Senator Gumm's "Senate Minute" for July 10-16, 2009

Hello again, everyone! One of the greatest quotes about the role of government comes from former Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

He said, “The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”

Few statements have so clearly expressed the moral issues every government faces. The work to write the state’s budget, the most critical job the Legislature has, is in large measure an effort to meet that moral test. More money is spent on children, elderly and the sick than on the rest of state government combined.

That fact speaks well of Oklahoma’s commitment to generations past and those yet unborn. It is generations to come which place before us the greatest challenges. Not only do we hold this state in trust for them, we have to anticipate the challenges they will face, giving them the best chance to meet those challenges.

This week, the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA) released its report on the 2009 session of the Oklahoma Legislature. OICA said, in general, this session was very good for children, youth and families.

No matter how successful the session was, I strongly believe we must do better as a state by marshalling the resources we have and using them more effectively. To that end, Lt. Gov. Jari Askins asked me to sponsor a bill containing her proposal for a Children’s Cabinet.

The Children’s Cabinet would have been comprised of the directors of every state agency and a number of public interest groups charged with improving the quality of life for our children. The cabinet would have met quarterly to focus on Oklahoma’s children.

It was a simple plan that would have led to better children’s policies at virtually no cost to taxpayers, facts understood by every member of the Oklahoma Senate, Republican and Democrat alike. The Children’s Cabinet proposal passed the Senate unanimously – twice.

As with so many bills that truly would have improved the quality of life for Oklahoma’s children, the House of Representatives leadership refused to even consider the proposal. What was the motive for their unreasonable opposition? There are only two answers.

Either they truly do not believe we should find ways to improve the quality of life for children, or they are more interested in partisan politics, denying a legislative victory to a lieutenant governor from the other party. Neither answer is sufficient; neither reflects the values of Oklahomans.

This battle for Oklahoma’s children is not over. For as long as I serve as your senator, I will continue to do everything possible to improve the quality of life for today’s children and the generations yet unborn.

Thanks again for reading this week’s “Senate Minute.” Have a great week, and may God bless you all.

2009 Town Hall Meetings

I will be hosting a series of Town Hall Meetings across House District 31 this week.

During the last mid-term interim, I conducted a series of these meetings in order to provide updates about both state and local government events and to provide an opportunity for questions and answers so my constituents could be better informed about issues of importance to them.

The meetings were attended by several hundred people and provided another opportunity to see how people felt about the issues at hand. This feedback has allowed me to advocate for issues such as road funding and property tax reform knowing that I was representing the desires of the people. I am also very appreciative to a number of other elected officials who took the time to attend those meetings as guest speakers.

Earlier this year I requested feedback via my legislative survey about where to hold this year's meetings and based on that feedback, there will be four Town Hall Meetings which will all start at 7:00 p.m.

The first meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 25, in the North Oklahoma/Southwest Logan county area at the Waterloo Road Baptist Church. Speakers at the meeting will be State Senator Clark Jolly, State Senator Randy Brogdon and Logan County Commissioner Mark Sharpton.

I have been privileged to work with both of these State Senators over the past few years and we have co-sponsored several issues together. Senator Jolly represents much of North Oklahoma County and South Logan County and is the expert in the Senate on technology issues. It was Jolly who successfully presented HB 1170 which will mandate the savings of over 30 million dollars to taxpayers each year by eliminating unnecessary technology costs. Jolly also carried the Human Services transparency bill that was requested by a Logan County group.

Senator Brogdon served as the Senate author for the modernization bill I have written about and the pay-as-you-go roads bill that was requested by a member of a Logan County roads district. Brogdon is running for Governor next year and this will be a fantastic chance for you to meet someone that you will be considering on the 2010 Gubernatorial ballot.

Commissioner Sharpton will update local residents about the progress being made on area road projects, including the upcoming paving projects on Pennsylvania Avenue and Broadway Road.

A Guthrie area meeting will be held September 29 at Community Church, 512 E. Seward Rd. The invited guest speaker is new State Senator Jim Halligan. Senator Halligan represents much of eastern Logan County and the east side of Guthrie.

A southeast Logan County meeting will take place October 27 at Woodcrest Fire Station. The invited guest is new County Commissioner Mike Pearson. The forum will give Commissioner Pearson the opportunity to talk about some of the upcoming projects in southeast Logan County, such as the funding secured for Midwest and Luther Roads and the paving project on Pine and Camp Roads.

The north Logan County meeting will be December 1 at the Crescent Community Center, the guest speaker being State Senator Patrick Anderson who represents much of north and west Logan County and County Commissioner Monty Piercy will be present to take any questions deal with local road issues.

Much like last time, we will prepare comprehensive handouts at the meetings which will provide information about everything from the modernization issues to the long-term road paving schedules. If you cannot, attend please be sure to contact me to request a copy of this handout. You may e-mail me at jason.murphey@okhouse.gov or call my office at 557-7350. I look forward to seeing you at one of these meetings.

Open Door Policy - June 30, 2009

I was in Oklahoma City over most of the weekend visiting friends in the hospital. I won't mention their names, but please keep those from our area who are sick or injured in your prayers. It is amazing what the will of people and the spirit can do to heal when there are friends who believe in you. I'm sorry I had to miss a couple of events at home, but I felt that I needed to be at the hospital to be with friends and help those families in need.
Best wishes are to be extended to one of my colleagues who will be leaving the Oklahoma House of Representatives. Ryan McMullen, who shares a portion of Caddo County with me, as well as other parts of the state to the west and north, will be leaving the legislature to take a position in the Presidential administration running the USDA Rural Development Programs. This area is key to providing assistance through grants and loans to rural Oklahoma. Ryan will do an excellent job in this job.
Congratulations are also extended to Keith Parker, a former resident of Elgin, who was selected to be the Vice-President of the Bricktown Rotary Club. This is a great group of people who do quite a bit of civic work. Keith is an outstanding leader and will do a lot of good in this capacity.
Interim studies were approved by the Speaker of the House this past Friday. Three of my ten studies were approved, so I will be busy preparing for those. The studies were:
1) Updates on Tax Increment Financing Districts;
2) Rural Firefighter Training Programs; and
3) Prison Reintegration Programs, which was combined with a study to be held by Rep. Kris Steele.
Of the 167 interim studies, 120 of them were approved. I'm disappointed the Speaker did not see the need to study some of my subjects like school drop-out rates and the need to fully-fund disaster reimbursement, but that will not deter me. I will be holding meetings on each of my seven studies and I will invited the members to attend and learn more about the subjects. I hope I will see legislators and members of the public present to analyze these issues and I will certainly keep you informed through this column.
It is an honor to represent your views at the State Capitol. If you wish to contact me and discuss one of these or another issue, I can be reached at my office in Oklahoma City toll-free at 1-800-522-8502, or directly at 1-405-557-7305. My e-mail address is joedorman@okhouse.gov at work. My mailing address is PO Box 559, Rush Springs, OK 73082 and my website is http://www.joedorman.com/ on the Internet. Thank you for taking time to read this column and I look forward to seeing you soon.

Dorman to Hold Interim Study on Rural Firefighter Training

Oklahoma House of Representatives
Media Division

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: State Rep. Joe Dorman
Capitol: (405) 557-7305
E-mail: joedorman@okhouse.gov

Dorman to Hold Interim Study on Rural Firefighter Training

OKLAHOMA CITY (June 26, 2009) – State Rep. Joe Dorman announced today that he will be conducting an interim study on the efficiency, effectiveness and cost of training rural firefighters. The study was approved this week and assigned to the House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on Natural Resources.
“There has been a push to increase the amount of training required of volunteer firefighters,” Dorman, D-Rush Springs, said. “I would like to look at these potential requirements officially and get the firefighters’ perspective.”
Pinpointing the amount of training necessary would be the goal of the study, Dorman said.
“If the increased trainings are necessary to do the job or if the trainings need to be altered to benefit the needs of the departments, then the Legislature needs to go in that direction,” Dorman said. “We need to maintain the balance for necessary skills and knowledge, but not demand so much that it will reduce recruitment and endanger the number of volunteer departments in our state.”
Maintaining effective rural fire departments is the key to necessary fire prevention and protection, along with establishing lower insurance rates and preserving property values. Providing adequately trained volunteer firefighters for departments is a necessity for preserving and developing each local volunteer department in Oklahoma .
“It is critical we maintain effective departments and provide every avenue of funding and affordable training for our firefighters,” Dorman said. “I was proud to author House Bill 1520 in 2007 at the request of the various fire protection entities and will fight every effort to water down that language, which provides affordable, accessible training to volunteer firefighters.”
House Speaker Chris Benge announced approval of legislative interim studies, which will be conducted this summer and fall.

-30-

Senator Gumm's "Senate Minute" for July 3-9, 2009

DURANT, Okla. – Hello again, everyone! The summer generally is a very slow time at the State Capitol.

With the legislative session complete, lawmakers return to their districts and their families. The focus of lawmakers’ work becomes constituent service and preparation for the next year’s session of the Legislature.

One of the ways in which we prepare for the next legislative session is through a series of meetings called interim studies. Lawmakers request these studies to get more information on issues; the interim gives us more time for in-depth study.

The president pro tempore of the Senate has the power to authorize or deny study requests by senators. Getting that approval is the first hurdle. The decision about whether a study is conducted – even if authorized by the president pro tempore – rests with the chair of the committee to which the study was assigned.

Sometimes, committee chairs decline to move forward with studies. The reasons can be substantive or political. The decision also can be based on a lack of information from the senator requesting the study.

One of the projects on which I am working is to develop scope of study recommendations to the chairs of committees where the seven studies I requested were assigned. I want to make certain the committee chairs have the information necessary to move forward; I hope to have that information ready for the committee chairs in the next few weeks.

I will propose to the committee chairs ambitious agendas on each of my studies. My studies – all approved by the president pro tempore – will range from health care to protecting children and senior citizens.

While preparing for the next session is critical, constituent service is just as important; there are cases where constituent service is even more important, depending on the severity of the challenge. At one time or another, many Oklahomans need assistance from state government or help contacting the federal government.

My office is staffed throughout the year to help with a variety of challenges facing my constituents, as well as comments, questions and concerns. You can always contact my office by telephone at (405) 521-5586 or (580) 924-2221. My traditional mail address is State Capitol, 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd., Oklahoma City, OK 73105.

My newly redesigned website - www.gumm.us - has a form to contact my office, which will send the information directly to me. Along with contact forms, the website provides a way to keep up with news from my office, previous editions of this column, as well as audio and video clips.

When I am asked by school children, “What does a senator do?” my answer is always, “Help people.” Constituent service is, in many ways, the heart of service in the Legislature; it is the most direct way to “help people.” I am, and will forever be, deeply grateful for the continued opportunity to serve.

Thanks again for reading this week’s “Senate Minute.” Have a great week, and may God bless you all.

Secretive Tax Credit Program to Come Under Legislative Review

If you have read my articles in the past, you know that I am a strong opponent of special perks and that I oppose efforts to build special loopholes into the tax code for a privileged few. I am happy to be able to report that one of the most secretive of these programs is about to receive some legislative review.

This type welfare takes place when the Legislature passes laws which financially benefit certain interests by creating a complicated scheme that enriches the proponents of the plan. Usually, advocates of these efforts carefully craft their arguments, claiming that if the Legislature provides them with special incentives, a massive amount of economic development will occur. This argument puts pressure on other legislators to support the incentive, since they do not want to be seen as voting against economic development.

Their legislation is created in a manner much like this:

a) Those who want to benefit from big government hire a powerful lobbying firm which has built strong relations with legislators by spending time with them, investing in their campaigns and providing them with personal gifts like free meals or entertainment;

b) Those lobbyists help draft the plan into law and utilize their relationships with powerful legislators to sponsor the legislation;

c) This legislation may be introduced late in the legislative session when few legislators understand what is being proposed and have very little time to understand the legislation's impact.

The people who are hurt the most by these schemes are Oklahoma small businesses owners who cannot afford to hire powerful lobbyists to build a special loophole in the law. These business still have to pay a high tax rate without benefitting from the special perks. Instead of paying for the creation of special loopholes, the state government should focus on reducing taxes across the board for Oklahoma individuals and businesses. It is this policy that will result in true economic development and will make it harder to the powerful to use the tax code as a way to achieve personal enrichment.

One of the most dangerous of the special perks is that of the state's transferable tax credit program. The reason this program is so dangerous is because it is very difficult to see who is claiming the millions of dollars to these credits which can then be sold to and claimed by a third party. These credits can be claimed and filtered through a number of LLC's which make it rather difficult to know who is benefiting and if these credits are really creating jobs, as their proponents would claim.

This year, Rep. David Dank and Senator Randy Brogdon, both outspoken critic of transferable tax credits, have won approval for a task force to conduct a study of the credits. The study should occur over the next few months and hopefully will be a starting point to allow people the opportunity to know who is using this program to benefit at the cost of the rest of the taxpayers. I think it is a great credit to Oklahoma's legislative leaders for allowing this important study to go forward.

I continue to believe that a strong majority of Oklahomans prefer small government and low taxation for all, as opposed to heavy taxation with loopholes for the privileged.

Senator Gumm's "Senate Minute" for June 26-July 2, 2009

DURANT, Okla. – Hello again, everyone! During my legislative career, I have maintained an unswerving belief that we should honor and respect those who served in the Armed Forces.

As America prepares to celebrate Independence Day, we must remember our independence as a nation – and the freedom we enjoy as a birthright – has been bought and paid for with the sacrifice of angels in uniform. Oklahomans owe our military veterans a debt that can never be repaid.

During my service as chair of the Senate Finance Committee, the Legislature provided important tax benefits for many of our veterans. Among those was a sales tax exemption for veterans with a 100 percent, service-connected disability, as well as vehicle and property tax breaks. I was proud to sponsor these benefits for veterans.

Few states in this nation do as much for veterans as we do here in Oklahoma. I believe, however, there is more we must do. One of the areas in which I believe we have not done enough is on an issue particularly sensitive to our newest veterans and their families.

For years now, a fringe group out of Kansas has made it their mission to protest at the funerals of soldiers who gave their last full measure of devotion on the fields of battle in Iraq and Afghanistan. The heartless, uncaring and selfish actions by this fringe group makes the worst day imaginable even more difficult for the families of these heroes.

The state took an initially aggressive response to the foolish actions of this misguided group. The Legislature passed a law banning protests at funerals from one hour before the service until one hour after the service. Further, the protests must be at least 500 feet away from the location of the service.

After the fringe group protested the funeral of a soldier from my district, I introduced legislation extending that protest ban to three hours before and after the service and the distance to 1,500 feet. After passing the Senate with ease, the measure – like so many others – was stalled in the House of Representatives.

I requested an interim study to examine the advantages of adopting my legislation. My hope is to gather enough objective evidence to hopefully spur the leadership of the House of Representatives to do what most Oklahomans believe is the simply right thing to do.

A good measure of my commitment to veterans comes from values instilled in me by my mother, Harlene Taylor Gumm. Mom’s job, for most of my life, was as a veterans’ service office for the American Legion in Durant.

Even today, more than a dozen years after her passing, veterans come up to me and tell me how she helped them. My commitment to veterans is one of the gifts Mom gave to me; it is a commitment that will never change.

Thanks again for reading this week’s “Senate Minute.” Have a great week, and may God bless you all.