Sen. District 8’s Press Releases

OKLAHOMA CITY –Senate Appropriations Chair Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, gave an update on Wednesday about key areas of the budget as negotiations between the Senate and House continue for Fiscal Year 2022.  Thompson touched on some of the items under discussion and his priorities for the budget.

EDUCATION FUNDING

For years, we’ve worked to expand and grow Oklahoma’s economy.  We’re still very much an oil and gas state and we will continue to be.

I received an email this past week from a 73-year-old grandmother and constituent who was unable to get a driver license in Tulsa.  She wrote she was going to travel to Muskogee and be there at 5:30 a.m. to stand in line so she could get through the door at 8:00 and hopefully get her license.  I’d like to say that’s an isolated case, but it’s not.  Right now, I’d say the number one issue people are asking me about is the problems they’ve experienced or have heard about related to getting a driver license.

OKLAHOMA CITY – The full Senate on Tuesday evening voted in favor of a measure to reinstate the full sales tax exemption on motor vehicles and trailers.  In 2017, faced with declining revenues due to downturns in the energy industry, the Legislature voted to remove 1.25 percent of that exemption. 

OKLAHOMA CITY – Senate Appropriations Chair Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, issued the following statement after the Oklahoma State Board of Equalization (BOE) met on Tuesday to certify revenues available for appropriation for the Fiscal Year 2022 budget. The amount initially certified by the board in December was $8.46 billion.  The amount certified Tuesday was $9.64 billion. 

Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, has been appointed to serve on the Joint Legislative Task Force on the Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA). Thompson was named to the panel by Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City.

In the weeks leading up to the legislative session, the spotlight is on budget hearings, so this week, I’d like to focus on the appropriations process, including the work of the appropriations subcommittees.

I have said many times, the most important job we as legislators have is to write and pass a balanced budget because ultimately the outcome of that work impacts every single person in our state.  Because those tax dollars come from the public and in turn provide core s

Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, issued the following statement on Thursday after demonstrations supporting President Trump at the U.S. Capitol turned violent on Wednesday.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Senate Appropriations Chair Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, said the entire state should be proud after Amanda English, a former police chief who is now an educator at Metro Tech in Oklahoma City, was named National Teacher of the Year for 2021 by the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE).