversify our economy,” Thompson said.
“Our investments are paying huge dividends for our state.”
Tax Cuts
Thompson said the House’s proposed corporate income tax cut would cost the state $32.3 million in the first year but would increase an additional $99 million yearly until it reached a total cost of $323 million. They’ve also proposed a .25 percent cut in the income tax, which would cost the state $71 million the first year and $180.7 the second year.
The Senate passed legislation that would reinstate the full sales tax exemption on motor vehicles and trailers, which would have an annual cost of $148 million.
“Faced with declining revenues due to downturns in the energy industry, the Legislature voted in 2017 to remove 1.25 percent of that exemption, but it was always our intention that as soon as we could, we would restore the full amount,” Thompson said. “I believe a promise made should be kept.”
Special Session
Due to the pandemic, the release of the final 2020 U.S. Census Data to the states has been delayed, which will result in a special session to be held in the fall. Because the constitution mandates the completion of legislative redistricting by the end of the 2021 session, lawmakers have utilized the estimates provided by the U.S. Census Bureau to complete this task.
“Once we get the final numbers, we can make any adjustments that may be required in special session. We’ll also complete congressional redistricting at that time,” Thompson said. “At a minimum, the special session would run five days, at a cost on the Senate side of about $10,000 per day. It is a small amount in comparison to the overall budget, but something I want people to be aware of in the interest of transparency.”
Savings
“I’d like to see us save back $600 million to $700 million in this process,” Thompson said. “The savings we had last year helped us to protect core services, and I want to make sure we have savings going forward.”
Roads Funding
Apportioned revenues were redirected to education last year, with bonds used to backfill that amount to the ROADS (Rebuilding Oklahoma Access and Driver Safety) program.
“We’d planned on this being a two-year diversion, but this year we could restore the apportionment to the ROADS pre-FY ’21 levels at a cost of $180 million.”
McGirt Case
“Because there are attempts to apply the McGirt ruling in a broader area of law than originally anticipated, we propose allocating an additional $10 million to the attorney general for future litigation,” Thompson said.
Closing Remarks
Thompson said meetings between himself, Appropriations Vice Chair Chuck Hall, R-Perry, and Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Chairs are occurring regularly, along with meetings with their House counterparts.
“I’ve just outlined some of the areas we’re still negotiating as we continue our work on the Fiscal Year 2022 budget. Our discussions are ongoing and evolving as we prepare to finalize the framework and the details,” Thompson said.
NOTE: This overview is a snapshot of an evolving budget picture at the Legislature. The figures given about possible expenses or results could change in the next two-three weeks, as Sen. Thompson points out.
www.CapitolBeatOK.com
Senator Thompson’s budget breakdown for late April Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK
Ray Carter, Center for Independent Journalism
Oklahoma State senators have voted overwhelmingly to spend millions of dollars each year challenging federal actions that officials believe violate the U.S. Constitution’s limits on federal authority.
The Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
House Bill 1236 (https://ift.tt/2QK2zdC) by House Speaker Charles McCall and Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat, requires the office of the attorney general to “monitor and evaluate any action by the federal government” to determine if any actions taken by the federal government are “in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.”
H.B. 1236 creates a State Reserved Powers Protection Unit within the Office of the Attorney General to conduct those reviews and challenge the constitutionality of federal actions in court. H.B. 1236 also provides $10 million in funding for the newly created unit.
Supporters said the legislation is needed to protect the rights of Oklahomans.
Sen. Rob Standridge, R-Norman, noted that President Joe Biden has issued executive orders that provide taxpayer funding for abortions, ban oil-and-gas exploration on federal lands at the expense of U.S. energy independence, and target the Second Amendment right of self-defense.
“We must push back against this type of effort to erode the rights and freedoms of our people,” Standridge said.
Critics dismissed the bill as either unnecessary or a way to sidestep bigger issues.
“I’m concerned that we’re going to set aside $10 million for political points to push back against a president when we could be using those funds to investigate fraud and protect Oklahomans directly,” said Sen. Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City. “This is a stunt.”
Sen. Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City, said during her time in office the Oklahoma Legislature has passed 21 bills that were “questionably unconstitutional.”
“I wish that we were actually going to start monitoring and evaluating the bills that we pass for constitutionality because I think that we should clean our own house first,” Floyd said.
Sen. Warren Hamilton, R-McCurtain, said he believed the attorney general “has an implied task for his job description to already do what this bill assigns him,” and that it was the role of the Oklahoma Legislature to push back against federal overreach.
“It is our job, our duty,” Hamilton said.
Treat said the legislation, as amended in the Senate, is now more likely to survive judicial challenges and dedicates real resources to the effort.
He said earlier versions of the bill would have had the Oklahoma Legislature decide the constitutionality of actions, which he said is a “clear violation of separation of powers” and embodied the discredited legal theory that states can unilaterally nullify federal actions.
Treat said the current version of H.B. 1236 avoids those legal problems and “has teeth in it.”
“We’re putting $10 million behind the Tenth Amendment annually to be able to push back on federal overreach,” Treat said. “To say that is without teeth is not only a gross exaggeration or misrepresentation of truth, it’s a complete and utter lie. Have we ever put $10 million behind a legal remedy to push back on the federal government?”
H.B. 1236 passed the Oklahoma Senate on a 33-14 vote. (https://ift.tt/3sBMXGt). It was opposed by all Democratic lawmakers as well as five Republicans.
H.B. 1236 now returns to the Oklahoma House of Representatives for further consideration.
NOTE: This article first appeared on the world wide web here:
https://ift.tt/2QN3j1A. It is reposted with permission. The Center for Independent Journalism is hosted by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs.
Oklahoma Senate votes to fund challenges against federal government Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK
Staff Report
OKLAHOMA CITY — Jonathan Small, president of the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, issued the following statement to praise proposed changes to House Bill 1236, which would amend the duties of the office of the Attorney General to include monitoring and evaluating “any action by the federal government” to “determine if such actions are in violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.”
The bill would create a State Reserved Powers Protection Unit within the AG’s office to perform those functions and challenge unconstitutional federal actions in court. In the statement sent CapitolBeatOK.com and other state news organizations, Small said:
“Under a prior administration, the Office of the Attorney General had a similar division with dedicated staff and resources focused on combatting federal overreach and abuses of power,” Small said. “The proposed amendments to H.B. 1236 would restore that office and put sharper teeth and accountability into H.B. 1236.
We applaud Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat’s wisdom in making H.B. 1236 the best possible tool it can be to defend the constitutional powers that the U.S. Constitution has granted to Oklahoma and other states.”
The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs is a free-market think tank that works to advance principles and policies that support free enterprise, limited government, individual initiative, and personal responsibility.
OCPA applauds Treat’s changes to House Bill 1236 Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK
Steve Fair commentary
More than 200,000 Oklahoma adults suffer from type 1 diabetes, including my wife. Diagnosed at age ten, she has lived with the disease for 59 years. Type 1 diabetics requires daily usage of insulin. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in Oklahoma. Oklahoma has the fourth highest age-adjusted diabetes death rate in the nation. Diabetes is the leading cause of blindness, amputation, heart disease, kidney failure and early death.
Sen. Frank Simpson, R-Ardmore, and Rep. Randy Worthen, R-Lawton, authored House Bill 1019, which passed the Senate last week 32-15 earlier this month. It previously passed the House 94-2.
Simpson’s granddaughter lost her life to complications related to Type 1 diabetes and he is passionate about helping diabetics.
This week, Governor Kevin Stitt signed this important legislation.
Three observations:
First, a recent U.S. Senate report found the current convoluted drug pricing system drives price increases. The report from the offices of Sen. Chuck Grassley, (R-Iowa) and Sen. Ron Wyden, (D- Ore) found Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, the two largest insulin producers in America, closely monitored each others pricing and matched or topped any increase within hours or days of each other. In other words- price fixing.
The two Senators introduced legislation aimed at capping seniors out of pocket costs for drugs covered by Medicare. It would also limit price increases on a drug to the rate of inflation. It did not get a floor vote, because many Republicans oppose it because they feel the bill is too regulatory and goes against a free market.
“There is clearly something broken when a product like insulin that has been on the market longer than most people have been alive skyrockets in price,” Grassley said.
Second, the report blamed pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) as part of the reason for the high prices for insulin. These middlemen negotiate with drug companies on behalf of insurance plans, large employers and other payers for discounts. PMB’s decide is a certain drug will be covered by a plan. Drug makers offering large rebates have a better chance of being covered by a health plan. PMBs charge fees and paid a percentage of re rebate based on the drug’s ‘list’ price. Insulin producers are thereby incentivized to increase the price so PBMs can get larger rebates.
“This industry is anything but a free market when PBMs spur drug makers to hike list prices in order to greater rebates and fees,” Grassley said.
Third, is there a reason insulin is so expensive?
Here are the main three: (1) Only three companies control 90% of the insulin market worldwide. In the past 15 years, the price of insulin has tripled and the three producers raise prices together. We need more insulin producers in the U.S. to bring the price down.
(2) There is no generic insulin. Insulin is a biologic rather than chemical. It can’t be produced generic in the same way as other drug. Creating a generic insulin costs nearly as much as making a new drug.
Because of that cost, the few insulin generics available cost just 10-15 percent less than the branded product.
(3) The ‘evergreening’ of the patents on insulin are loopholes in the patent system. They allow insulin producers to keep patents longer than the normal 20-year period. For example, Sanofi, the maker of Lantus has created the potential for a competition free monopoly for 37 years.
If signed by the governor, H.B. 1019 will cap the price in Oklahoma for a 30-day supply of insulin to $30 for each covered prescription. Several other states have passed similar legislation. H.B. 1019 will not only save many diabetics money, but it could save their life.
NOTE: A conservative and Republican leader, Steve Fair’s commentaries on current events appear frequently on CapitolBeatOK.com, an independent, non-partisan news service based in Oklahoma City. He can be reached by email at [email protected]. His blog is stevefair.blogspot.com.
Insulin and Profiteering: A Commentary Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK
CapitolBeatOK Staff Report
Legislation to stop the unfair practice of people being unfairly punished for missing court dates due to being incarcerated or detained by law enforcement has been signed by Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt. Senate Bill 44’s author, Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, said she was pleased to see the commonsense measure signed into law.
“It’s very common for people to be in jail or police custody and miss their court dates under no fault of their own, and then have warrants or additional charges put on them,” Hicks said. “I thank my legislative colleagues for working with me stop this unfair practice.”
S.B. 44 requires any charges or warrants issued for failure to appear in court to be dismissed upon the defendant showing the court that he or she was incarcerated or otherwise detained by law enforcement at the time of the failure to appear.
Rep. Judd Strom, R-Copan, is the principal House author of Senate Bill 44.
“Defendants who fail to appear in court should not be punished for that failure if they are incarcerated at the time of their hearing,” said Strom. “This would seem like common sense, but it’s a prevalent issue. S.B. 44 helps make sure that incarcerated individuals are not enduring double penalization, and I was proud to author it in the House.”
The state’s chief executive signed the bill, which passed the Senate and House unanimously, on Monday (April 19) will go into effect November 1, 2021.
www.CapitolBeatOK.com
Carri Hicks’ bill to stop unfair punishment for missed court dates signed into law by Governor Kevin Stitt Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK
CapitolBeatOK Staff Report
Members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives have overwhelmingly voted to restrict women’s athletic events to biological females, banning athletes who identify as transgender from competing against women in those events.
“This is a bill that solidifies Title IX,” said Rep. Toni Hasenbeck, R-Elgin. “It’s the protection that says biological females and biological males are different. It has been allowing women in sports to compete against women in sports for 50 years.”
Senate Bill 2 (http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2021-22%20COMMITTEE%20AMENDMENTS/House/SB2%20FULLPCS1%20TONI%20HASENBECK-EK.PDF), by Hasenbeck, creates the “Save Women’s Sports Act.” The legislation’s key provision states, “Athletic teams designated for ‘females’, ‘women,’ or ‘girls’ shall not be open to students of the male sex.”
The legislation was amended by Rep. Sheila Dills, R-Tulsa, to require that a parent or legal guardian sign an affidavit acknowledging the biological sex of a student at birth prior to a child competing in school athletics. The amendment also required that a school be notified if an athlete has chosen to identify as a different gender.
Dills, a former college-scholarship golfer, said the amendment is “simply protecting what was passed in federal law in 1972, protecting biological female women and girls in sports.”
Rep. Emily Virgin, D-Norman, said the bill “could open the door to huge invasions of privacy upon student-athletes to determine what their genitalia is.”
But Rep. Cynthia Roe, a Lindsay Republican who is also a nurse, noted student-athletes are already required to undergo examination prior to competition.
“Kids have to have sports physicals in Oklahoma for sports participation, so these physicians that are doing the sports physicals, if they’re doing the exam properly, are going to identify the genitalia that the child has and can tell if that has been surgically altered from birth,” Roe said.
Supporters said S.B. 2 simply ensures a level competitive playing field for female athletes, noting that biological males who identify as transgender females retain physical advantages over female athletes even after various treatments.
Roe noted males have larger bones, greater muscle mass, longer arms and legs, larger hands, greater heart capacity, and higher hemoglobin levels, which all provide an athletic advantage over women.
“We’re not telling these trans kids that they can’t participate in sports,” Roe said. “We’re telling them that we don’t want them to compete in female sports because these kids are at an advantage physically over our females. I was an athlete in high school. I was an athlete in college. And I would be p----d off if I trained and was beat by someone who had an advantage because of their gender. A lot of these changes that happen with our bodies happen from birth. And there’s no amount of hormone therapy or hormone suppression or surgery that can change those differences to make that advantage fair.”
Rep. Danny Sterling, R-Tecumseh, noted that during his career as a school administrator, he dealt with transgender students, and recalled going to school with a transgender student who nonetheless competed in boy’s sporting events “because that person, which was considered for the most part a female in school, realized that to be fair they needed to compete on a male level.” Sterling said he has granddaughters “and I want to make sure that they’re competing on a level playing field” with “other female athletes.”
Rep. Sean Roberts, R-Hominy, noted that in 2017 the fastest time run by any woman in a 100-meter race was slower than the times recorded by thousands of men and boys. The best time run by any woman in the 400-meter race was also slower than thousands of men and boys. “There’s clearly a difference between men and women,” Roberts said. “And we need to protect those who want to participate in a fair manner.”
Opponents argued there is no need for the legislation because there have been no publicly identified transgender athletes that have competed in women’s sports in Oklahoma.
Virgin said lawmakers were trying to “bully and marginalize” transgender individuals by banning them from women’s athletics through S.B. 2.
“Big government needs to stay out of school locker rooms,” said Rep. John Waldron, D-Tulsa. “SB 2 is an unnecessary intrusion into school sports to address a problem that doesn’t exist.”
“This is a problem that does not exist,” said Rep. Monroe Nichols, D-Tulsa.
Despite arguing that transgender athletes are not participating in women’s sports in Oklahoma, Nichols said S.B. 2’s ban on transgender women in girl’s athletics “creates a culture of violence and fear in the lives of the folks who are the target of this bill.”
Rep. Mauree Turner, an Oklahoma City Democrat who self-describes as “gender non-conforming,” also predicted suicides would increase among transgender individuals if S.B. 2 bars them from competing in girls’ athletic events.
“We’ve got people who are continuously fighting for access to an equitable life, right?” Turner said. “Legislation like this pulls that away.”
Other opponents argued the bill lacked clarity. Rep. Collin Walke, D-Oklahoma City, said it is not clear how “biological sex” is defined.
“What does it mean?” Walke said. “And that’s just it: The world isn’t black and white, and this isn’t a fairly simple amendment because this isn’t a fairly simple issue.”
Turner noted that the NCAA has threatened (https://ift.tt/3ncMglJ) to ban Oklahoma from hosting various athletic championships if SB 2 becomes law, potentially redirecting $120 million in funding away from the state.
“Are we willing to forgo that funding coming into Oklahoma?” Turner asked.
“I don’t think there is an expense too great if we are defending young women who choose to dedicate themselves to a sport,” Hasenbeck responded.
Others said the threat of financial loss amounted to little more than extortion. “Let’s just do what’s right,” said Rep. Jim Olsen, R-Roland. “We shouldn’t be blackmailed into doing wrong.”
Hasenbeck noted many citizens and organizations would also react favorably to passage of S.B. 2. “Our values are important and the values that we instill in this bill — protecting women from competing against men in sports — is probably something that resonates with people all over this country,” Hasenbeck said. “It certainly resonates with the people in my district.”
S.B. 2 passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives on a 73-19 vote (https://okhouse.gov/Legislation/PrintVote.aspx?Filename=http://www.okhouse.gov/58LEG/OKH00632.TXT).
All Democrats present voted in opposition. Only one Republican — Rep. Logan Phillips of Mounds – voted against the legislation.
S.B. 2 now returns to the Oklahoma Senate for further consideration.
Note: Ray Carter is director of the Center for Independent Journalism. This news story first appeared here: https://ift.tt/2QHZc6W . It is reprinted here with permission.
Oklahoma House approves transgender athlete bill Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK
The City Sentinel, Staff Report
Oklahoma City – State Senator Kay Floyd said she was very gratified that three bipartisan bills she’d introduced this session are now one step closer to becoming law. Floyd, Senate Democratic Leader, said Senate Bills 16, 21 and 22 have now been approved by both chambers and are awaiting the governor’s signature.
Floyd, D-Oklahoma City, said S.B. 16 is a request from the state’s Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence (SAFE) task force, which Floyd has served on for several years. The group was formed to address the backlog of sexual assault forensic evidence kits.
“Processing these kits is important for victims, but it can also be traumatic,” Floyd said. “S.B. 16 will further support sexual assault victims by giving them access to resources for counseling.”
Rep. Carol Bush, R-Tulsa, is House principal author of S.B. 16, which passed both chambers unanimously.
“Sexual assault victims who have had to endure the wait for their backlogged kits to be tested deserve our help, and I’m thankful to my colleagues in both the House and Senate for their understanding on this bill,” Bush said.
S.B. 21 requires school districts to provide suicide awareness and prevention training to teachers and staff every two years.
“Suicide is now the second leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 10 and 24,” Floyd said. “The material would be provided free to school districts by the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, and would only take an hour to complete, but we know from looking at other states that are already doing this that we can save lives.”
The suicide prevention measure also passed both chambers unanimously. The House principal author is Rep. Marcus McEntire, R-Duncan.
“Having children in high school, I’m acutely aware of the prevalence of talk of suicide among students in our public schools,” McEntire said. “I’m thankful to Senator Floyd and the lawmakers who supported this legislation to get our students this necessary help.”
S.B. 22 is aimed at helping charities that lease vacant schools from school districts.
"My district includes Oklahoma City Public Schools, and they've had a handful of nonprofits lease closed school buildings and use the buildings to provide their services. By making improvements to those facilities, these nonprofits have helped ensure surrounding neighborhoods are not left with a large, vacant building in their area," Floyd said. "This bill simply gives nonprofits the right of first refusal if a school district later decides to sell the building."
Rep. Tammy West, R-Oklahoma City, is principal House author of S.B. 22, which passed 44 to 2 in the Senate and unanimously in the House.
“I’m happy to help our nonprofits in this way,” West said.
“Helping them stay in the buildings they currently call home will allow them to continue to serve their clients and their missions without disruption.”
Floyd thanked her House authors for their work on the measures.
“I’m grateful to Representative Bush, Representative McEntire and Representative West for their hard work and to all our members in both chambers who supported each of these bills,” Floyd said. “Assisting crime victims, preventing suicide and supporting charities are positive efforts on behalf of our entire state, and I am very gratified we were able to all come together to address these issues.”
www.City-Sentinel.com
Senate Democratic Leader Kay Floyd of Oklahoma City says trio of bipartisan measures await Governor Kevin Stitt’s Signature Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK McEntire moves against Managed Care of Medicaid expansion Stitt stays solid and the End is near4/18/2021
Pat McGuigan
Special to the Southwest Ledger:
https://ift.tt/3stM96u
Oklahoma City – On July 1, voter-mandated Medicaid Expansion to more Oklahomans will begin. Expansion comes in the context of a state government health system that already draws down around one-fourth of state government spending.
The ballot initiative to expand Medicaid (State Question 802) passed, barely. But in its name, many powerful forces are aligned to assure that the status quo in Oklahoma health spending gets on steroids, rather than face greater oversight as envisioned in the Managed Care (SoonerSelect) plans of the state’s chief executive and his ally in charge of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority.
As his weapon of choice against the plan from Governor Kevin Stitt, state Rep. Marcus McEntire, R-Duncan, employed a not-so-venerable avoidance of customary deliberation about the details of proposed new laws.
Senate Bill 131 originated in a proposal from Senator Jessica Garvin, also a Duncan Republican, as a 15- page outline for adapting, in light of experience in recent years, the state’s laws governing “the sale, manufacturing or packaging of dangerous drugs.”
On April 8, in the House Public Health Committee, McEntire transformed S.B. 131, turning it into a plan to expand Medicaid without meaningful oversight. He did this through an “amendment” to strike “the Title, the Enacting Clause, the entire bill, and by inserting in lieu thereof” an entirely new proposal.
McEntire gave his old-new idea a nice title, garnered the necessary votes and continued on his mission.
Referencing Big Medicine’s attack on Oklahoma’s envisioned “SoonerSelect” system for management of expansion, Rep. McEntire says he is as anxious “to hear what the state Supreme Court has to say.” But just in case the state High Court (with an unfortunate history of slamming down some parts of our chief executive’s agenda) didn’t get the memo, McEntire is ready to undercut the most reform-minded governor of Oklahoma since the 1990s.
Managed Care a ‘Hold-up?’
McEntire is not alone.
Kandice Allen, CEO at Share Medical Center, wrote in an opinion piece for Alva Review-Courier (April 4), “The timing of the governor’s plan is a recipe for disaster for vulnerable Oklahomans, health care providers and hospitals who rely on the stability of SoonerCare.”
There it is. Oklahoma’s early move toward voter-mandated Medicaid Expansion, to include Managed Care policies drawn from practices already regnant in the vast majority of the 50 states, is allegedly a “hold-up” (the term widely promoted by Big Medicine’s leadership) – akin to a robbery.
This righteous rhetoric comes from a no-doubt caring and professional representative who is part of an industry which has some capable people who work hard each and every day of each and every year to ... hide the ball.
How do they hide the ball? I could count the ways, but here is a notable high-tech example.
Kaitlyn Finley, health care analyst with the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA) recently wrote a superb distillation of an important investigative report from The Wall Street Journal:
“As of January 1, 2021, hospitals are required to publish online their negotiated prices with all payers, including insurance companies, for many common services and procedures in accordance with federal regulations put forward during the Trump administration.”
Understanding Embedded Codes
But Finley reports that the trio of Journal reporters found that “a special embedded code” prevents “Alphabet Inc.’s Google and other search engines from displaying pages with the price lists, according to the Journal examination of more than 3,100 sites.”
The Journal reported, “The code keeps pages from appearing in searches, such as those related to a hospital’s name and prices, computer-science experts said. The prices are often accessible other ways, such as through links that can require clicking through multiple layers of pages.”
And so it goes. CEO Allen declares that if Stitt and OHCA don’t back down, “the House and Senate can simply vote to withhold Medicaid funding” for what she deems a “privatized system.” Rep. McEntire’s proposal is aptly deemed a “Hail Mary,” while the Big Medicine lawsuit to strangle Managed Care is perhaps an even bet (despite the magisterial argumentation of the executive branch’s lawyer before the justices).
An inconvenient truth: Everyone involved in American health care in 2021 knows that the entire structure of the contemporary system whether or not something is deemed “private” is laced with rapidly rising costs, subsidized by federal dollars (read: money extracted from the private sector through taxation).
Yup, even though some defenders of the status quo won’t like me saying so – as related in the previous installment of this series -- we “already have socialized medicine.”
The question is what can be done to make the current system more efficient, more transparent and more beneficial to all of us, and perhaps slightly less accommodating to financial pressures coming from “nonprofit” hospitals whose annual return could make at least some private sector CEOs blush.
After some bumps and bruises, Governor Kevin Stitt is still popular
An online dispatch from The McCarville Report – named for the venerable Mike McCarville, radio icon of fond memory – included this:
“A recent survey by Amber Integrated measured the opinions of Oklahoma voters on several issues, and they seem to continue to support Governor Kevin Stitt. The poll shows Stitt has an overall approval rating of 53 percent. Among Republicans, his approval rises to 70 percent and 60 percent among Independent voters. Of the Democrats responding, only 27 percent gave Stitt an approval rating.”
Over all, not too shabby for a guy who has rattled the cage since Day One.
When the governor and Kevin Corbett at the Oklahoma Health Care Authority announced their plan to create a managed care system for voter-mandated Medicaid Expansion, the chief executive said, “A healthy Oklahoma is a prosperous Oklahoma. As leaders we have a moral obligation to make life better for the people that we serve.”
Stitt is not out on a limb. Forty states partner with Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) to administer some or all of state-run Medicaid programs.
In an overview, Medicaid Health Plans of America put a fine point on available data with this nugget: “69 percent of all Medicaid beneficiaries receive their care through MCOs. (That’s ac- cording to KFF – also known as The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. That American nonprofit organization – headquartered in San Francisco – goes by the KFF these days to, among other things, avoid confusion with Kaiser Permanente.)”
Stitt is in the mainstream of American governors who seek a managed care framework to promote better health outcomes and ameliorate some tax burden. He is trying to manage an ever-burgeoning portion of the Oklahoma state budget.
However, some spots on the tree of Republican support for his move have had some bark stripped away, as witness the actions of McEntire and colleagues.
Previously, I described the ultimate result of this particular debate as a “jump ball” in a game that intensified in the midst of March Madness.
In an effort to promote understanding of what is in play, I turn again to a hopefully instructive story.
Back Then, and Right Now: Cui Bono?
Back in the Reagan era in Washington D.C., I learned from Paul Weyrich that a modern usage for an old term traditionally applied to criminal cases. These days, it can inform a study of political players in high-stakes fights.
The term, in Latin, is: Cui Bono? In plain English, “Who benefits?”
Weyrich often said, “there is always more to the story than meets the eye.”
This seems truer as government gets bigger and bigger, and Big Media scrutiny of actions from Big Government gets weaker and weaker, as more and more players figure out how to hide the ball, as government at all levels becomes less transparent, and as more reporters become selective in the ways they use existing tools.
Another Weyrich tale. I once went with him to a meeting with a “K Street Bandit.” That street is the traditional home of powerful private sector interests interested in growing government. The “bandit” term was and is used to describe at least some of those who labor (for hundreds of dollars per hour) at firms with high-powered lawyers, public relations/communications expertise and a habit of lobbying the government for ... increased taxation along with mandates guiding more tax money to their firm(s).
Weyrich was a small-government guy, but the man we visited was his friend.
Despite profound differences on a range of cultural and political issues, they had been pals for several decades. From time to time, they would call on each other for counsel, with no money exchanging hands.
Weyrich had been asked, by a supporter, to help push a certain bill. So, he asked his K Street friend to study the massive bill and give him an honest opinion.
When we met, the old fellow paged through the legislation. He told Weyrich: “This is terrible public policy.” He added with a grin, concerning his own interests, “But it will be good for business.”
Paul decided not to engage in the battle that lay ahead.
McEntire’s proposal, at a comparatively modest three pages when it cleared committee in early April, is terrible public policy. Republicans should oppose it, but some won’t.
If it passes, Governor Still should veto it, and he probably will.
As summer nears, we’ll see who wins this round of the Big Fight.
In that sense, the end is near, but the story won’t be over.
NOTE: Oklahoma journalist Pat McGuigan has been reporting on the Oklahoma rollout for voter-approved Medicaid Expansion. The analysis first appeared in The Southwest Ledger, April 15, 2021 print edition and online: https://ift.tt/3usqXPF . Southwest Ledger, 7602 US Highway 277, Elgin, OK 73538, (580) 350-1111. It is reposted here with permission.
McEntire moves against Managed Care of Medicaid expansion, Stitt stays solid, and the End is near Click on the headline to read the full article at CapitolBeatOK |
Pat McGuiganThe dean of all Oklahoma Journalism, Mr Patrick McGuigan; has a rich history of service in many aspects of both covering the news and producing the information that the public needs to know. Archives
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