The Senate Appropriations Committee voted Wednesday to send a measure that expands the merit-based Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program to the Senate floor for a vote.

Senate Bill 1993, authored by Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Morgan, calls for raising the maximum income level under which students are eligible to take part in OHLAP from $50,000 to $75,000. The measure would increase the number of students eligible to take part in the program by 20 percent, making 75 percent of the high school students in the state eligible to earn a tuition scholarship.
read more.

Oklahoma is poised to create the nation’s top research and treatment center for diabetes. That’s according to OU President David Boren who addressed the Senate Appropriations Committee in support of Senate Bill 1056. The measure, co-authored by Sen. Cal Hobson and Sen. Glenn Coffee would help fund the start up cost for creating two facilities based on the OU campuses in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. The committee gave its unanimous support to the measure.
read more.

-“This healthy increase (in state tax revenues) comes even though income tax rates were reduced from 6.65 percent to 6.25 percent on January 1.” – State Treasurer Scott Meacham, Journal Record, February 15, 2006

A bill to ensure school-age victims of violence have a greater say in limiting contact with their attacker is headed to the full Senate for consideration. Sen. Charlie Laster is author of SB 1597 which was approved this week by the Senate Education Committee.
read more.

Calling it a victory for Oklahoma taxpayers, State Sen. Scott Pruitt said he was very pleased by the Senate Finance Committee vote on Tuesday approving his legislation to reduce the state income tax rate from 6.25 percent to 4.9 percent. The measure passed with bipartisan support.

Pruitt, R-Broken Arrow, said the bill would enable citizens to keep more of their hard-earned dollars. When fully implemented in 2007, it would represent a tax cut of approximately $480 million a year.
read more.

A bill that has garnered the attention of national media outlets that will gives juries in Oklahoma the option of sentencing repeat child molesters to life without parole or the death penalty received approval of a Senate panel today.

The bill’s author, Senator Jay Paul Gumm, a Democrat from Durant, said he believes the measure will help create a safer Oklahoma, which he says is the government’s greatest obligation to its citizens.
read more.

- Senate Democrat Leaders Deny Hearing for GOP Lawsuit Reform Bill

Trial lawyers have won an early victory in the lawsuit reform battle at the State Capitol, thanks to some help from their Democrat allies in the Oklahoma State Senate.

Sen. Charles Laster, the Democrat chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, did not hear the Republicans’ meaningful lawsuit reform bill, Senate Bill 1857, at Tuesday’s Judiciary Committee meeting, effectively killing the measure.

Tuesday the Senate Finance Committee passed a Republican-authored bill to eliminate Oklahoma’s estate tax, commonly referred to as the death tax. In past years, the Democrat-controlled State Senate has blocked GOP efforts to eliminate the death tax.

Senate Bill 334, authored by Republican State Senators Mike Mazzei and Glenn Coffee, provides immediate estate tax relief to non-linear heirs, like nephews and nieces, and completely eliminates the death tax on everyone over a three-year period.

“The Lawsuit Responsibility Act of 2006, which passed out of the Judiciary Committee last week, contains reforms that will save money for small businesses in Oklahoma by eliminating more frivolous lawsuits on the front end of the system.

“Senate Bill 1874 will make lawsuits move through the system in a timely manner. It includes added protections for doctors and prohibits those outrageous lawsuits against fast food chains by someone claiming that cheeseburgers made them fat.
read more.

As the Senate Finance Committee completed its work on Senate bills assigned to it this morning, the panel’s chair, Senator Jay Paul Gumm said the work completed by the committee is responsible and shows a deep respect for Oklahoma’s middle class.

Senator Jay Paul Gumm said the committee considered and approved upwards of $523 million in tax cuts, many of which are targeted to middle class families or to grow Oklahoma’s economy.
read more.