The second week of the 2023 legislative session carried with it the identical momentum seen in week one. Once once more, state lawmakers had been exhausting at work as they continued committee conferences and listening to payments.
Highlighting the week was an education funding package deal authored by House Speaker Charles McCall. House Bills 2775 and 1935 would work collectively to extend public faculty funding by $500 million and would allocate a further $300 million in potential tax credit for youngsters in personal or residence faculties.
If handed, the $500 million for public faculties could be damaged down into three sectors. The first is a $150 million enhance to the present faculty funding formulation to supply a $2,500 pay increase for Oklahoma lecturers. The second would grant $50 million to the Redbud Fund, which assists low-income faculty districts across the state.
The third sector would put aside $300 million to extend every faculty’s per-pupil funding quantity, as much as $2 million per faculty district. The $2 million cap permits a majority of the funding to go to Oklahoma’s smaller, rural faculties.
The further $300 million for college students in personal and residential faculties is a part of the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit Act and would probably give households a $5,000 tax credit score per scholar attending personal faculty and a $2,500 credit score per scholar collaborating in a homeschool program.
Oklahoma Farm Bureau strongly helps this education package deal because it was designed to help rural faculty districts and supply a compromise within the ongoing faculty voucher debate. Both payments handed the Appropriations and Budget Committee and transfer to the House ground for consideration.
In addition to the education package deal, OKFB adopted the progress of quite a lot of different payments this week, together with SB 689 by Sens. Jessica Garvin and Jack Stewart which might enable counties to create nuisance ordinances for odors emitted from meat processing services and marijuana rising operations. SB 689 was laid over within the Senate Business and Commerce Committee and was not heard this week.
The House Ag Committee heard HB 1008 by Rep. Rick West this week. The invoice, often called the Right to Garden, would void native ordinances or rules on vegetable gardens on residential properties. HB 1008 handed in committee with a vote of 11-2.
The House Ag Committee additionally voted unanimously to cross HB 2053 by Rep. David Hardin which might shield agriculture water customers from frivolous allow protests. Both HB 1008 and HB 2053 now transfer to be thought-about by the complete House.
OKFB was happy to see laws advance this week proposing further funding for the Oklahoma State University Veterinary Medicine program – a high precedence for OKFB in 2023. Farm Bureau members hope the extra funding for the OSU vet faculty will assist handle the present scarcity of large-animal veterinarians within the state.
As with practically each legislative session, OKFB is retaining a detailed eye on a number of county zoning payments and laws proposed to extend advert valorem taxes. Notable county zoning payments are nonetheless awaiting a committee listening to, and the first advert valorem invoice was laid over this week and was not heard within the House County and Municipal Government Committee. OKFB will proceed to trace these measures and preserve an lively function within the dialog in opposition to the laws.
For an replace on weekly happenings on the Capitol and an outlook on what’s forward, you should definitely tune in to OKFB’s weekly public coverage replace every Friday at midday.
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