Oklahoma Senate Adjourns Special Session
It costs taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars a day to operate a special session, including the one that began Tuesday morning.
Gov. Kevin Stitt called the special session to cut taxes. But by 2:30 yesterday afternoon Senators were done.
Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat hastily made a motion to adjourn his chamber.
He says Stitt refused to appear at a Senate Appropriations Committee meeting in the morning to explain his plan. So Treat called the whole thing off.
Yesterday morning during a press conference Stitt said he wants to put Oklahoma on a path to a zero percent income tax.
"People are fleeing from high tax states to low tax states. We have to compete against Texas every single day, and they have zero income tax," the governor said.
Oklahoma House Speaker Charles McCall had supported Stitt’s plan. His chamber was entertaining legislation related to cutting income tax Tuesday morning.
But with the special session essentially over with the absence of one chamber, lawmakers likely won’t be back until the regular session in February.
Oklahoma’s Congressional Delegation Reacts To McCarthy Being Ousted
Chaos in Washington as now former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was removed from his leadership role by his own colleagues. Here's reaction from Oklahoma’s congressional delegation.
For a time Tuesday evening, longtime Oklahoma Republican Representative Tom Cole’s name was being floated as a possibility to take over as Speaker of the House and second in line for the presidency. Cole shot that idea down in an interview with Fox News, saying "it will not be me."
Cole, Stephanie Bice, Frank Lucas, Josh Brecheen, Kevin Hern, all Oklahoma Republican representatives, all voted to support McCarthy’s speakership. Despite support from Oklahoma’s representatives, McCarthy was ousted as speaker. What’s next is unclear.
Oklahoma School Corporal Punishment Stats
Ahead of a legislative interim study Thursday on the use of corporal punishment in schools for students with disabilities, statistics released Tuesday paint a picture of the current state of school-based physical punishment in Oklahoma.
This spring, the legislature’s failure to pass a bill banning corporal punishment on students with disabilities garnered national attention. Lawmakers are slated to hear more on the topic at an interim study Thursday afternoon.
Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice released statistics ahead of Thursday’s study, and they paint a grim picture of inequity when it comes to corporal punishment in schools.
As of 2018, the latest year for which data are available, Black children are 2 1/2 times more likely to experience corporal punishment in districts that still practice it. And even though Native American students represent less than 14% of the total school population, one in four students who receive corporal punishment is Indigenous. And those numbers only count how many kids received corporal punishment — not how many times each child received it.
A fifth of students subjected to corporal punishment had documented disabilities. Oklahoma has a little over 500 school districts, and over a quarter of them still practice corporal punishment. 17 of those districts use the practice on pre-k children.
OK CARES Fraud
Two Oklahomans were found guilty for Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act fraud schemes last week.
The two people pleaded guilty in federal court.
Kimberly Atlanta Tipton, 43, of Oklahoma City, pleaded guilty for false statements made to a financial institution.
Tipton faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine up to a million dollars.
Brian Lee Foster, 54, of Norman, was sentenced to two years for his role in a Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security ("CARES") Act fraud scheme.
The CARES Act provided more than $2 trillion in relief for individuals and businesses adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the indictment, Foster applied for and obtained more than $40,000 in PPP loans in his name and the name of another person. Courts ruled Foster used the loan proceeds for his personal benefit.
Foster was also fined more than $21,000 in restitution to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
_________________
For additional news throughout the day visit our website, KGOU.org and follow us on social media.
We also invite you to subscribe to the KGOU PM NewsBrief.