Alva Review-Courier -

The Alva Chamber Coffee was held Friday morning at Share Medical Center in Alva. Guests were treated to a delicious breakfast buffet while they settled in to listen to local legislators discuss the issues.

Rep. Carl Newton

Representative Carl Newton spoke first, explaining the House has 45 new members, almost half of the total number. He said as the legislative session nears the end, the votes get harder. The new members complain about how hard it is, but Newton says they have nothing to complain about. They haven't had to deal with the tough budget issues of recent years.

"We passed three marijuana bills so far. One thing we're dealing with right now is the hemp growers," he said. Last year the state went through a pilot program with the universities, including Northwestern in Alva, to help the hemp growers. Newton said that program ended last year. Now growers are waiting on the federal farm bill, however, the 2018 bill doesn't go into effect until the fall.

"All the farmers that plant hemp this spring will lose their FSA (Farm Service Administration) support. They're not excited about that," said Newton. "We are having to go back to the pilot program."

He said they're amending a bill and Sen. Paxton is going to carry it. Growers should be planting in the next two weeks. "It's kind of a rush thing. We're hoping to get it up and growing."

Newton is chairman of the natural resources committee this year and is working on the budget. He explained that committee includes agriculture, tourism, water resources, environmental quality, commerce and insurance.

"We have a little bit of money and we're trying to help those agencies." He explained these budgets were cut to 45 percent of what they were so his committee is "trying to get some of those things caught up a little bit."

His committee deals with extension groups. "For us in rural Oklahoma, having these extension people out here is important," Newton said. He wants to make sure those county extension boards are supported.

"Next week is our last week to hear Senate bills and the last week for them to hear House bills, and so we'll probably hear 200 or 300," he said. The legislature started with over 3,000 bills and by the time they're done about 400 to 500 bills will pass out of both sides to the governor's desk.

Newton said he's also working to keep Todd Holder of Alva on the Department of Corrections board. The governor was given more authority over the state boards, and now he's going through and eliminating them. "Before you had to have someone from each region; now you don't," Newton said.

Sen. Casey Murdock

"This year we've gotten along a lot better," says Sen. Casey Murdock of the Oklahoma Senate and House. Murdock enjoys explaining the way the legislature works. He says making a law is like making sausage. You really don't want to know how it's made.

Regarding budget negotiations, Murdock says the House and Senate "are pretty much lined up with what we want to do. We're about 80 percent there."

However, he said the governor's "not quite on board yet. Right now we're having a little staring match with the governor." The problem is that the governor wants to put $200 million into the rainy day fund, something he mentioned in his state of the state address.

But Murdock says the state has put some $800 million into the fund this year already. If the economy keeps on growing the way it has been, he says the total going into the rainy day fund this year will be well over a billion dollars.

"The House and the Senate don't feel like we need to put an additional $200 million in there. Our economy in Oklahoma is doing very, very well," he said.

Earlier this year, Murdock says, "the Senate and the House got to shooting bullets back and forth. I was scratching my head. I couldn't understand why we were fighting over this." He said the problem involved a train bill by the Speaker of the House who was very upset because his bill didn't pass out of committee in the Senate. "So he went and pulled some of our bills out of their committees. This is ridiculous."

Rep. Newton gleefully asked Murdock, "What was the score on that bill in committee?"

"He didn't even get a vote, 0-9. I felt sorry for him," said Murdock. "He was a little hot."

Murdock, who is chairman of ag and wildlife, said, "I'm totally on board with the governor pulling in some of these agencies. For the last hundred years, agencies have been running the state with very, very little accountability."

He said term limits have given the power in the capitol to the agencies and lobbyists. Murdock said it takes at least four years for a new legislator to figure out the process, although he said Newton probably packed six years of experience in two years with the special sessions.

Murdock said if a legislator decides to look at a particular agency, the agency head just starts dragging his feet. They've figured out if they can just play defense, they can delay until the legislator terms out.

"So I'm chairman of ag and wildlife. I want to dig into these agencies. I start digging into wildlife," said Murdock. The problem is that wildlife is unappropriated. The only power legislators have is "the power of the purse strings." But that won't work with wildlife.

"How do you get them to come to the table? I've got to file very egregious bills. I'm not planning on running them, but something to perk their ears up and get them to the table," said Murdock. "I did that this year, and they did push back."

Murdock said he now has people close to the wildlife agency telling him what's been going on there. "This is going to take me a while," Murdock said of digging into the agency, "but it needs to happen."

The senator also discussed a cost of living adjustment of four percent sent over from the House. He said he agrees that a raise is needed for retired people depending on the state retirement accounts. However, about 2005 the retirement accounts were not shored up very well. He said in 2009 teacher retirement was only 49 percent funded, and the firefighters account was at 54 percent.

Murdock blamed this problem on the Democrats who voted continuing cost of living adjustment (COLA) raises that depleted the funds. "Or they'd go in and borrow that money, and it wasn't given back."

He credits Randy McDaniel with getting legislation passed so before a COLA increase can happen, the legislature "has to do an actuary" or a study to examine the effect on the funds. However, a current bill from the House is aimed at a COLA with the actuary clause struck for this year. "At four percent, it's $850 million. I want to make sure we can handle it. I'd like to make sure we're doing it right," he said.

Murdock closed his remarks with "the most important legislation out there. We're making the ribeye the state steak of Oklahoma."

He said the last year was a "tough, tough year with two special sessions. We were getting beat up left and right." He decided it was time to celebrate the good things in Oklahoma. "We are third in the nation in mama cows. Texas County is one of the top ten cattle producing counties in the nation."

"In my mind it's not a waste of time and money to support what my district does – agriculture," he said. "The day it passed the Senate floor, this bill was the only bill that paid for itself the first night." He said when he got back to his apartment, he had 30 text messages saying "we got a ribeye tonight in your honor." He multiplied the cost of those 30 steaks by the 4.5 percent state sales tax to equal about $60 or $70. The bill was one page long, so providing 48 senators with copies at 10 cents a copy cost only $4.80. "The rest of it is gravy!" he said. The ribeye bill has now gone to the House.

Questions

The legislators discussed a question about a bill that would change how state supreme court justices are selected, with one from each congressional district across the state (five) and four at large. Murdock said he voted for the bill but immediately felt "buyer's remorse." Newton opposed the bill.

Murdock says the real problem is how names are submitted to the governor. "How did we get a liberal supreme court in Oklahoma as red (conservative) as we are?" he asked. The state bar association sends three names to the governor, and Murdock considers that association to be very liberal.

Newton added, "If you want to know the state of Oklahoma, rural is red (conservative) and metro is blue (liberal)."

Jennifer Nichols, APRN at Share Medical asked about the possibility of getting medical mid-levels the chance to "practice with our full authority" in Oklahoma. A recent bill in the legislature received a lot of push back from physicians, but Nichols said "no one wants to come out here (to rural areas) except us."

Newton said the bill might have more of a chance next year which is an election year. He said a bill giving a $25,000 state tax credit to physicians who practice in rural areas was a good step.

Murdock said Guymon just got a new physician by forgiving about $120,000 of student loans in return for her agreeing to stay a certain amount of time. "We really need to raise our own," said Murdock. He said it is easier to get physicians who grew up in rural areas to return to those areas to practice.

Newton said OSU is pushing a blue jacket to white coat tie-in, encouraging those interested in ag to pursue medical degrees. He said another problem is that typically a physician will settle within 75 miles of where he or she did their residency, and northwest Oklahoma no longer has a residency program. There used to be one in Enid but not anymore. However, OSU is pushing to reestablish that residency program.

Jane McDermott thanked both men for their support of education but said, "I want to ask for your support for higher education."

Newton agreed the big push has been for common education. He said he's heard that common ed teachers can make almost as much as a professor now.

Murdock said when Steve Valencia, vice president at NWOSU, was driving him around during his run for the senate, Steve told him high school teachers were making more than professors at NWOSU. "I about fell down," Murdock said.

"OU and OSU can take care of themselves. I'm concerned about regional universities," said Murdock. He said it might be better if they were separated for budgeting. However, Dr. Janet Cunningham, president of NWOSU, said the state needs the whole system, the large research universities along with the regional schools.

Murdock said of the higher ed budget pie, half goes to OU and OSU with the remainder split among the 23 other schools.

Newton said the one thing they've been able help with is concurrent enrollment.

Another question was asked about the CDL bill allowing for third party testing for a CDL license. After some research, Newton found it has passed both the Senate and the House and is on the way to the governor.

Marione Martin.

Ryan Sproul, representing Sen. Jim Inhofe, speaks briefly at the Alva Chamber Coffee held Friday at Share Medical Center.

Newton closed out the questioning by telling about a Walmart optometry bill he's pushing for this session. He said it's not trying to go against the will of the people in opposition to the recent state question vote. This bill is meant to protect the patients." He said they've heard Walmart is going to run another initiative petition next year.

Instead this bill would allow Walmart to have optical shops and to lease space to independent doctors of optometry. The optometrists could be housed in the building but they would not be subject to incentives from Walmart.

"We are doing this because it is the best for the patients," said Newton. He said if passed, the law would have a long rollout with metro areas being affected first. He said it would be 2042 before they could roll it out in Alva.