logocapitol dome inside
Capitol News Update     

 

June 17, 2013


 

               With the legislative session over, legislators are back home with their families and constituents trying to get caught up with where they left their lives last February.  Usually they are occupied during June, July and August with their personal businesses, constituent services and perhaps a legislative trip.  The next significant activity will be legislative interim studies that usually begin in the fall.  Interim studies happen when a member requests a study of a certain topic, and it is approved and assigned to a committee by the Speaker of the House or President Pro Tempore of the Senate.  You can tell a lot about legislators and what they believe their constituents feel is important by the interim studies they request.     

 

                  The House publishes all the requests on line before they are approved so you can see what is and is not approved.  The Senate so far has not published the requests.  House members filed a whopping 135 interim study requests that reveal the breadth of issues within the purview of state government.  For example freshman Republican Representative Bobby Cleveland wants to study the actions and methods of the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association.  Rep. Dan Kirby wants to study sports injuries and Rep. Ken Walker wants to study raw milk.  After this year's tornados, Rep. Richard Morrissette wants to study basements and windproof housing while Representatives Ann Coody and Todd Thomsen want to look into the needs and funding for school safety during storms.  Rep. Kay Floyd wants to study the cost to taxpayers of the legislature's passing unconstitutional bills. 

 

                  Looking forward to unresolved issues from this year's session, Rep. Leslie Osborn wants to study state employee compensation and changing to a performance based system.  Representatives John Echols and Gus Blackwell want to take a look at prison utilization, especially use of halfway houses and private prisons.  On a related issue Rep. Ben Sherrer wants to review the state's penal code and sentencing guidelines and Rep. Osborn wants to look at restructuring classification of violent and non-violent offenses.  Interestingly Democratic Representatives Mike Brown and David Perryman made the only requests, which are unlikely to be approved, to study the Medicaid expansion issue.  The message here seems to be the ball is in the governor's court. 

 

                  Several requests were made regarding taxes, the most far reaching being a request by Rep. Lewis Moore to study the possibility of having the state collect federal income taxes and remit the revenue to the federal government.    

 

                  An interim study can amount to a little or a lot.  Some studies occur over numerous meetings with a formal report and recommendations while others might be less than an hour sandwiched in with several other studies on the same day.  Some studies, like Rep. Jeannie McDaniel's bill to outlaw texting while driving, are the result of failed legislation that needs more work to build a consensus or get leadership support.  With 135 requests in the House, the Speaker cannot approve them all.  Interim studies can be very helpful in thinking through problems the legislature needs to address or they can be a sounding board for members or citizens to surface an issue they think has been ignored.   

Education official seeks superintendent post

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A longtime Oklahoma education official says he plans to run for state superintendent of public instruction in 2014.

Democrat Jack Herron of Norman said Monday he intends to seek the post currently held by Republican Janet Barresi.

The 67-year-old Herron worked as assistant state superintendent for financial services at the state Department of Education until he says Barresi fired him after she took over in 2011. He has since worked as legislative liaison for the Professional Oklahoma Educators, a nonunion teacher's service organization.

Herron has worked as a superintendent in Macomb, Mangum, Guthrie and Duncan, and as a supervisor of regional centers for the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics.

Former state school board member Joy Hofmeister, a Republican, and Bennington Superintendent Donna Anderson, a Democrat, also are running.

Legal expert reflects on water decision

By M. Scott Carter

The Journal Record

WASHINGTON - The Tarrant County Regional Water District's argument that it had the right to come into Oklahoma to obtain its share of water under the Red River Compact fell flat because the agreement was silent on the idea of cross-border water diversions, a legal expert wrote last week.

Writing for the website SCOTUSblog.com, legal analyst Thomas Merrill said Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor turned back Tarrant's argument because the Red River Compact did not expressly limit diversions to those within a state, yet logically the compact had to be so limited.

 "She then turned to other constructional principles that favored Oklahoma's view:  the 'well-established principle' that states do not easily cede their sovereign prerogative to control waters in their own territories; the fact that other interstate water compacts, when they have created cross-border rights, have done so explicitly; and the fact that no other state, in the many years since the compact was approved in 1980, had asserted a right to make cross-border diversions under the clause," Merrill wrote.

Thursday's unanimous ruling set off a thunderstorm of applause in Oklahoma. Across the state, political and tribal leaders praised the ruling, calling it a huge win for the state's water policy.

But while the ruling effectively shut down Tarrant's attempts to force the state to share water, officials at the north Texas water district left the door open for water sales.

"The decision does not address the problem of Oklahoma's lack of water infrastructure, and we believe solutions that benefit both Texas and Oklahoma still exist," TRWD General Manager Jim Oliver said in a media statement.  "We will continue to explore and advance those opportunities."

Though Thursday's ruling told Texas no, it also bypassed debate about tribal claims to water in the area. Briefs filed by the Choctaw and Chickasaw nations, the solicitor general of the United States and the TRWD referenced Oklahoma City's purchase of the water storage rights of the Sardis Lake reservoir in Clayton.

The Sardis deal, which was completed in 2011, is being mediated in an Oklahoma federal court. In his brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the Tarrant case, Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. said the court should also examine both tribes' claim of water rights in the area, adding that the Indian nations were exempted from the Red River Compact.  

On Thursday, the court seemed to bypass concerns over both tribes' water rights.

In his analysis, Merrill wrote that the ruling underscored the fact that Texas was free to take up to 25 percent of the excess water from Subbasin 5 from inside Texas and noted that Texas could demand an accounting if it thought Oklahoma was diverting more than its share.

"But Texas could not enter Oklahoma without Oklahoma's consent to divert water in Oklahoma," he wrote.

The most significant part of the opinion, Merrill wrote, was that the court established (via footnote) that a congressionally approved compact, as federal law, pre-empts state law that conflicts with the compact under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

"It also establishes, in another footnote, that the presumption against pre-emption does not apply to interstate compacts, because 'the states themselves have drafted and agreed to the terms' of the compact," he wrote.

Income taxes give boost to general fund

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - State finance officials say increased income tax collections are providing a boost to Oklahoma's General Revenue Fund that is used to fund state government.

Secretary of Finance Preston Doerflinger reported Tuesday that collections to the fund through 11 months of the current fiscal year total $5 billion. That's an increase of $65 million, or 1.3 percent, over total collections during the same period last year. The collections also exceed the official estimate by $35 million, or nearly 1 percent.

Doerflinger reports that individual income taxes contributed $176 million to the fund in May, a 4.3-percent increase over May 2012. Corporate income taxes of $5.2 million in May were up more than 20 percent over the same month last year, while sales tax collections were up by 3 percent.

Tea party leader has Sept. 6 preliminary hearing

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - An Oklahoma County judge has set a Sept. 6 preliminary hearing on felony blackmail and computer crimes charges against the co-founder of the Sooner Tea Party.

Special Judge Susan Johnson set the date during a hearing for 54-year-old Al Gerhart. Gerhart was charged in April for allegedly sending an email intended to intimidate state Sen. Cliff Branan, R-Oklahoma City, chairman of the Senate Energy Committee.

An affidavit says Gerhart admitted sending the email on March 26. The email concerned a House-passed bill favored by tea party supporters that Branan did not hear in his committee.

Gerhart has pleaded not guilty.

The preliminary hearing will determine if prosecutors have enough evidence to show a crime was committed and that there is probable cause to believe Gerhart committed it.

Have a good week.  Give me a call at 918.671.6860 if I can be of help in any way

                  Steve Lewis


 
 
This Week's Meetings


 

 

 
This Week's News
Official Seeks Superintendent Post
Legal Expert Reflects on Water Decision
Income Taxes Give Boost
Tea Party Leader