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State Senate and House Updates |
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Monday, 06 April 2009 |
By KATIE MARTIRE
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Seaboard sponsored this month's Eggs and Issues meeting, letting our state's representatives update the community on what is going on at the Capitol, address issues of interest and answer any questions the public might have about these topics.
Senator Bryce Marlatt and House Rep., and President Pro Tempore, Gus Blackwell were present to give updates and answer questions.
"I was in on a few things that have been going on in the last weeks," said Marlatt. "There are a couple of bills, one in particular, it is Senate Bill 834. Senate Bill 834 is basically a bill that allows our local school districts to have control of what is going on in their own school district. It puts the power back into the hands of the people in the community, it puts the power back into the hands of the school boards and teachers and get the legislature out of the equation as much as possible. Last year, one of the number one issues I heard was stop mandating things on our school district, stop telling us what we have to do all of the time, allow us to make decisions that affect our districts, and that is exactly what Senate Bill 834 does. I want to be very clear, there is a gross misrepresentation about this bill, the OEA has put out false statements about what the bill does. They say that it is going to reduce teacher's pay, that is not true. We have an amendment in there that makes sure that mandate is in place, that minimum salary requirements are held true, a superintendent is not allowed to just walk in and fire a teacher. There must be a hearing before the school board, there is some due process. As a matter of fact, there is a Supreme Court Case that sited due process be allowed for teachers. I encourage everybody, as you hear about this bill, call and ask questions if you have any about this, instead of just believing a certain organization who claims they are working for the kids. With this bill, we are trying to do what is best for the local school districts and trying to allow the folks in Guymon, Hooker and Boise City to make decisions on how they see fit. I have received a lot of phone calls on this particular subject."
"Our budget has been a huge issue, we are looking at over a million dollar short-fall in the budget, so we are going to have cuts everywhere," said Marlett. "Everybody is on the table as far as looking at having cuts. One of the things that is driving a lot of debate up there is the stimulus package that President Obama signed into law. I'm not a big fan of printing money and sending it to state agencies that don't allow it, but that is what has happened. One of the things that we are doing on the Senate side, we are trying to work through the process and find out exactly what the rules that are going to come down with theses dollars are. There is a lot of financial questions on the stimulus package, one of the main concerns that I have is, they are basically sending a check and wanting the bureaucrats to have an open checkbook to do what they see fit with. There are a lot of questions that come along with something like that. A, I don't want somebody who doesn't answer to the public with an open checkbook and B, we don't know what all of the rules are, we go start spending all of these dollars and find out they weren't spent in the way that they wanted us too and we'd have to pay it back. We have got to make sure we are doing things the way they have to be done and make sure we work through this budget process, that we take the stimulus dollars out and get where we need to get as if those dollars were never going to be here and then use those dollars as a boost."
"As far as transportation, we're awarding more bids than we have ever had in the state of Oklahoma, the economy has slowed down, we are looking at a possible $600 million dollar, possibly, investment in transportation next year," said Marlett. "With that in mind, they are making huge strides, we have more people bidding on jobs in the Panhandle, people are willing to travel, they are looking for as much work as possible. We used to have one or two bids, where now we can have anywhere from seven or eight contractors involved. The more competition, the more the price will be driven down. Over the past five years, construction projects for transportation have increased about 75 percent, so we've seen a dramatic increase in the costs of tools and labor."
See the around town section in the Guymon Daily Herald to see when and where the next monthly "Eggs and Issues" will be held. If you have questions to ask your local representatives, come and enjoy breakfast and get caught up on what is going on in our state.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 09 April 2009 )
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