Southwestern Oklahoma State University student Ashton Odom of Elk City rehearses a scene from the SWOSU Opera Workshop that will be presented Friday and Saturday, on the Weatherford campus. Performances are at 7 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center on the SWOSU campus. Admission is free, and the public is invited. Music by some of the best dramatic composers in history will be featured, including operatic scenes by Mozart, Benjamin Britten, Douglas Moore and more, according to Dr. Kristin Griffeath of the SWOSU Music Department. Provided
We’ve officially surpassed our first deadline of the legislative session.
This past Thursday was the deadline to advance Senate bills from our committees, meaning any measure that did not receive a hearing or did not receive enough votes to pass out of committee will not go any further in the legislative process this session. Of the 800 bills that were filed before session began, we’ve approved about 400 of them. We’ll next shift our efforts to studying and voting on these measures on the senate floor.
The recent icy weather set us back a few days, which led to some long committee meetings that were required in order for us to meet our committee deadline. We spent two days in Appropriations, voting on bills that would have an impact on the Fiscal Year 2023 budget. Many of these measures are double assigned, meaning they have policy implications, and were first approved in a separate Senate committee before heading to Appropriations for an additional seal of approval.
An example of this is my Senate Bill 1486, which modifies the formula to calculate how much sales tax is owed when you buy a car. Under current law, you’d pay the sales tax of the full cost of the vehicle, even if you traded in a car to help offset the cost of the new purchase.
If SB 1486 passes, you’d only have to pay sales tax on the difference between the value of the trade-in vehicle and the sales price of the new car being purchased.
This measure was first referred to the Finance Committee since it deals with state taxation, revenue and public finance. It also was assigned to Appropriations since it would have an impact on state revenues.
This is just one example of many bills which are double assigned in committee. All in all, we heard more than 50 appropriations measures within the last few days, and these bills will once again be voted on by the full senate when they make it to the floor.
While most of our focus was on committee, we convened on the senate floor to affirm our support for Ukraine by passing Senate Resolution 27.
Democracy in Ukraine is under attack, and the bravery the Ukrainian people are showing to fight for their freedoms is truly inspiring. I was proud to sign on as a coauthor of this resolution.
Finally, FFA Day at the Oklahoma State Capitol was this past week, and I enjoyed seeing all of the blue and gold jackets lining our hallways. It was a pleasure to chat with members of the Hammond and Hydro-Eakly FFA chapters — they are exceptional young students with extremely bright futures. I know our state is in good hands with young leaders like these.
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to serve as your state Senator. If there’s anything I can do to help you, please reach out.
You can contact me by email at Darcy. Jech@oksenate.gov or by phone at (405) 521-5545.