Half Way Home

A lot of you have followed my musings and ramblings about life in office and have heard me describe the legislative process sometimes as a series of gates. I also use the analogy of a series of filters. Not every idea that hits the Capitol is a good one, sometimes the ideas are good and with more than one pair of eyes can be made better, sometimes the ideas are just plain bad and the filters need to catch the idea. We have now reached the half way point which means that the first major deadline of this year’s legislative session has passed. All the bills that came through the House have either made it through that series of filters or were stopped and did not become reality. The next step is for us to send our House bills over to the Senate for further scrutiny and we have now started the process of running the Senate’s ideas through our filters. This process seems very cumbersome to some and in some ways it is, but as frustrating as it can be for myself and my colleagues and as unorganized as it looks to the casual observer, I really am a believer in the process as a whole. It’s still one of the best methods in the world and as an old buddy of mine used to say “you can sure get a snoot full of it.” But I still think that it’s good that 149 people basically have to look at an idea and consider its merits and shortcomings and passes through the final gates where the Governor has the power of the pen to either sign it into law or veto it.

This past Monday a very important bill passed through the last gate and is headed to the Governor for a signature and that was SB447. This bill addressed several concerns raised by the murder of Diane Dye. Our Comanche County treasurer Barbara Burk and her husband Larry were on hand to see that Senate bill passed in the House. The bill was actually a Senate bill from last session and in my mind it did some very positive things that may help curb domestic violence by shortening the days before a hearing when a protective order is issued and several other tweaks to the law that may well prevent the tragedy like the one we saw in Elgin Oklahoma and hopefully can prevent more of the same. Senator Barrington started the process last year and it has taken two sessions to get this bill passed and headed to the Governor. The vote was unanimous in the House and we don’t anticipate any trouble when it gets to Governor Fallin’s desk. I was proud to do my part in carrying the water and as I said on the House floor Monday afternoon, it’s too late for Diane Dye but her mother Barbara Burk took up the torch, pushed through her grief and helped change a law that hopefully will prevent another family from having the same kind of tragedy.

We are now back in the committee process and have just started to get our first look at the Senate bills. It’ll be interesting to see how many House bills survive the Senate and vice versa.

Probably the weightiest issue still facing us is the discussion on the elimination of the State income tax. I’ve talked about this issue many times and we know that we must proceed with extreme caution. I can’t speak for any other member but I can tell you my position and that is we can’t do income tax reduction on the backs of our seniors or our veterans and probably my favorite way to state it is that we must have enough fuel to run the train. I represent one of the largest agriculture regions in the state and I can tell you from the calls that I’ve received that land owner’s are leery of anything that might increase property taxes and I think it is wise to continue to discuss this very important issue and I truly believe we must proceed with extreme caution. We’ll keep you posted on developments that relate to one of the biggest issues we’ve seen in many years.

If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, feel free to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:
Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. –Henry Ford.