Reuniting Greenwood
A north Tulsa church beats out both the city of Tulsa and the state department of transportation for a federal grant. The North Peoria Church of Christ was awarded $1.6 million from the feds to run a study examining the feasibility of removing the leg of Interstate 244 dividing Greenwood. State Rep. Regina Goodwin said at a meeting Friday she and other community leaders have specific hopes for the approximately 30 acres of land that could be cleared.
Cody Brandt, who studied highway removal at Georgetown University, said the team involved has been discussing how to benefit community members whose houses were taken through eminent domain when the interstate was first built.
Assistant Preacher David Watkins said the church will next review guidelines for the feasibility grant to determine how to move ahead with partnerships.
Energy Lawsuit
The attorney general of Kansas is suing an energy company that's also active in Oklahoma for market manipulation during February 2021's winter storm.
Attorney General Kris Kobach accuses Macquarie Energy, a middleman that deals with natural gas companies, of collecting at least 50 million dollars illegally during Winter Storm Uri. Some of those costs were passed on to Kansas ratepayers. Macquarie also supplied Oklahoma utilities with more than $153 million in fuel in February 2021.
The news of the Kansas lawsuit comes as the Oklahoma Corporation Commission considers hiring an independent investigator to look into 2021 winter storm fuel costs. Commissioner Bob Anthony has criticized the OCC's plan, saying it doesn't go far enough in probing rate hikes and is just window dressing to cover-up corruption.
Transportation Funding
The Association of Central Oklahoma Governments announced almost $44 million in federal funding for transportation projects in and around the Oklahoma City metro.
Most of this federal money is available annually, but the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments had about 9 million extra dollars this year from the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act.
Rachel Meinke with the Association says the funding application process for tribes, local governments, schools and transit agencies began last fall.
"We're just really excited to award all of this money to our central Oklahoma municipalities and get some projects that everyone has been wanting to complete, get those started," She said.
Those projects include trails in Yukon and Edmond, a bike-friendly streetcar plan in Oklahoma City, school zone safety upgrades in Choctaw and accessibility improvements in Norman.
Grocery and Income Taxes
A bill to reduce grocery and income taxes is one step closer to becoming a law. Grocery and income tax bills passed out of the appropriations committee late last week.
A bill to eliminate Oklahoma’s 4.5% sales tax on groceries is making its way through the state Legislature. Governor Kevin Stitt says he continues to support the bill authored by House Speaker Charles McCall.
"I just think it's very reasonable. It's a regressive tax to remove the state portion. And if if McCall's bill does that, you know, I think it's I think it's the right thing to do," Stitt said.
Republicans continue to look at ways to cut taxes this session. House Bills 1953 and 1954 have also passed in Committee and are eligible to be heard on the house floor. HB 1953 proposes a quarter percentage point reduction in personal income tax rates - and HB 1954 proposes a half percentage point cut to the income tax rate. Other proposals are still alive. So which tax cuts ultimately pass remains to be seen.
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