Statement By Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Morgan

“The Oklahoma’s Promise scholarship program is one of the most valuable assets we have as we seek to increase the number of college graduates in our state. The governor’s plan for dedicating a portion of the income tax to the program is certainly intriguing and I look forward to looking at it more closely, especially their long-term projections.

A lawmaker says every Oklahoma family should be able to bank potentially life-saving umbilical cord blood from newborns through a publicly funded cord blood bank.

State Sen. Jeff Rabon has authored legislation calling for a salary increase of $1 per hour for state-funded school support personnel.

Rabon said the increase that would be provided through SB 770 is needed to keep pace with the increasing costs of supporting a family.

“As the father of three elementary school children, I know how hard support personnel work to keep everything running smoothly in our schools,” said Rabon, D-Hugo. “This proposal is really the least we can do to ensure the compensation is fair for the hard work done by our support personnel.”

Despite ice and sleet storms the previous weekend that made it difficult for members and staff to travel to the State Capitol, the Oklahoma State Senate met its January 18 deadline for filing legislation to be considered for the 2007 session. By 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, 1,091 bills and 30 joint resolutions had been filed. In 2006, which was the second session of the 50th Legislature, the Senate considered 1,034 new bills and 608 carryover bills, along with 32 joint resolutions.

A Tulsa senator has filed legislation to crack down on the growing problem of caller ID spoofing. State Sen. James A. Williamson said ID spoofing enables perpetrators to harass others and even use the technology to commit crimes that can bilk individuals and companies out of thousands of dollars.

Thursday, January 18 is the deadline for members of the Oklahoma State Senate to file legislation for the 2007 session, the first of the 51st Legislature. By 5 p.m., 830 bills and 23 joint resolutions had been filed, with staff members expected to work into the evening filing the final measures.

In 2006, which was the second session of the 50th Legislature, the Senate considered 1,034 new Senate bills and 608 carryover bills, along with 32 Senate Joint Resolutions.

State Sen. Debbe Leftwich said Wednesday’s vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to hike the federal minimum wage was a victory for working people throughout Oklahoma and across the nation. The measure would increase the federal minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 over a two-year period.

Leftwich, co-chair of the Senate Business and Labor Committee, said the measure was long overdue, and said she planned to file similar legislation in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma’s declining gross production tax revenues should serve as sobering evidence that state lawmakers must take greater care in how they appropriate oil and gas revenue, a veteran State Senator said Thursday.

Senator Kenneth Corn, a Democrat from Poteau, said Tuesday’s state revenue report is exactly why he believes the state needs a Constitutional amendment limiting use of excess gross production tax revenue to one-time expenditures.

The role Oklahoma voters play in shaping the state’s laws and public policy is too important to leave it open to fraud—that’s according to Sen. John Ford, who has filed legislation requiring voters to show identification when they cast their ballots.

“As citizens, we all have not only the right, but a responsibility to vote. As a government, we have the responsibility to assure that only duly registered voters exercise that right to vote,” said Ford.

Oklahoma Senate Co-President Pro Tempore Glenn Coffee announced that he has named Karl Ahlgren to the position of Assistant Secretary of the Senate. The appointment is part of the power-sharing agreement negotiated between Republicans and Democrats in the evenly divided State Senate.

A 23-year veteran of Oklahoma government and politics, Ahlgren will alternate duties with the Secretary of the Senate, Michael Clingman, who was elected by the Senate on January 2. Ahlgren will handle floor management, parliamentary and clerk duties in the Senate chamber.