Published: June 23, 2008 04:25 pm      

Legislators wrap-up 2008 state session

Ada — State Senator Susan Paddack and State Representatives Paul Roan and Todd Thomsen discussed the year’s legislative wrap-up during Friday’s legislative breakfast hosted by the Ada Chamber of Commerce.

Paddack was the first to address those assembled. “It’s really nice to kind of have all of the battles behind you,” she said, referring to the legislative session being closed. “And then getting geared up and ready for next year.”

A $7 billion stand-still budget was passed, Paddack said. “At the beginning of the year, we were very concerned,” she said. “Rumor was that there may have to be cuts. As it turns out, we were able to pull together all of the numbers and all the dollars, and give you the contents of that stand-still budget.”

Paddack also said a $475 million bond package had been approved at the last-minute, $300 million of which would be used for roads and bridges. A press release from the State of Oklahoma said, “The agreement includes money for roads, higher education endowed chairs, a low-water dam project on the Arkansas River in Tulsa, flood control dams in rural Oklahoma, and the Native American Cultural Center in Oklahoma City.”

Paddack had several bills passed during the legislative session. “I had all of these (bills) sprout up,” she said in regard to her bills that were authored in previous sessions and which had seen new light in the most recent session. “I guess the seeds were over there planted, and then they grew up this year into real bills.” Two of the bills passed dealt with water; SB1410 allowed the creation of pilot projects relating to recharging water aquifers, and the second dealt with marginal water uses, especially in regard to industrial use. Other bills passed by Paddack included a comprehensive recycling bill that sets a state-wide goal of recycling 10 percent of the solid waste, the “Forget Me Not” bill which set up severe penalties for parents leaving their young children unattended in vehicles, and a mental health bill that authorizes the creation of a mental health first aid pilot program.

Paddack said she had also managed to halt a last-minute budget cut for the CLEET facility’s budget. In discussing the issue with the bill's author, Paddack had strong words in regards to her role within her district: “I told him ‘I just need you to know, when it comes to CLEET or anything else in my district, you need to think of me as the Mamma Bear. Ain’t nobody gonna hurt anything around here.’ And he got the message pretty quick.” Paddack said she was successful in protecting CLEET from the $300,000 budget cut.

State Representative Roan spoke after Paddack concluded, describing some of the bills that he’d gotten passed. The first was HB2693, which awards death benefits for beneficiaries of emergency medical technicians. Another was HB2695, which authorized the Commissioner of Public Safety to own, train, and use canines for certain purposes, and provided for registration of medium-speed electric vehicles. HB2691 dealt with honoring American veterans by naming roads, bridges, and ferries across the state in their honor.

Roan had several concerns in regards to the budget passed during the legislative session, saying that funds needed to support corrections and education programs within the state that didn’t make it into the budget will cause problems down the line.

The District 20 Representative also spoke against the $475 million bond issue that had been passed. “We passed a $475 million bond issue, and I won’t stand up here and say I didn’t vote for it,” said Roan.

“I did vote for it, because it included stuff that needed to be done. But I want to bring this back to (legislative sessions in) ‘06 and ‘07. We cut taxes by $700 million dollars. Had we not done that, we would not have gone into debt $475 million. We could have fixed those problems and had some money left over too, to fix some of those problems in education and corrections and those other areas.”

Roan concluded on a positive note, stating adjustments had been made, halting some retired state employees in drawing retirement checks that were bigger than their actual salaries.

Rep Thomsen spoke after Roan. After complimenting both Paddack and Roan, Thomsen commented on the bipartisan work during the session that he felt had achieved much for the year. Thomsen also had kinder words in regards to the late-passing bond. “I don’t think it can be overstated just how important that was,” he said.

“Essentially what we did is we said that as the rising costs of roads and bridges infrastructure increases everyday, we’re gonna pay at some point. These aren’t things that can’t be paid for or that we can just put off until later.

“So we need to pay, let’s go ahead and invest that money now and help ODOT (Oklahoma Department of Transportation) build their eight-year plan, which I think is something very good, which we’ll all benefit from and all be proud of.”

Thomsen also said he believed that the Native American Cultural Center, which will be funded for by part of the bond, will be a boon to the state, and will help to turn Oklahoma City into a “vacation destination.”

Oklahoma District 25’s representative also said that he’d helped to pass pro-life legislation. “To me, investment in the family is important,” Thomsen said. He said pro-life legislation was passed and the governor’s veto was over-ridden thanks to a bipartisan effort in the Legislature.

State Rep. Wes Hillard was also scheduled to appear but was unable to attend. Also in attendance were Ron Massey, a field representative for Senator James Inhofe; Amber Pollard, a field representative for Tom Cole; and Josh Brecheen, a field representative for Tom Coburn.

New CLEET director Dr. Larry Birney was on-hand for the morning meeting at J.D.’s Cafe, and was warmly welcomed to the gathering.