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Oklahoma Senate
OKLAHOMA CITY Senate leadership on Wednesday were cautiously optimistic about next years budget after a state board certified an estimated $612 million in new funding for the upcoming budget year.
However, Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat and Senate Appropriations Chairman Roger Thompson both said lawmakers and the public should not set unattainable expectations for next year.
read more.Senator Greg Treat, Majority Floor Leader and Republicans’ selection to serve as the next Senate leader, on Wednesday announced the senators who will round out his leadership team.
Treat said Senator Kim David, current Senate Appropriations Committee chair, will serve as the next Majority Floor Leader and that Senator Roger Thompson, current chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Finance, will serve as the next Appropriations Committee chair. David, the first woman to serve as Appropriations Committee chair, will be the first woman to serve as Majority Floor Leader.
Seven members of the Oklahoma State Senate have co-authored legislation aimed at increasing transparency and accountability in exactly how tax dollars are being used by the agencies receiving the vast majority of state appropriations each year. Senate Bill 875 would require the Legislature to approve line-item budgets for agencies appropriated more than $100 million in state funds.
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State Sen. Roger Thompson is calling his just-concluded study on Oklahoma’s tax code a success. The second of two meetings, featuring in-depth presentations on state taxes, exemptions, credits and spending, concluded Wednesday with eighteen members of the Senate attending the final hearing. Thompson, chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Finance, organized the hearings.
State Sen. Roger Thompson has scheduled an informational meeting to examine Oklahoma’s tax code at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, July 18, in room 535 of the state Capitol. Thompson said as chair of the Senate’s Appropriations Subcommittee on Finance, he wants to provide an opportunity to fellow senators to learn more about the state’s tax laws.
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(For digital audio, go to www.oksenate.gov and select Media)
The full Senate has given approval to a measure that would repeal an economic trigger that would lower the states top income tax rate from 5 percent to 4.85 percent. Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, is the author of Senate Bill 170 which was approved by a wide margin in the Senate on Monday.
read more.The Senate Appropriations Committee voted Wednesday in favor of a bill that would effectively stop another income tax cut from automatically going into effect based on revenue growth. Sen. Roger Thompson is the author of Senate Bill 170. He’s the chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Finance, where the bill easily passed its first hurdle Tuesday.
Oklahoma’s concurrent enrollment tuition waiver program allows qualifying high school juniors and seniors to enroll in college classes before they actually graduate. Eligible seniors can actually get tuition waivers for up to six credit hours a semester. The idea is to encourage high school students to jump start their college education while saving their families money.
read more.The Legislature will wait until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of the federal health care law before proceeding with Senate Bill 1629, legislators announced Thursday.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule this summer, perhaps as early as June, on a legal challenge brought by several states alleging the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional.
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