Friends,
Politics are in full swing at the Oklahoma Capitol with filibuster antics and power struggles galore. The standoffs bring to mind the Will Rogers joke, “One Senator threatened to read the Bible into the record as part of his speech, and I guess he would have done it if somebody in the Capitol had had a Bible.” Well, the Bible still hasn’t been found and things are definitely gummed up at the Capitol. Fortunately, House District 70 bills continue to hang on and make their way through the process. Fingers crossed the good stuff gets through and the bad stuff gets stopped!
HD70 Bills
Eliminating junk fees in the buying and selling of homes: HB 4151. Thank you to Tulsa Senator Dave Rader for working on this bill with me and representing it well in the Senate.
Protecting retirement plan income: HB 4150. I have worked with Broken Arrow Senator John Haste on moving this through the Senate.
Updating language on mammography reports: HB 4152. Senator Brenda Stanely from Midwest City is my partner on this legislation
HB 4148 with Rep. Mark Lepak as my co-author and Sen. Daniels as our champion in the Senate. This bill addresses medical price transparency and medical debt.
The heaviest lifts are of course the bills that involve appropriations. Both of our childcare incentivizer bills HB 1808 with Sen. Gollihare (R-Sapulpa) and HB 4147 with Sen. Pugh (R-Edmond) have a fiscal impact but a priceless rate of return as I tell the appropriations chairs! Here is a great piece put together by KOCO on the two bills and a Tulsa World editorial emphasizing the importance of the legislation for our workforce. I am putting full effort behind both bills as they are truly the only two pieces of policy legislation that seek to alleviate the economically damaging problem of lack of affordable and accessible childcare. I want to make sure and acknowledge my colleague Rep. Mark Lawson (R-Sapulpa) who has supported me in the work to continue to advance these bills.
Hot Topics
Other hot topics lately have been school board election timing changes and changes to the procedure by which a ballot measure reaches voters. As a former school board member, I have serious concerns about politicizing our school board elections and would only support changes that kept those elections separate from partisan elections. My feeling is that we would quickly lose the ability to recruit connected community members who have knowledge of local needs and run to address those. Our school board candidates would not want to (and should not) get tangled up with the national issues that consistently infect our partisan elections. I have heard from many HD70 voters about this issue – please continue to reach out if you want to discuss. I have strong feelings on this one!
As to the proposed changes to the ballot initiative, we currently have a system that allows for citizen led petitions to get on a ballot and the people have the opportunity to decide directly if they want that policy or not – a workaround for the gridlock that often occurs when trying to pass big policy change (see above!). The current proposal SB 518 narrows the people’s voice so I have thus far opposed.
And the hottest topic, Tulsa Area United Way is celebrating their 100th birthday this year! In the weeklong celebration, several representatives from TAUW came to the Capitol to share the story of the organization and their vision for the future. It gave me so much pride for people to see the heart of Tulsa — how generous we are with our resources, time and talent. It’s good for my colleagues from other parts of the state to know that when they send state money to Tulsa, it will be augmented by the work of TAUW and our other amazing non-profits. Happy Birthday TAUW – Tulsa wouldn’t be Tulsa without you.
Election Year
285 Oklahomans filed to run for office this year. You can read a summary here of who filed and who ran unopposed and have automatically been re-elected for another term. I officially have a challenger and will be on the ballot November 5, 2024.
Serving our district and state has been so much more than I ever imagined. Sure there’s frustration and nonsense, but there is also real (by real, I mean actual problems not fake issues!) problem solving, the ability to bring constituent voices forward and productive cooperation. Getting things done takes relationship building, an open mind, creativity and persistence but most importantly I think – an absolute commitment to putting people over politics. To me, the job is totally worth it when the end is making Tulsa and Oklahoma a place our families and our friends and neighbors want to be and know they can grow and succeed.
Make sure you’ve got our next townhall in your calendar. We will be at the Schusterman-Benson Library from 5:30-6:30 on April 11. Looking forward to seeing everyone that can make it for updates and conversation – it’s a good chance for me to hear from you. Let us know you’re planning on joining by registering here.
Let’s Keep Going —
Suzanne