Just days after the State Senate’s Democrat President Pro Tem Mike Morgan said he has “great fear and trepidation” about reducing taxes this legislative session, the Democrat chairman of the Senate Finance Committee left the two most important tax reform issues off the schedule at the committee’s first meeting on Tuesday, February 7.

Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Morgan announced the selection Tuesday of Senator Jeff Rabon to serve as the new vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee

Rabon is chairman of the Senate Appropriations Sub-Committee on Natural Resources and Regulatory Services.

SB 1748 Outlaws the Sale of Cell Phone Records

Identities of all Oklahomans will be protected under a proposal by Senator Randy Bass that passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning.

“Identity theft is a growing concern for all Oklahomans, especially among our greatest generation—our senior citizens,” Bass said. “The Oklahoma Identity Theft Protection Act ensures that we are doing everything we can to protect our families from this devastating crime.”

The Senate author of the “Back-to-School” sales tax holiday said he is pleased the tax cut, targeted directly to middle class families was among the first tax cuts to pass out of the Senate Finance Committee this morning.

Senator Jay Paul Gumm, D-Durant and chair of the Finance Committee, said passage of the sales tax holiday means all Oklahomans are one step closer to shopping in Oklahoma the first weekend in August, rather than taking their dollars to bordering states which already have a sales tax holiday.

Legislation to require children and teenagers to take a boating safety course before operating a jet ski or other water craft has cleared its first legislative hurdle. Senate Bill 1495, known as the Kyle Williams Boating Safety Education Act, won approval from the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Public Safety and Judiciary on Wednesday morning. The legislation is named for a 12-year-old Oklahoma boy who died as a result of a jet ski accident in August, 2004.
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Senate Republican Leader Glenn Coffee praised “Rose Day” participants who rallied at the state Capitol Wednesday, and credited them for last year’s passage of pro-life legislation for the first time in a generation.

“Senate Republicans are very pleased to welcome the Rose Day participants to the Oklahoma State Capitol today, and we praise them for the tireless efforts in support of the unborn,” stated Coffee, R-Oklahoma City.

The Senate Appropriations Sub-Committee on Education gave approval Wednesday to legislation that will make more children from middle class homes eligible to participate in the Oklahoma Higher Learning Access Program.

Senate Bill 1993 by Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Morgan raises the maximum income eligibility for OHLAP from $50,000 to $75,000.
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* Rural GOP Senators Pledge to Fight Forced School Consolidation & Seek Funding for Roads & Bridges, Rural Firefighters

The elimination of the state’s death tax tops the list of 2006 legislative priorities for rural Republican state senators, members of the Senate Republican Rural Caucus announced Wednesday.

Legislation has been introduced by State Senator Don Barrington, R-Lawton, that will help protect the jobs of volunteer firefighters who are called to duty while at work by offering tax incentives to businesses that hire these individuals.
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After working closely all summer with corrections officials, and even convening a special session to deal with Oklahoma’s public safety crisis, the Oklahoma State Senate passed a $24 million supplemental appropriation for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC) today. read more.