Oklahoma Watch (https://oklahomawatch.org/tag/legislature/)
Oklahoma lawmakers closed out the 2019 session Thursday after nearly four months of debate on hundreds of bills that could impact the state for years to come. Here’s what the Legislature did, and didn’t do, this year, from the $8.1 billion spending bill to criminal justice reform.
The fight over Oklahoma’s recently changed liquor distribution laws shows how donors get around a partial fundraising blackout during the legislative session. One donor in the fight, and his wife, have given at least $95,000 since Feb. 6.
This year’s criminal justice reform measures include changing bail bonds, making State Question 780 retroactive and giving greater clarity to prosecutors on when to charge drug possession with intent to distribute. Here are five questions surrounding the bills.
Three former legislators who left office in November are now lobbyists, embodying a practice that state ethics officials have unsuccessfully tried to ban in the face of opposition from the Legislature.
Gov. Kevin Stitt used his first State of the State address to call for an additional pay raise for teachers, a more modernized state government and greater control over state agency leaders’ employment.
What was absent, however, might be as important as what was included.
Opposition to proposed Ethics Commission rules to require disclosure of who’s behind grassroots lobbying efforts united groups on the right and left. The commission discussed but declined to take up the proposed rules, effectively killing the measure.
The first legislative session since the teacher walkout ended will convene Feb. 4, and education is likely to be a prominent theme. But proposed bills go beyond teacher pay and school funding. Here are several of the bills Oklahoma Watch is tracking.
The Oklahoma Ethics Commission is proposing to close a gap in state campaign finance laws that keeps certain funding and spending on efforts to influence legislation a secret. Some groups immediately objected.
Incoming Gov. Kevin Stitt and lawmakers have proposed a three-pronged look into state agencies’ spending and activities: accountability audits, a new financial transparency office and expansion of the governor’s power to appoint agency heads. How much transparency will it bring?
The founders of Epic Virtual Charter School donated at least $145,000 total to dozens of candidates in this year’s elections. The donations outpaced those from the Oklahoma Education Association PAC and have come amid continuing dramatic growth in enrollment at the online school.