A Battle for These Children, Their Families, Our Future

By Senator Jay Paul Gumm, D-Durant

Hello again, everybody! Now that the ceremony surrounding the first week of the annual legislative session is behind us, the nuts-and-bolts work of the people’s business has taken center stage.

In both the Senate and House of Representatives, committees are wading through all the bills that were introduced for 2008, as well as hundreds of “holdover” bills from 2007. As I have written before, the committee process is one of the ways in which large numbers of bills are killed – many of them before they even have a chance for life.

That is the nature of the political process, and that reality has been made even more severe because of the divided nature of the Legislature. Neither political party has an iron grip on the legislative process, meaning that for any bill to become law it must gain bipartisan support.

In an election year, in which both parties are vying for political power, gathering up bipartisan support often becomes a more difficult proposition.

A bill that did win committee approval is one that begins what will be a comprehensive assault on autism. The Senate Education Committee passed legislation encouraging school districts to include a special emphasis on autism as part of professional development program for special education teachers in the district.

As I have shared with you before, currently one in every 150 children is diagnosed with autism. If this were some traditional malady – like small pox or polio – parents would be storming the Capitol demanding action. Despite that, some still oppose efforts to ensure state law reflects the reality of autism.

Parents of children with autism ringed the room as the committee considered the bill, which passed on a bipartisan 11-1 vote. The amazing thing to me was that one senator could oppose this common-sense measure. The bill is a first step in what many of us in the Senate hope to do to assist families struggling with autism.

I have strong hopes that when the dust settles from this session, we will have enacted policies that help the children and families of autism. The challenges they face are more difficult than most of us can imagine – but this is an epidemic we must address as soon as possible in a proactive manner.

To do anything less is, in my judgment, simply irresponsible. So, the battle is on – a battle for these children, their families and our future. It is a battle that reminds me why I first wanted to serve in public office, and why I am honored to be your voice in the Oklahoma Senate.

Thanks again for reading the “Senate Minute,” have a great week and may God bless you all.

Oklahoma Hunters May Soon be Hunting Bears

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: State Rep. Joe Dorman
Capitol: (405) 557-7305
Oklahoma Hunters May Soon be Hunting Bears
OKLAHOMA CITY –To keep the bear population from increasing to dangerous amounts in Oklahoma, state Rep. Joe Dorman filed legislation to establish permitting guidelines for the state black bear hunting season.
House Bill 3077, by Dorman, allows the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife (ODW) to sell a special black bear hunting license to be used during a specific time period or when the number of killed bears reaches a certain quota.
"There have been many complaints of these bears tearing into cabins to raid the food," said Dorman, D-Rush Springs. "These bears are large and can easily harm people and destroy property. We need to do what we can to control their population so they are not endangering people either camping or by causing increased wrecks by wandering on to the roads."
Currently, students at Oklahoma State University are researching black bear population numbers to see how many can be taken during the hunting season without causing harm to the species.
"The bear population grew to dangerously low levels in surrounding states, but conservation efforts have led to their repopulation," said Dorman. "Now that the levels have increased to safe amounts, we can allow hunters to assist in the population control."
Dorman serves as the House vice-chair of the Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, a group affiliated with the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus. This group seeks to educate elected officials on hunting and outdoors activities enjoyed by many wildlife enthusiasts.
A spokesman from the ODW predicted 15 to 20 bears per year will be the average number covered by the new seasonal guidelines. He also said there would be a 1-800 number set up for hunters to call and report their kill so as to not go above that limit.
HB 3077 passed out of the House Sub-Committee on Wildlife on Monday with a unanimous vote.
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Lawmakers Work to Solve Rural Mail Problems

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: State Rep. Joe Dorman
Capitol: (405) 557-7305

Lawmakers Work to Solve Rural Mail Problems

OKLAHOMA CITY (February 8, 2008) – State Rep. Joe Dorman (D-Rush Springs) and U.S. Rep. Dan Boren (D-Muskogee) are working with federal postal authorities to solve problems with rural delivery service.
"Unfortunately, I have constituents who aren’t receiving their mail due to glitches in implementing the E911 system," Dorman said. "It’s creating real hardship."
E911 (also known as enhanced 911) is a North American telephone network feature of the 911 emergency-calling system that automatically associates a physical address with the calling party's telephone number as required by the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act of 1999.
As part of the new process, old rural route addresses were eliminated and specific location addresses were implemented.
But the Post Office cannot deliver mail to the new addresses until they receive a notice of change of address. However, some county governments administering E911 have not been updating addresses as quickly as necessary, creating delivery problems.
Joining forces with Dorman, U.S. Congressman Dan Boren also raised concern with U.S. Postal Service officials in Oklahoma and Washington, D.C. about the E911 delivery issues affecting Oklahomans.
"If the citizens of Oklahoma are not receiving their mail in an orderly fashion due to mail delivery inefficiencies stemming from the E911 system, then I believe we've got some work to do," Boren said. "In recent days, I've discussed possible solutions with postal officials, some of which include improving coordination between the local levels of government and the U.S. Postal Service. I'm confident we can work with the U.S. Postal Service in Oklahoma to find a solution to this problem."
Dorman became aware of the problem after a constituent missed a doctor appointment because her x-rays didn’t get mailed to her prior to a cancer treatment.
Dorman has also seen problems stemming from constraints on local post offices requiring mail be sent to a post office box instead of a physical address due to the size of a community.
"When a person sends mail to your home address, common sense should dictate you will receive that letter," said Dorman. "The postal service needs to find a way to let local postmasters deliver this mail to towns with population of less than 1,500.
"I appreciate Congressman Boren assisting me and the citizens of our state by contacting postal officials to work through these issues," said Dorman.
Boren and Dorman were both elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 2002 and have since worked together on issues.
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Violating the Constitution

One of the rites of passage for legislators is a vote that occurs near the end of each legislative year on what is known as the "spill-over" bill. This is a massive spending bill that is used as a way to dole out extra taxpayer dollars in order to placate those who did not get everything they wanted in the yearly budget. Last year's spill-over bill featured a massive one-time spending of $135 million of your money on everything from an unnamed private foundation to an aerospace industries training program in Oklahoma City.

The first problem with this bill is that it is an unconstitutional practice known as "logrolling." Logrolling is the process in which a spending bill contains a number of appropriations all rolled into one. This bill is presented to the legislature in a form that cannot be amended from the floor, thus forcing legislators to vote up or down on the bill without giving them the chance to vote for or against how the money is specifically spent.

This massive one-time spending also provides cover to future legislatures to increase recurring spending while telling the people that they are cutting the amount of spending in government. For instance, if your personal spending budget was $800 per month and you received a $200 bonus from your job, and you spent all $1000 in one month, would it be fiscally prudent to spend $990 the next month and then assert you had cut your personal budget by $10?

Twice prior to the legislature's consideration of this bill, the Oklahoma Supreme Court had ruled this type of logrolling as being unconstitutional. Just a few days ago, the Supreme Court has again said that the legislature violated the Oklahoma Constitution by once again approving a spill-over spending bill.

I must admit to being shocked by this refusal to follow the law. The Constitution could not be more clear. But it looks like the legislature has continued to be engaged in it for years even though the Court has now said three times that this type of spending is unconstitutional.

I believe this proves the folly of big government. Because the legislators control billions of dollars, they are under tremendous pressure to give that money to certain special interests. Those who have the courage to vote "No," risk being seen as uncaring and opposing progress.

I feel it is important to downsize the size of government. By taking away the politicians' ability to spend billions of our taxpayer dollars, we will take an important first step in stopping these types of abuses.

Jason Murphey
District 31

With Your Help, and God's

By Senator Jay Paul Gumm, D-Durant

Hello again, everybody! The 2008 session of the Oklahoma Legislature has begun.

My colleagues and I made our way to the Capitol – as required by the Constitution – to begin doing the people’s business for the year. This, of course, is the first session of the Legislature in Oklahoma’s second century. As such, the responsibility falls to us to begin shaping Oklahoma’s next 100 years.

The first order of business was Governor Henry’s “State of the State” address. This is the governor’s sixth “State of the State,” and it was a very positive speech. One of the things I have always admired about this governor is that he believes in our state and is always positive about the possibilities the future will bring; that has not always been the case with governors.

I have never understood those who seek public office only to use their position as a platform to run down our state, and by extension its people. Oklahoma is not perfect; no institution created by mere mortals is. The reason, however, we have annual sessions is to create a “more perfect” society – to constantly improve.

Much of our nation’s symbolism comes from the fact that this great experiment in democracy will never be complete. The opening of this session of the Legislature marks another new beginning in our quest to become a more perfect state.

The governor hit on many important issues that will improve Oklahomans’ lives. Health care, education, public safety, and keeping our economy strong were all issues mentioned by the governor. Those are priorities I share.

The legislation I have announced over the past few months fit in each of the governor’s subject matters. We must dream big as Oklahomans to create the future our children deserve.

In health care, I will continue to push for creation of a public umbilical cord blood bank to fight diseases that steal life and destroy hope. I will work to ensure that those families living in the shadow of autism can depend on their health insurance for the help they expect and deserve.

In education, I will continue our struggle to empower parents and pay teachers better. To boost our economy, I will continue my fight to remove the sales tax on groceries and resist those tax cuts that do not help families who need it most.

In public safety, I will work to ensure that our prisons have the resources they need to keep behind bars those who would prey on our families.

Those are our biggest challenges this year, and others may present themselves as the four-month session wears on. We can create a better state, a more perfect state. With your help, and God’s, I have great confidence in our future and the opportunities that lie ahead.

Open Door Policy - Feb. 4, 2008

On Monday, we saw the beginning of the second session of the 51st Oklahoma Legislature convene. It was a time of hope and optimism as Governor Brad Henry delivered the State of the State and called for his agenda to be implemented over the coming months by the House and Senate. Many of his programs were greeted with enthusiasm, while others were not as well received. I can already tell it is going to be a busy session with quite a bit of debate.
Of more importance to the internal workings of the House of Representatives, we elected our new Speaker to finish out this term. Rep. Chris Benge of Tulsa was voted in on a unanimous vote of the membership of the House. I've worked with Chris for many years and feel he will do a good job of cleaning up the problems we've seen with ethics over the past few months. Chris has been fair to the members as the Appropriations and Budget Chair and I feel he will be willing to work with all members despite their party affiliation. I wish him well and look forward to working with Speaker Chris Benge.
This first week of session will begin the four month period where I will be working with the potential new laws for our state. While I will be kept in session Monday through Thursday, please let me know about any events that you would like me to attend. I will do my best to make it to those during the week and will certainly make every attempt while I am home on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The past two weeks were very busy around the district with many events going on in which I was included. We had the Apache Chamber Banquet with Lieutenant Governor Jari Askins, the Southwest District 4-H Conference (where I was able to teach parliamentary procedure), Grand Citizens Day in Elgin, county basketball tournaments (congratulations to my teams that won), the Chickasha fire department bean supper and several pre-session committees. I also had the chance to meet with members of the Cyril Town Council in regards to an economic development project, Chickasha City officials and ODOT to discuss future road programs and also citizens from Elgin in regards to industrial access programs which are in the works. I expect many other great things to happen as we have projects close to being revealed by some of the communities.
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 home number for work is 1-580-476-2626. 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 www.joedorman.com on the Internet. Thank you for taking time to read this column and I look forward to seeing you soon.

Changing Leadership

This week the House of Representatives took action to elect a new Speaker of the House. While I look forward to working with new House Speaker Chris Benge, I think it is important to acknowledge the accomplishments of former House Speaker Lance Cargill.

When I sought your vote for State Representative, I did so for very specific reasons: I wanted to shrink the size of state government and the high level of taxes we are forced to pay to support it. As I visited with the people, they told me of their belief that there is much waste in government. They also helped me realize how important it is for strong leaders to attack that waste. In advocating for change, I wanted to reduce the salaries of Oklahoma legislators (the third-highest paid part-time legislators in the nation), adhere to a policy of refusing all personal gifts and political contributions from lobbyists, oppose pork earmarks, and advocate for legislation that turns up the heat on legislators who accept lobbyists' gifts.

Some have said that taking such controversial stands would make it difficult to work with the leadership of the House. Cargill saw to it that this was not the case. He honored my desire to work for change and asked me to join his study to modernize state government. This study has demonstrated that Oklahoma has 515 agencies, boards and commissions (ABCs), which is almost 2½ times the size of comparable states. The study also documented that up to 70 million of your taxpayer dollars could be saved in just one state agency! Imagine how much waste actually exists in state government when modernizing just one agency could result in such savings? Following Cargill's efforts, there are now a number of legislative efforts to incorporate the ideas of government modernization.

Cargill also expressed support for two other upcoming legislative initiatives that are important to restoring control of the government to the people. These include letting the people see what is going on in state government by allowing government proceedings to be televised, and shining the light of day on taxpayer-funded lobbyists (those who take our taxpayer dollars and use them to lobby for more taxpayer dollars).

Cargill also demonstrated that as part of reforming government, it is important to include the people. As part of this effort, he took the time to visit Guthrie to accept suggestions from Logan County residents as part of his 100 Ideas campaign. Last week he released the 100 Ideas book. Some of these courageous ideas include eliminating the abstract cost of real estate (a very important reform), expanding term limits to include all statewide officials, and modernizing county government to make it more efficient by making it more like city government. The 100 Ideas book provides a fantastic starting point for those fighting for reform.

There is no doubt in my mind that Cargill will continue to be an energetic force for the reform of government, despite his resignation as Speaker of the House.

It is my hope and belief that Speaker Benge will continue Cargill's work to reform Oklahoma government.