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Repealing Laws & Designating Watermelon the Official State Vegetable

We are a nation of laws. Far too many laws. Well, all of us except for Obama, who is apparently exempt. When legislatures meet year after year to pass new legislation, tweak current laws and occasionally repeal one, the end result is always the same at the end of every session – many more laws to follow than we had at the beginning of the session. Repealing laws has never been a priority with legislatures. Take a look at the photo to the left. Oklahoma State Rep. Jason Murphey has this photo on his blog. The stack of books on the left is the Oklahoma state statutes as published in 2001. The stack on the right is the statutes as published in 2011. In just ten years the legislature passed enough laws to require the printing of two additional volumes. For this current session, Rep. Murphey and a few others have taken direction provided them by Speaker of the House […] → Keep reading

Oklahoma Governor’s Race To Hinge On Storm Shelters?

If you live in Oklahoma, I hope you enjoy hearing about the school storm shelter issue because it’s shaping up to be the issue for the next year. Yesterday, State Rep. Joe Dorman (D-Rush Springs) launched an exploratory committee to begin raising funds and examine a possible run for Governor of Oklahoma next year. Dorman would be running against the popular incumbent, Mary Fallin. While announcing the committee Dorman said that education is going to be the top issue. “Visiting with teachers… about the conditions we’re seeing in schools, what we’ve seen Governor Fallin and Superintendent Janet Barresi do to education, I think that has to be one of our most critical issues we’ll look at.” For the past several months Dorman has been a strong advocate of an initiative petition that would allow the public to vote on issuing up to $500 million in bonds for the construction of storm shelters in Oklahoma schools. Franchise tax revenues would be […] → Keep reading