Representative Jeannie McDaniel
Legislative Activity
UNDER THE DOME
Weekly Wrap #15
May 11-15, 2015
This was a very quiet week. Leadership in the Senate and the House could not agree on a final budget
so we spent our days “waiting” for a call of Appropriations to get the process towards sine die started.
The standoff on the budget resulted in stopping most CCR work and pretty much shut down the
legislative process. No committee meetings. Below is the work on the House floor for the entire week:
5/11
SA HB1902 Johnson: Motor vehicles; providing civic immunity for removing a child from motor
vehicle using force passed: 92/1 - 6 excused
SA HB 2166 McCullough -OCCY Passed 88/6 – 5 excused
HB 1150 Grau – Mental health; removing private treatment facility from certain zoning prohibition;
Passed 60/22 - 17 excused.
5/12 Nothing considered.
5/13
House Resolution 1022–
A Resolution memorializing President Obama and Congress to reaffirm our nation's commitments to
promoting and protecting religious freedom throughout the world and to condemn the killing of
increasing number of Christians who are killed around the world; and directing distribution Passed 74/0
- 24 excused
CCR HB 1442 Caldwell – School elections; certain vacancies on the board of education by selection:
Passed 67/24 - 8 excused
5/14
CCR HB1687 Denney, Adult education; changes language from GED to high school equivalency
diploma: passed 67/0 - 31 excused
5/15
CCR HB 2236 Sears Revenue and taxation; Voluntary Compliance Passed 94/
House Resolution 1031 Fisher
A Resolution urging the Oklahoma Congressional Delegation to resist passage and implementation of
the Trans-Pacific Partnership; and directing distribution. Passed 39/29 - 31 excused
Sometimes it helps to put issues into perspective by reading news accounts. I’ve included a few below
from papers last week that are interesting and detailed in explaining how we got to this point:
Indian Cultural Center, OK POP Museum –downtown Tulsa, Hospital challenges (note – no final votes)
and 2 bills that will make a difference. (Tobacco and children left unattended in vehicles.)
Oklahoman: Indian Cultural Center measure clears Oklahoma Senate panel
By Randy Ellis, 4A, Friday, May 15, 2015
A plan to issue $25 million in bonds to help complete the long-stalled American Indian Cultural Center
and Museum in Oklahoma City cleared a state Senate committee Thursday despite opposition.
House Bill 2237 must be approved by the full House and Senate before it can go to the governor. No
amendments will be allowed on the House or Senate floors. The bill passed the Senate Joint Committee
on Appropriations and Budget by a 26-16 vote after debate during which many senators criticized the
project. One of the oddest speeches came from Sen. Brian Crain, R-Tulsa, who went into great detail
about why he despised the project before saying he would vote for it. Crain said every financial
projection he has seen for the center “showed that it would be an expansion of government, a cost to
government and at the end of the day would be a money loser that would have to be funded in order to
keep it solvent. ... This is a terrible idea.” In the end, however, Crain said he was persuaded to vote for
the bill because it would allow the center to be completed and end state funding responsibilities for
about the same annual cost that the state is now paying to maintain the shell of an empty building and
service debt on previous bond issues. It also would transfer operational responsibilities to Oklahoma
City.
The state is paying about $1.9 million a year to maintain the partially completed project, plus $5
million a year in debt service. Even if the Legislature and governor approve the bill, Oklahoma City
officials still would have to approve the agreement for the project to come to fruition. Under the
complex proposed agreement, the city would be given 143 acres surrounding the center and revenues
from commercial leases on that land would help pay for museum operations. If the city receives more
than $7 million a year from those leases and museum operations, half of the extra money would go
back to the state to help pay off the new bond debt.
Language in the bill would prohibit an Indian gaming casino from being built on the land that would be
transferred to the city, senators were told. Net tax-supported debt in Oklahoma is about $1.87 billion,
which is about 1 percent of the state’s $182.1 billion gross domestic product. The per capital state debt
burden in Oklahoma is among the 10 lowest in the country, according to data obtained from the state
bond adviser’s office
Tulsa World: OKPOP, American Indian Cultural Center funding advance
By Randy Krehbiel, Friday, May 15, 2015
Despite lingering skepticism about why the state of Oklahoma should, as one lawmaker put it, “be in
the museum business,” legislation advanced to provide state financing for the proposed Oklahoma
Museum of Popular Culture in Tulsa and the long-delayed American Indian Cultural Center in
Oklahoma City. The House Appropriations Committee agreed to Senate Bill 839, by President Pro Tem
Brian Bingman, R-Sapulpa, 16-8, Thursday while the Senate Appropriations and Budget Committee —
composed of all 48 Senate members — passed House Bill 2237, by Speaker Jeff Hickman, R-Fairview.
SB 839 authorizes a $25 million bond issue for OKPOP, with the private donors picking up the $1.5
million a year payments until 2017, when the Oklahoma Historical Society pays off existing debt and
assumes responsibility for the project. OHS Director Bob Blackburn said he expects OKPOP to be
operationally self-supporting from admission fees and proceeds from a parking garage that will be part
of the $40-million project. The remaining $15 million would come from sources other than the state.
Among those sources is the Bank of Oklahoma, which has pledged the land for the museum at Archer
and Boston Avenue.
HB 2237 details a rather complicated procedure for finishing and transferring to the city of Oklahoma
City the American Indian Cultural Center and more than 140 acres of land surrounding it. The
unfinished center, which is not affiliated with the Oklahoma Historical Society, has been mothballed
since 2012. The center was initially authorized in 1994.
HB 2237 also provides $25 million in state bond financing, which would be added to more than $50
million in existing debt on the project. The funding is contingent on an agreement with Oklahoma City
to take possession of the center once it is completed.
Sen. Patrick Anderson, R-Enid, said the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum was essentially
an illegal gift from the state to the city of Oklahoma City. He said the bill illegally contained several
subjects and would draw a lawsuit. Sen. David Holt, R-Oklahoma City, disagreed that it was essentially
a gift to the city from the state. Bingman said the city of Oklahoma City would have to agree to the
terms of the legislation before the bonds could be sold.
“When I look at this project, I do see an end here,” Bingman said.
Sen. Ron Sharp, R-Shawnee, said it was a vote he would rather not take, but the state has an
uncompleted facility waiting for action. “This is a viable solution,” Sharp said. Blackburn said
Thursday he hopes to open OKPOP on Statehood Day — Nov. 16 — 2018. “This will attract more
people than the (Oklahoma) History Center,” Blackburn said, referring to the OHS’ flagship museum in
Oklahoma City. “In my 36 years as an historian, I’ve never seen an opportunity like this.”
State Rep. Paul Wesselhoft, R-Oklahoma City, said he was “mystified” by Blackburn’s claim, and
others wanted to know why the state would want to open a new museum when it is trying to reduce the
size of government. Blackburn said the state is likely to lose many important artifacts of its history and
culture unless it has someplace like the OKPOP to exhibit them.
Minority Leader Scott Inman, D-Del City, said museums are a valid function of government, and cited
the Smithsonian Institution as an example. “If anyone is going to tell the story of our history and
culture, it ought to be us,” said Inman. “If we don’t do it, who else would?”
Oklahoman editorial: No one remedy to address myriad hospital challenges
10A, Friday, May 15, 2015
Passage of the Affordable Care Act, combined with other longstanding trends, has left many hospitals
on precarious financial footing. Some will almost certainly close, including in Oklahoma. The good
news is this doesn’t necessarily mean worse overall health outcomes for people in surrounding
communities, according to researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health.
The Harvard study, which examined 195 hospital closures between 2003 and 2011, reviewed health
experiences in the year before and the year after a hospital closed its doors. Researchers found death
rates for those on Medicare were no different in areas where hospitals closed than in areas where
hospital access was unchanged. This was true for those who were hospitalized and for the broader
populace.
That’s welcome news, although it doesn’t mean people are not inconvenienced by hospital closures.
The percentage of Medicare patients leaving an area for inpatient hospital care increased from 43
percent before a hospital closed to 54 percent afterward. That 43 percent were leaving an area prior to a
hospital’s closure, however, illustrates one reason many small hospitals struggle. Local patients often
voluntarily choose to go to a larger hospital elsewhere for a major procedure, or they cannot get treated
locally. For example, some small hospitals don’t provide chemotherapy.And there are clearly still
individual cases where lack of immediate access to a hospital can have serious, life threatening
consequences.
The Harvard study is of note because a recent Associated Press analysis concluded up to one in five
rural Oklahoma hospitals could close in the next few years. That’s of concern to communities where
those hospitals are major employers. It’s only a small consolation that those hospital closures may not
dramatically change health outcomes. In Oklahoma, some hospital executives argue expanding
Medicaid would prevent many closures. But the AP reports that 30 percent of rural hospitals that have
closed in recent years have been in states that expanded Medicaid, unlike Oklahoma. So Medicaid
expansion clearly isn’t a cure-all for struggling hospitals. The state taxpayer cost of Medicaid
expansion in Oklahoma is also substantial and cannot be ignored.
Furthermore, the Tulsa World reported recently that “some experts are hesitant to draw a cause-andeffect correlation” between closures and lack of Medicaid expansion. This hesitancy is understandable.
Keith Mueller, director of the Center for Rural Health Analysis at the University of Iowa, told the AP
that poor management decisions often play a role in hospital closures. Medicaid expansion might paper
over those problems, but only temporarily. In addition, rural hospitals often struggle because they
already have too many Medicare and Medicaid patients. Private insurance typically pays better than
those government programs, so hospitals that have more privately insured patients tend to be more
financially stable.
In the end, many hospitals must change their business practices and adapt to current realities. As Brock
Slabach, senior vice president of the National Rural Health Association, told the AP, many rural
hospitals will have to redefine themselves. This may involve things like converting to an outpatient
surgical center, or primarily offering post-hospital services. The need for health care services is
unchanged. But the way those services are provided, where and by whom, is in an ongoing state of
market flux that won’t be eliminated by any single policy decision.
Tulsa World editorial: New law bans tobacco use in all Oklahoma schools
Friday, May 15, 2015
The Legislature and Gov. Mary Fallin got it right when they created the new 24/7 Tobacco-Free
Schools Act. Fallin signed the bill into law last week. It bans the use of tobacco products on school
property throughout the state. That includes any building housing pre-K through high school classes,
including private schools. Off-campus school activities and sanctioned events and activities also are
covered. The ban applies to cigarettes, cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco and a broad range of other
tobacco products, and the law allows school districts to create more restrictive anti-tobacco measures.
Some 83 percent of Oklahoma schools already have banned tobacco. The new law extends that
protection to cover all Oklahoma schools. According to Fallin, 7,500 Oklahomans die each year from
smoking, and tobacco use costs the state more than $3.7 billion a year in medical expenses and lost
productivity. Cigarette use among teens has declined in recent years, but it is still too prevalent.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports that if smoking continues at the current rate among youth
in this country, 5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 will die prematurely from a smokingrelated illness. That’s about 1 of every 13 Americans age 17 or younger alive today. The state can’t stop
children from taking up the nasty habits of smoking or chewing tobacco, but it can make it more
difficult, and at the same time shield children from the dangers of second-hand smoke. We applaud the
governor and the Legislature for approving a reasonable act to protect school children.
Legislature Approves ‘Good Samaritan’ Measure;
HB 1902 Sent to Governor for Her Signature
OKLAHOMA CITY – Anyone breaking into a locked vehicle to rescue a child could not be sued, if a
measure approved by both houses of the Legislature is signed into law.
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House Bill 1902 passed unopposed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
However, the Senate made one alteration: changing the date on which the measure would go
into effect, from Nov. 1 to immediately if the governor signs it. The House concurred in that
amendment Monday, passed the revised measure, 92-1, and sent the bill to the governor for her
consideration.
HB 1902 would immunize from civil liability anyone who breaks out a window in a locked
motor vehicle to save the life of an endangered child.
HB 1902 decrees that if someone breaks into a motor vehicle “for the purpose of removing a
child” deemed to be in danger, that person would be immune from civil liability for any damage
incurred to the car, truck or van.
The body temperatures of children can increase three to five times faster than adults, medical
officials say.
Under HB 1902, a ‘Good Samaritan’ would be protected from liability if he/she:
• found the vehicle locked “or there is otherwise no reasonable method for the child to
exit” the vehicle;
• has “a good-faith belief” that forcible entry “is necessary because the child is in
imminent danger of suffering harm if not immediately removed” from the vehicle, and,
“based upon the circumstances … the belief is a reasonable one”;
• contacts the local law-enforcement agency, the fire department or the 911 emergency
telephone service prior to breaking into the vehicle;
• leaves a notice on the vehicle’s windshield “with the person’s contact information, the
reason entry was made, the location of the child,” and word that authorities have been
notified;
• remains with the child “in a safe location, out of the elements but reasonably close to the
motor vehicle,” until the police or sheriff’s department, fire department or some other
emergency responder arrives;
• exercised “no more force … than necessary under the circumstances” to enter the
vehicle and remove the child.
HB 1902 would complement Oklahoma’s ‘Good Samaritan’ law that protects citizens from
being sued if they provide emergency medical care to someone who’s sick or injured.
In addition, Oklahoma legislators passed the “Forget Me Not Vehicle Safety Act” in 2008. That
law makes it a misdemeanor crime to a leave a child under 6 or a vulnerable adult unattended in
a motor vehicle with inadequate ventilation or under extreme weather conditions. The penalty
for a first offense is $50.
Last year, at least 30 heat stroke deaths of children left in cars were reported nationally; one of
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those incidents occurred in Ardmore. The year before the number of children nationally who
died from heat stroke suffered in a vehicle was 44.
An average of 38 heat stroke fatalities of children have been recorded in the U.S. every year
since 1998, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. More than half of
those deaths occurred because a caregiver forgot the child in the vehicle, and roughly 30% of
the deaths occurred because a child who got in a vehicle without the driver’s knowledge
subsequently couldn’t get out, the NHTSA reports.
Please continue to contact our office with your comments, questions or other business. I value your
insight and please know your help is greatly appreciated. Contact us at [email protected]
or (800) 522-8502 and ask for my office.