CHAMBER LEGISLATIVE FORUM

Yeah, we have to know.

I'm start.

All you have me. Everybody.

We plutline shares that had the hard part of comedy now as at.

The super moment.

If you guys don't go on Ryan God that I'm the president Dave Phillips shouldn't get an updated kind of where we've been.

In the last year. It shouldn't take too long.

I started seven days after the cyber attack, so in May thirteenth was my one day anniversary. So just kind of a little bit we're at. From an Amander directors standpoint.

All of our positions are filled.

The ur positions are actually filled and outside of Oklahoma. So I've got my new director since an Uncan Group Armsfield, Hanna Schultz, who bolder from Arkansas. We've got a director from Austin Waco Ascension to They are cardio bascular program. So we're looking for talent both in Oklahoma as well as outside of Oklahoma as well. So Jason Popp last time we were here of our Divinity Robot.

Through the month of April, we've completed two.

Hundred and seventy four cases, two hundred and twenty four in general surgery and the rest in gyn We're hopeful that USO is one of our new partners out we have recruited. They're in our big white medical office building. They able struct our first case in the market June. So we're looking for costa rules and the strampanies that can be done here locally.

So excited to have that. As we continue on the pathway, we had hired yobe gyn doctor Mortis McCoy. Can they number or see her? There you go in the background.

Of course, She's been a great addition to so I'm excited to have her. We also signed a doctor Barker who is moving from Wisconsin. She is board certified in car Are you a vascular and is more eligible for alleged physiology and what that means.

At some point we'll start doing a plation with hark Chops here in Barblesville. So we build on.

These programs, just to let you know that's where we're at. I know a lot of you always wondering about the PCP of date primary care.

I don't want to fear a NURTH practitioner and I'm going to see a position.

So we assigned doctor David Campbell. He starts August first. We have made an offer and accepted for an international grat Octamochi. She starts December twenty ninth.

Met with doctor We have an.

Offer oute to doctor Berlin John. She'll make a decision any day, but she'll be a September start day.

We've got medial candidates coming out a pipeline that.

Want to work here in Barblesville as we look at succession planning and.

Access to the care of the community.

Cardiology, I'm on the hunt to recruit another individual cardiologists as well as two.

More general cardiologists.

We're going to recruit a fourth obty in Here's totally to round out the team of a cor providers. Orthopedic working with Tspeed are recruiting a second provider for doctor j Doctor.

Jason in the community and he's doing really well in his first year. Also looking at E and T, pomonology and neurology.

I have a contract out towards neurologist to what we East Teamsine Fellowship trained for twenty six We're just negotiating the contract as we speak.

So and then the last and not least USO.

I mentioned earlier is a succession planning for doctor Fister. They're atually amount of twenty two and a half case in twenty three cases a month, So.

That means you no longer have to go to Tulsa to get neurological care.

They also specialize in gly in knowledge of care as well, and the last amount of lease you've been.

Working with Gside, which is Gasfer Specialists of Tulsa.

They now have a clinic.

Open here start today, full clinic staff by rich practitioner and they're still being two days of outpatient looking.

To go to a third.

So if you need Gasser groology care, we no longer have to go to Tulsa as well. We have a clinic now established Hurts So as our commune partner. Last but not least, something that I've been working on on the team from we're gonds to the job here, so hats off to Jason Jennifer.

We are sitting for our Primary Stroke.

Accreditation Jeames haeventeen and what that means is that will be a primary Stroke designated Joint Commission site that if you ever have each stroke related symptoms, we're your first job to go to make a decision on what happens with EMACS. So that means our physicians, EMS crews staff or all in alignment on what needs to be done in order to help you if you're having a stroke like symptoms. So without further adom altre sure, thank you much for.

Thank you min It's always good, good update of the hospital and to spread the world.

There are new dogs.

Coming in and they are constantly looking to recruit, so that's great new start for healthcare community. So we appreciate the hospital for all they do with our community, which you bee with the Chamber. They've been our serious sponsor this year, our form series and Relie appreciating and.

They're continuing that next year, So thank you hospital.

Just a couple of quick Chamber announce We have our leadership barsol applications.

They are open.

It is only open through the month of June, so they will close June thirtieth, So if you have anyone in an organization that would like to go through, please make you.

Really fell on an application for that.

We also have a scholarship this year as to this year's past class, if you are a nonprofit leader, there's a scholarship available for the tuition to pay for that far and nonprofits which I love that class project. So big Names is here and we'll be Radio durn apartment that So anyhow, leadership arbusul this real quick race stand up arms like this part of this is a game the stand up if you're of alumni A.

Leadership arms for the.

Es A leadership roles.

Well, this is actually class thirty five reve going through So I to my spent so home if you feel very old in the.

Set the hounds this week on Thursday, and it will get more across country club. So that would be goes win come out with that to Borida five point thirty six when everyone leave. So I've always had a great, great spread and this great way to maybe connecting the smother chamber of members. And then June twenty fourth is

Being the chamber number are.

So that is June twenty.

Fourth, and then, like I said, the summer we take a little bit of a break. We don't have any other events for the most part, and just work on the year of the planning and who the ahad of the next year.

So I'm working on that.

So I would now like to introduce some very special guests that have joined us today from the Oklahoma's State Chamber. I'd like to interduce Adam Maxi and the Government Affairs and of Oklahoma State Chamber having a special presentation. They get all them from the city with this.

So thank you, Sherry, thank you all for having me here, having me here today. It's a pleasure to be able to come up to Barbsville and see all these spaces and to get to the present award.

Today to afraid of mine and a very valuable leader of the state capital. You guys have great representation here in Barbesville with Representative Strong represented Kay and Senator Dabels.

They do a wonder job, wonderful job representing your community at the state Capitol.

Thank you know, as a Sherry said, I work for the State Chamber of Commerce and we focus on things at the Capitol and make open home.

To the best place to start, grow, and relocate your business.

That's workforce, taxes, the legal climate, a lot of different things that go into that mixture that business needs to be successful.

And in the business environment that takes for a business to be successful in Oklahoma.

And a lot of those things are flashy. You hear a lot about a lot about taxes or what we're.

Doing on the workforce, when when those things are directly underpinned by what Senator at Angels calls the back office functions of a business, and that's the legal climate, the workers compensation system, everything that underpends your ability to operate the business under in illegal climate that is fair and will apply justice equally across the board, and those are very important to business.

You heard from from the hospital just found they're.

Recruiting the physicians, and I haven't heard this from them, but I feel pretty confident in saying that the legal.

Climate, the save Oklahoma is a very important.

Factor for getting those physicians to come and to be a part of your community and serve the community to make sure everyone is healthy and can go to work and and so.

This was a very successful session.

In those for those back office functions in workers compensation, legal climate.

And here's some more of the details here during the panels. So I won't labor at that point, but just to say Senator Daniels.

Has been an amazing champion for business at the same legislator someone I've gotten to now over the last seven or eight years and her time there, and she's an honor to work with. What I really appreciated about her she keeps the main thing the main thing. And she's in a new role now that she's just finished her first session as the majority floor leader, which you won't know is a very busy and powerful position at the Capital.

It kind of wraps around the hallway.

I've told her assistant, she means, you need to just start taking a number, like you're at the knee counter, or sometimes.

It's a long line.

And she has a lot of patience and a lot of grace to deal with all the things that come across her desk. But while doing all of that and juggling all of the demands of that job. She keeps the main thing, the main thing.

It's been a champion for business and those things that don't grab the headlines that are extremely important for a business to.

Operate in the state of Oklahoma.

And so uh, with that, I would love to present Sati Daniel's that legislator to your work.

From the state journey, Julie, congratulation is very well deserved.

I know, like you said, a lot of work in that position. So we are blessed, like you said, with the d with the representation that we have at the k State Capital. Uh, we have three of the best, so we are extremely great ful. Fall ad guys, I would.

Like to stay to the second to thank Arthur resenting his mom today which is Tri County Tech and representing Tri County Tech. To introduce our moderator, who will induce her speakers is doctor Danny's ruggle she has she is dedicating now the board decades to education. Serving as both chairman and a classroom teacher and a school administrator for the past twenty five years. She has brought her talents and passions in Tri County Tech, where she is almost

She considers herself more than an educator, she is.

An educ care er who cares deeply about the success of others, both in cited outside of the school lalls.

Her Soviet leadership is rooted in the belief that.

We are responsible, responsible for giving back that God has given us. She received her education and of her education at Oklahoma State University with the Bachelor of Science the University of Central Oklahoma with the master's in Education and a doctorate.

In Education Administration and Leadership from the University of Oklahoma, so she has us all covered one the most of closet. Danny also has a ninety sixth in the s Green Belt Green Belt.

Has been a Malcolm Walbritche National Quality Senior Examiner and tim League and currently serves on the ascension of Saint John Jane Phillips Hospital for and the Bartlesvieel Chamber of Commerce.

Where she will serve as Chairman of the Board starting in July.

Looking forward to that so please help me welcome team to the stage to AIRBIS Places.

Thank you, Sherry. We are so proud to partner with the Bartlesville Chamber of Commerce to sponsor the legislative update, and thank you all for being here, Thank you for joining us. You know, I wondered in the summertime in June of how well traveled, how big people to be here, and I can see that this was a priority for you to be here today.

So thank thank you, thank you.

So much for being here.

This school year, Tri County Tech enrolled more students twenty three percent, more adult students, kept more students in school, and graduated more students than ever before.

In Trick County Tech's history.

You know, when a world filled with instant gratification and overnight success stories, we often forget the value of work, perseverance, and resilience. We are bombarded with images of clamor and wealth, leading us to believe this success comes easily.

I am here to tell you it does not.

But Tri County Tech students embrace hard work as the key to unlocking their future careers, whether the journey takes them to additional education, military service, or direct employment in the workforce. Two weeks ago, we had three hundred and

Of Representatives from nineteen.

Ninety seven to two thousand and six.

He has chaired Marbles Hill Day at the Capitol and the annual Legislative Golf Tournament for twenty one years.

Yeah, that's a long time.

He was appointed by Governor Mary Fallen to serve on.

The Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Commission, and he concluded that service in twenty twenty one. In twenty twenty four, he.

Was appointed by Senate pro Ten Gray.

Retreat to serve a five year term on the Oklahoma Ethics Mission. Please help me welcome Mike Wilt to the stage.

Glad that email about brief introduction got sent. It's my pleasure to introduce our panel today and I'll go in the order of snorty. First ball, we have Senator Julie Daniels. Julie is in her ninth year at the Stay Tech School after being reelected last year. As you've already hurt, she is the seven of joy floor later, which means she is responsible for all of the day to day four activities and.

Having the bills come out on the floor.

She represents District twenty nine, which the compass parts of White holl of Washington Nowada and some of Robers County. Now we have a representative Judd Strong. He is in his seventh year after winning re election last summer. He serves District ten, which includes about a third of the US from part of Oklahoma, Washington, Osa, and Nowada counties. He again is chairman of the Appropriations and Budget General Government Subcommittee, and he also serves on the Government Oversight Committee.

He shout out from the South, Yeah, yeah, money for that includes portions of Washington and Tulsa counties. And in his third year he is vice chairman of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee, which is a big deal and very busy.

He also serves on the House Judiciary and Public Safety Oversight Committee.

So let's welcome our delegation.

Well, normally I would start with the budget, but three thousand bills I think that three thousand and fifty two bills were filed.

At getting a session. According to the Chief Clerk of the House, five hundred and twenty.

Seven of those if you hit the Governor's desk. However, last Thursday, he guys had quite a day. Both chambers worked past midnight and voted to override forty seven of the Governor's sixty eight vo We gotn O posted the video.

Called out some Senate members, and then you.

Guys also passed the resolution handing the admissioner amount of health.

Other than that, I mean, it was a big day.

Alliterations, you can commissions, all right. Well, since i've heard the senior member Senator to day, we'll start with you on just give us kind of walk us through what last Thursday was like.

Okay, first, I'll start by saying, I have not communicated with either of these gentlemen since Thursday, so I don't know what was going on in their minds on their side of rotenda. I'm excited to learn. But I'm gonna start by saying, this is the best legislative session I have participated in the best and it is part because of teamwork from all of us, and I would say sometimes including the Democrats, and yes, most.

Of the time with our governor on our side.

And so I don't want want the hissy fit that he threw on Thursday to detract in any way from what we have accomplished. You know, we did the path to zero, We did a quarter cent percent tax cut, We eliminated the three bottom income tax brackets. Everybody's gonna have more money in their pocket no matter what you make. We're going to continue on that line. We've passed this

So.

There was an agreement on Thursday morning, I am told that he found some bills, he didn't mind if we overrode the vetos, and everybody left.

The room thinking that was cool.

There were.

Mutterings that we might.

Take issue, take action to remove the Mental Health Commissioner, and I won't speak too much to that except.

That I believe it was necessary.

And so then he did the video over the noon hour, and then I believe got on a plane and went to California, and from there he issued the statement attacking my colleague, Senator Rossino and his wife, who is a part time employee the Mental Health Department and works from home, so she's hardly part of any of the intrigue going on there. Anyway, we did what we needed to do. We overwrote a bunch of more vetos than we wanted to.

And was it necessary?

Absolutely not.

So that's my in a nutshell.

I think that was great.

I've been waiting for someone to explain Jimmy, what happened. I agree with the Senator. I think I think that was a great kind of wrap up. You know, up until the Thursday before, I think that there were a lot of agreements made that we were all just we thought we were going to come back to the Capitol and just just finish the week up and get out.

I think we were in a great place.

And then.

Hiss, he fit. It was a good word for it. Like none of us just knew what happened. And again, I think last year.

The governor let pad or nine bills go without his signature, signed four hundred and some.

Bills, and then this year almost you know, the majority of yeah, he would take part in the process, and so and again you think a lot of these bills might have been you know, I could see if they were you know, fifty three to forty or something, there might be some argument there.

But there were a lot of bills detO that with you know, eighty seven one or something.

And you know, it just it was it was a wild deal.

At one point, just to keep it short, I just throw this in on top of that. At one point, a little after midnight on the floor of the House, I sit with the floor leader there on the floor. I leaned over and I said, mister floor leader, I think we've done enough historic.

Stuff for one day. And then he looked at me like this, that was kind of towards the end. Anyway, keep it short, that's all I said. So you're saying you're responsible for us getting out of.

There when we did before us.

Thank you reversating strong. He's a powerful land, a powerful, powerful land. I think it's been summarized pretty well. I would agree with Senator Daniels.

I thought the session just went extremely well.

We've had problems I've witnessed from the outside looking in on our budget negotiations in the two years prior to this that I was there. We our budget team worked extremely well with the Senate budget team, and while we had disagreements, there was no one stopping at a meeting, no one was, you know, walking out. We sat there, we hashed it out, and by the time we got to meet later in the budget process and got to meet with the Governor's team, we had a full agreement

Together what I think.

I'm really proud of the product of our final budget.

I think it. Nobody likes it all.

Certainly I changed things, but it was it was a great budget overall, and I was proud to go for it and proud that I had a part in putting it together.

So all that we're going great now at the end of this budget negotiation in a small.

Room somewhere up there on the Senate side, and I don't.

Know them nor I can even get back there.

It's complicated, lots of stairs, I think, But anyway, so proud at the end. He looks at it, and he had pushed us hard, and we pushed.

Him hard, and I just wasn't sure if there was.

Any more bend than anybody, And I thought the governor showed great wisdom.

He looked at me and said it, I'm okay with where we are. Everybody just excided about like that.

I was staring at him, you know, and so immediately you go, he's putting it down in writing, so everybody remembers what we said, and everybody signs off on the agreement. But the last thing he said was, plus, I don't want you to override any of my vetos. Well, then everybody will looked at him real sharp, and we just stared at us, the governor, and then before we even had a.

Chance to argue, he goes, well, okay, that may be ask him too much. I said, yeah, that really is. That is asking a little too much.

But I said, uh, he said, how about if you will have an honest conversation with me about anything you decide that you would like to override.

Well, that seems very fair.

I mean, he has the he has the ability to veto, and we have the ability to override that, and so sometimes that's gonna happen.

So we agreed to that. Carry forward. We had some agreement. He even he even encouraged us.

To override some But then you all know history of what happened after that, and I think that we would have overridden without any any of his actions. We probab would have overridden fifteen to twenty middles and as it turned out, we overrode forty seven.

I was sorry and the way it ended, but I've had a good text exchange with the governor since then.

He said that he actually did apologize for his He said he he didn't say his he fit, but he said his temper.

And I hope we have another year to work with him. And my goal is to have another year like.

We had this year, and I don't want the damage done in the last twelve hours of us being down there to affect how we govern the next year.

That's my goal. So I texted him.

He said he'd called me, hadn't yet, but I'm waiting.

Month of them and hopefully it'll go because really, truly, I thought our session was good and I was proud of what we did.

Since youered the microphone and kind of mentioned the budget, it was pretty much a flat budget, stand steel budget.

But give us some of the highlights that people want to know about the budget.

Which starts to set up your life first, Sure, the budget. You know, the governor was pushing a flat budget everywhere he could, which we can talk about that later. I think that may have caused some of our problems, quite frankly in the Department of Mental Health.

But so we were pushing flat.

But we have people like Judge Strom for example, the weather budget works and there's a lot of lot of hands in play, a lot of people working on it.

It's not just the chairman of the vice chair of the Senate and the House and a few other people. We have our subcommittees. Judge is the chairman of our General.

Government subcommittee, and we asked them to go talk to their agencies under their committees and say who can handle a flat budget, who can handle the efficiency cut in their budget, and who maybe needs a little more.

I don't think.

Across the board cuts is the most intelligent way to handle a budget.

Some people sometimes need more or less and you just cross the board is kind of lazy to me.

So our subcommittee chairs went out and did a great job.

They talked to to their agencies and we could think brought us feedback, and from their feedback we determined, okay, where are we going to be starting out with this budget, and so then from there we knew we had some big capital items that we're gonna have to address. One which was the farthest thing from my mind when we went down there was this prison purchase down a lot. It's a private prison, the last active private prison in the state, and the owners of the Geo Group owned the prison.

They decided they don't want to renew their contract. They don't want to operate a private prison in Oklahoma anymore. We worked really hard.

Trying to see if we could anyway renew it. Didn't We didn't want to go make a three hundred and twelve million dollar purchase. That wasn't really high on my list.

But we worked and it became clear they just wanted out. They just wanted out.

They priced it truly as if they wanted out.

They priced it it under an appraised value, well under what it would cost to rebuild it.

And so we had to go to work and say, okay, where.

Can we get this money in this budget to buy a three hundred and twelve million dollar a prison.

We were able to accomplish that, which I again it was the right thing to do.

When it was all said and done, we talked about it for three months before we came up with that, but it was the right thing to do for our state, and I think.

Going forward, I hope it works out well. There's the Department of Corrections.

We'll take that prison about over and we'll operate that through our DOOC. We also had some big money in for the Organs to copy. As you do all have read in the popular press. It's fallen on some difficult times. It's not rated nearly where it used to be. As a matter of fact, its accreditation was even in jeopardy because of the facilities.

And I'm old enough to remember, and I was brand in.

I was so proud of it.

They saved my dog's life, They've saved a couple of horses for me. It great work.

So we're gonna put money back into that and get that stool back to where it belongs, and it should be a point of pride for our state.

And I think we're heading back that direction.

OU is doing a pediatric car hospital. They had done some incredible work like very few people in the nation do.

That also will be a source of pride for our state is that goes forward.

So we did some really good, big items all the while, I think we are very careful to keep our recurring spend was based on recurring revenues. We're all smart enough to know, you know, spend one time money on recurring expenses. We've kept a very very sound savings account, if you will, which is a little bit of a simple term for it. But we'll have when said and done, after our general revenue fund gets replenished again, we'll have more like it'll be three and a half to four billion dollars that

Working on it and trying to make sure that your.

Tax dollars are spent as wisely as possible in providing the core services that you all expect from your government.

So that's the budget.

You guys have, anything good If not, go ahead, Jed, that's pretty I think we've just doing both representing. Cat has found his voice. I was wonderful. It was a lot of work for a lot of people that came through and coming into the session. You know what the first word was, we were going to be what three hundred and twenty million.

Dollars down, and you did and Chairvin Caldwell, and then the Senate as well, with their new process, did an incredible job of managing the state finances to Shoplie, thank.

You very much, thank you.

Yes, that is true.

The House and the Senate worked so well together on that, and I think towards the end of the session.

We were looking at a revenue year over year is already up.

So people who said we were going to now start trending down ardon might be headed towards the recession. Our revenue is actually up, which means we are going to

Vote for it.

And Governor really really wanted it, and it failed in the committee.

Pro Tim said to me, you and I are going to this committee and we're going to sit in there for that vote because we need to be there and after that vote goes, you know what, you and I are staying for the whole thing, which was six hours. But we had to figure out a way to go back and revote on that because God bless him, the governor forgot to call people and say, I really want you to vote for this.

And we have some people who don't like to do incentives, but they liked the governor. So we had to pause while.

He did his texting and calling so we could get another three or four votes on the board that we all thought were going to be yes because we knew he would talk.

To them, but somehow he didn't. So yes, and that money has already set aside.

It's not new money, because money, but we're going to us for something else, but it didn't pan out, so it's sitting over there.

Just for this purpose.

Good aluminum smelter real quick.

You know, this actually was not only a governor asked, It was a President Trump ask We've all been reading about reindustrializing America. Aluminum is a critical critical component to so much of our defense industry as well as just everything we do every day. This in my three years was far and away the best economic development opportunity we've had in this state.

One.

You've seen them come and go.

We've like Canoe for example, they didn't have the ballad sheet and the capital to really withstand anything, and they failed. And now fortunately we've got pretty smart in the way we structure these and we weren't out much money. The only thing the governor used a little bit of his quick Closing fund, which is beyond anything we have any say over.

But the legislature didn't give out a dime on that. I'm proud of that. And so we also had a nail.

We also had two Panasonic strikeouts, we had Bolkswagen.

But I think maybe it's just the way things work out like they're supposed to. This opportunity is gonna be one thousand direct jobs.

I think that they're projecting eighteen hundred indirect jobs, which I think is gonna be low. When it's said and done, we're gonna get O the toll supports is gonna benefit greatly. Iola has come in and they're gonna they're gonna support this locally with a tiff.

They're gonna get money immediately in to upgrade.

Their schools, their water, their hospitals, their hospital and so this we have a company coming that has has the capital.

They're gonna do it.

They said they're gonna do and it's been a cooperative effort so many people from their utility companies to the legislature, to the local, the governor and again President Trump. So I think even President Trump was getting messages out to people to try to get that passed. So incentives can be a tough, tough topic. But the idea here as a budget guy, is to grow the pie and where we all up, then we can pay less individually as we grow.

We hope our economy grows way faster than our government.

And so that's the plant, and that's where you get a zpath to zero in there, so you can control your government growth but totully expand the economy so everybody has less of a taxpert. But it's a I think it's a really good, good project and we're going to benefit for years and years to come.

I know you want to ask questions, but.

We worked a lot this year on restructuring the way we do workforce and incentives, and my colleague Kristen Thompson from Edmonds taking this one. We're really being much more business like in looking at what should be incentivized and how you should judge success.

So that was a part of the success of this.

Program coming forward is being done correctly and all. So aerospace aviation has just flourished in Oklahoma, and you have to stop and think that particular aluminum smelter is going to serve a lot of businesses and entities we already have in the state.

So then you have to go back and who do you have to thank for that?

Jim inhoff Brack, who protected our military installations when nobody thought it was possible. And so Tinker is a huge piece of our military industrial complex, our security. And you think of all the aviation related entities now in the state of Oklahoma. They're closer now to their raw material always already talk to somebody who's actually a customer of this smelter and imports all the product from the UAE.

They're thinking of relocating next door.

There will be no transportation costs for them to get the raw materials for what they manufacture. So it's already having benefits. But it just goes to show what those who have come before do. Pay dim of dems way out in the future that even they couldn't predict would be so good.

For the state of Oklahoma. You've said it all, no I had.

I I agree with the I love to bring businesses here that we've been through this on the lead act, I was, you know, I felt this well on Canoe I felt this well on the Panasonic plant. I don't like bringing these massive factories in and setting down. There are three hundred thousand small businesses in Oklahoma that I mean, if point zero one percent of those could hire one employee, we could have got eighteen hundred, two thousand and three

Hey, here's this thing you've never heard about.

You've known it was coming, you didn't know what it was, you didn't know who it was. And I'd like you to give two hundred and fifty million dollars to it. Can't. And so that's that's kind of how that that goes. And and I support the process, but not with a boat as far as on that went on.

And I do love to see business going.

I do like to see opportunities here in Oklahoma, and I do think it will have a great so many industries will boom around it having that that that resource here in the state. And we spent a lot of money on the Port of Binola. So it's good to see the lights on down there, so get something in there. So that's that's good.

On That's all I got to say about that. So soon as you have the microphone seeing a small business. I know one of the bills that you offered in the past we got signed has to do with developing the trades. Can't you just talk about that just a little bit.

Well, to start with, we give a lot of attention to growing the trades, tradesmen's opportunity and trades. But that's one of those things that is growing so fast organically without the legislature getting in the way. And that's the work of Tri County Tech and our Career Tech and Brent Hagen and those guys that are looking out and say.

What do you need?

What does your business need as far as employees or resources, you know, getting out to even the kids and saying, hey, we expect in the next ten years there's going to be a boom in this industry, whether that be drones, tech, you know, computers, programming, whatever it is, and we're and they're really working. So a lot of times we try to we decided it's best to stay out of the way. One of the bills I did author though, was it

You know, when we're rebuilding jets and planes from all over the world at.

Ten care Air Force Base, what about these airplane mechanics that don't really have a college degree. They have a mechanics degree, you know, aren't they valuable as well? And that over a year or two, turned in the opportunity with our our state wing of the military, which is our air National Guard and National Guard. What we did was anywhere you go you join the forces, you can get your GI bill and go to college, but not

The help that they need to get these things coming out.

And so we did.

We worked with the Air National Guard and members of the House and Senate, and we sat down and really took a look at that. That's what we came up with was was legislation to say, if you are going in to serve in the National Guard that during that three year period that we will help you get your certification and whatever trade that you're after or what the military is after or whatever.

And I think we came up with legislation that's gonna be pretty good and helpful. It was enough so that.

I had all of a sudden, I had a lot of people in the in my coming in and out of my office from the different branches of the military, and I had to do this. I wanted to sign on my desk to say I wasn't in the military, because I was like, this is just something that we needed that came from helping the kids' side, not helping the military side.

But it became so valuable to them by the time we got it through that they really appreciated it.

But again I do spend a lot of time working on our ICAP program or paying attention to that saying what can we do to get kids out of school with a marketable skill.

That I have to say again, we found the most important thing.

We can do is almost stay out of the way. Is that process works itself out. So I mean, work really hard to try not to do anything to mess things up. That's the best thing we can do.

Well. I was mentioned earlier by I have a safe chamber of conference Senator.

Some workers COMT and we reformed three things real clear workers COFT involving subcontractors, one that requires disclosure of third party agreements, and then it was an interesting one that should help facilitate more interest in having interns internships on a company product.

So if you could speak to those.

Three things, okay, we'll go backwards.

Employers had for quite a while in lobbying to make sure that interns like you have interns of chnical Phillips and Phillips people who shadow learn are there to see if they have an attitude or an interest in going into that particular career, that.

They aren't counted as employees.

In terms of your workers' compensation liability, and there was there's a section of the legal profession that doesn't want anybody excluded, and so we did work to make sure that this year that that change was made so if you're an intern, you're not covered under workers comp which makes it easier for employers to have interns.

Secondly, and I think most importantly, was the cap.

On non economic damage is not compensatory, not the ones for the injury, not the ones that are punity if you're punished in somebody, but these are the non economic the inability to do what you always wanted to do, or paying and suffering or things that you cannot calculate.

And we had a cap on it back.

In as late as twenty nineteen, which the Republicans had worked to put in place when they took the majority about fifteen or twenty years ago, so it was a long time coming, and then our Supreme Court slowly chipped away at it until they tossed it out in twenty nineteen.

And then if there's some really.

Catastrophic, disfiguring, life changing event from which you will never recover, there is no cap that still gives the legal profession wiggle room to go in there and.

Raise that those damages.

But it's just very important.

Because other states do it, and businesses do look at these things. That's why I say the incentive on the front end of cash isn't nearly as important as will I be treated fairly in court? How litigious is your climate in Oklahoma? Are the awards fair and balanced?

Or who?

They go beyond that? So that was just a huge win. And then on top of that is Scott Builder here today. No Scott today? Will you tell him?

I gave him a shout out thanks to Phillip sixty six because he brought me this idea. Two years ago that when you have these big projects, say on their refinery property or any place where you have an owner

The same injury.

So we worked really hard.

When the Supreme Court August of last year said, oh yeah, that's fine, you can double dip. P. Sixty six already had the language to say a contractor or a premise owner can do a contract with a subcontractor saying I'm going to treat your employees as my employees. I'm going to pay the worker's comp premiums. We'll negotiate that as part of our agreement. But your employees will be my employees for the extent of the time they're working on

So we got that through. I was amazed. That was really significant.

We gave up a little bit in changing the amount of permanent partial disability payments, but that's okay. We got our statute for indemnification reinstated because the Supreme Court had thrown that out as well, So it's just huge, even though,

So took care of that. The last one.

Business courts not something done a lot of places, but governors really got onto this idea a couple of years ago. I think Texas must have one. It's a pretty complicated bill right now. I think it needs to be cleaned up. But for sir, there very complex cases where the judge is going to have to be a daily manager of lots of experts, lots of discovery, lots of witnesses, and.

It's it's it may be particularly technical.

You can have the parties go to a business court with special justices who have certain background so that they can handle these complex business cases, and I think that is going to be good for business. Also, that may keep our legal costs down in the state of Oklahoma. I think that one's probably gonna need a little tweaking next year because in the end, the Farm Bureau and the Petroleum Alliance sort of decided they didn't like parts

The plaintiff poor thing may not have any say. And you know, I want to end this right now.

I want to sell no, no, no, We've invested our money and the more you get, the more we get paid. So that's become a real problem across the United States, and particularly a problem if foreign states or entities are involved. So this bill says you have to disclose if you have an agreement with a third party who's a foreign country or a foreign entity of any sort is involved in your litigation, and you can't admit it into evidence

Now I'm not done. We still haven't taken care of public nuisance and.

Forward looking damages paying for somebody's injury years down the road, which you can't predict exactly how much you're.

Going to cost.

There the way to calculate, you have a legal profession. Pushes back on that.

Yeah, turned to education. A lot of education bills, I think memory serves.

The very first bill that was passed out of the House, as you're back in February.

Was the quote unquote Bell de Bell no cell or cell phone.

Also attacked virtual days, extend the teacher pay schedule.

From five years. So all of the House that was to be up the education the House of show. I'll start as far as the Bell to Bell. I really liked the House version.

It said that is that what we passed?

No, sorry, it.

Really said that the school has to make its own policy.

The different school districts have to make their own policy, but there has to be a policy.

President kind of took it off for the school board, so we have to do something across the state.

And really the idea is, and I have this fear that you know, I know, we want to get back to the three rs and stuff in education, but I fear that so much of.

The technology and communication that goes on now really is the future.

And I don't want to educate kids for ten years ago rather than ten years from now. And as we make those rules with devices, whether that be connected pads, laptops, watches, whatever else, it might there are things in there that they might need to use or need to learn and do it.

It was just such a hard stop on that versus you need to make some sort of policy.

I mean, I'm sure there are classes that have to do with media that the kids are making. Apps might help to have a phone, and but I understand what they're doing, and it is a one year's built thing in the in the in the Senate bill, and so it might have this kind of hard break and it's kind of like we were talking about it one day, kind of like being a crash diet. You go, if you can make it a week or two, what you've come back to eating might be better than what you're

I'll let you speak on some of the others I've talked all the time. Well, I think you guys slightly told me I was talking too much earlier. That's an unco I thought it was great you all know how to talk to them. I thought it was great.

That's a that's an uncomfortable position for me. But well, we'll talk about the virtual days. There's some districts and I will tell you that just school districts in District eleven don't weren't abusers of this, but some districts actually were kind of abusing the opportunity.

To use virtual days. And when you talk to parents and see what really happens in a virtual day, it really is on the equivalent of.

A day of school, be anywhere from a fifteen minute, you know, to fill in the blank assignment to.

Something a little more.

But we don't go to school as much in Oklahoma as states around us. Friend of mine on the floor like to say, if his student goes to school and never miss his class in Oklahoma, we know what they call him in Kansas is chronically absent.

That's a problem.

You know, we're working really hard to try to get more teachers in the pipeline. We're trying to keep teachers longer than our good teachers want them to stay, because we believe the best opportunity for our children is in a classroom in front of that teacher being taught, not.

Not at their home in front of the computer with very little supervision.

So I think limiting the virtual days to two, and then we also at the same time have increase the one by one day the requirement in school, which.

I think it takes this one hundred and eighty one days or one thousand.

Eighty six eighteen hundred and six hours, that's right, No, one thousand eighty six, that's it it.

But so I think we're attacking that in the right way. Nothing happens overnight.

There's lots of other things I think we can do to improve the schools, but one of them I'll just came top of my head.

There were a number of.

Years ago, of course, Mississippi and Oklahoma were bumping along the bottom right, and both Mississippi and Oklahoma took.

On some very serious reforms at the same time.

One of those reforms was there would be no social promotion if a third grader wasn't reading at a third grade.

Level, they would not be promoted to fourth threct plan Center.

Now, there were ways to get you know, you could go to summer school, there was ways to help that child. There was struggling to get them there, but they weren't going. Mississippi stuck to those guns and it.

Was a hard couple of years because the first couple of years you had a number of kids that were.

Getting held back.

Well Oklahoma, unfortunately we succumb to the pressures. I don't know where they came from, it's before my time, but we removed that. In the meantime, Mississippi is raised from not even near the bottom.

If just by raw scores, I think they're in the teams, if it's the adjusted store based on.

The basic the raw material they're dealing with, you know, the demographics, they're number one. I think we were on that same path and we let them opportunity to get away. So those kind of reforms really matter, and sometimes they're hard. But we have a responsibility constitutionally to educate every child in this state and we clearly take it seriously.

It's half our budget plus every year, but that doesn't mean the.

Money's fixing the problem. So these kind of reforms I think are hitting the right direction. We can't get there fast enough for me, but I know that it'll take instead of take more than one session to fix it.

But we are working on it, working on a hard expending a teacher's salary schedule. Well, yeah, let's go thank you to laugh. I've been rahing out behind it. Yeah, it's really good.

It's a really good And again it goes back to trying to keep our good teachers in the classroom. Our old salary schedule stopped after twenty five years, and we jumped it up now where you can continue to receive raises for that last next ten years, for full thirty five. So a teacher doesn't get to twenty five and say, well I'm stuck. I'm never gonna make it. I'm never gonna get a raise.

No, they you know, people are working longer and that's great.

And if we want to keep our master teachers in the classrooms, so we're giving them and I haven't sent them to stay.

They will continue to get raises up through their thirty fifth year now. So that's what that's about.

And that reading bill was Senator John Fordsville.

All those years ago.

Well, also just a mention too, we've passed some legislation on high dose tutoring, find finding where problems are, to attacking that where it's at, versus just just accepting that those kids.

Aren't going to advance, and so we were able to target that and put some resources there, and I was really proud to help be a part of that.

Well, but in an interesting time sending her congratulations on passing your invanatory markup Hill.

That's the elimination of But one of the things that.

Was a real hot topic of that third gind A session to kind of petered out is a lot of the bills.

That had to do with setbacks or when energy ended up. I don't think anything across the finish line. Can you explain a little bit about what they've important to do and then why they didn't get that.

Well, the quick answer is this is a classic and this is when people, very conservative legislators and I would get together and go, okay, do we respect your property rights or your property rights? You know, I want it set back so it's not close to my property or my home. And then perhaps that puts it so far away that it can't be on the property next door where that neighbor would like to have that income and

Well it's in the Senate. Oh it's in.

Now, I better let that up.

I think title came off and then it's back in the Senate and it didn't come back up, and nor should it that. I thank the Senate because it is it's a very I mean it is it's a private property issue, and you're trying to thread the needle of what there's this person's private property rights and how and respecting the next person's private property rights.

That is very, very difficult.

I mean, I don't want to see a windmill, not just be honest, but I also feel really guilty if I tell a neighbor they can't do something with their property. They own that property, they bought it, and they should have all their their rights. So that's why it was so difficult, and that's why we may get to something. But I'm glad it didn't happen this year because we didn't have the rook we didn't have.

The right language, we did not have it.

It wasn't ready, it wasn't ready.

But one thing we did pass was by by overright was the lighting the lights on the tower. Rim there's a technology now that reduces the light pollution from these wind wind towers because they will they have radar, and the lights come on when aircraft are in the vicinity, they go off when they're not. So it's a that might help some of the neighbor's neighbor problems by doing that.

You can get in a bad situation where you.

Lose single engine aircraft loses power over a wind farm and they look down, they don't see any lights because they haven't triggered it because they're high, but they're looking for a place to land. That made me very nervous, and that's one of the bills I actually voted to not override the governor.

I thought, no, we need to.

Even though it's working in other countries, it works in a number of other states. I just my conservative nature just said, yeah, maybe that's if one person gets caught in that bad situation, I would hate it. So that's the one thing we did that addressed some of the wind issues of the people that don't like seeing those wind farms.

Again, there was a difference in settive house bills that went that we discussed in the beginning, and one of the things that struck me odd was, you know, in defally populated areas outside of Oklahom City, there are very hard against bringing in windmills and then bringing in like Bartlesville does, where you take your solid waste out and put it on farm land, well, it's a big issue

And then we also had a thing in there that said that.

A county could vote like an initiative petition and say that we want to ban wind mills, which would.

Open the door. Already people said, oh no, it never go beyond this.

By the end of session, you already had people saying, hey, since you're doing this now, can we also look at these other things?

And we were about to put ourselves.

Into an instance where we had seventy seven little states in Oklahoma.

That all operated very differently, and so we did not want to do that. Well, the Senate bill in the beginning that I liked better, just.

Had reasonable setbacks for health and safety, safety setbacks from home, set back from businesses, hospitals, schools, and whatnot.

Well, when it come over to the House, we.

Went ahead and put our part in it that we didn't like, and so and then again it it did get stall. But I heard a very conservative rural representative say, well, one of these days we're going to have to figure out where that line is with private property. And I told him, I said, we know where the line is.

It's the fence line. That's it.

And when we come from a place where not so long ago, possession and property was nine tenths of the law, and now we're trying to decide, I want to decide what you do with what's yours. It just it wasn't very palatable. And so we did get hung up and that's where it stopped. But for safety, still, almost all of the contracts that are written with the wind energy really are an add or exceeded what the law was going to be for for step back.

So not lets change by not passing legislation. All right, I'm gonna.

Skip all of my questions about overcycle bar handle handle bars and services.

As you want, no pay the normal too high for me.

Questions from the audience for people not name representative Sears, Martin or Lambs.

When does the tax next again?

Okay, the point two five I believe kicks in twenty twenty six. I don't think it's retroactive. And then, like I said, the bottom three tax brackets will go too.

And then.

From then on it'll be triggered when you have total revenue collections all revenue for the state exceed the base year's total collections by amount equal to the cost of point two five percent rate cut multiplied by one point twenty five. In other words, there is a formula to determine are you in good enough shape to allow another permanent tax cut.

Here's the and this is why I'm speaking out now. The governor wanted a half in a path. We now have point two five and a path.

Now that we're on the path, or do not try to get us off the path by saying now I want another point twenty five. Let us let this work because gradually, over the next ten, fifteen to twenty years we could get down to either zero or we'll get a place flat where the revenues are enough to provide services. Everything is nicely balloced, and we'll say, okay, we'll just

To you later.

Talk about a Friday, talked about a Friday, Yeah.

It's a hockey.

Career tech Hey, well dry count tags. You didn't address career teck more than the budget. Well quit I could try. Career Tech did not get all they asked for, nor did anybody.

Uh, there was a twenty seven point six million dollar if I remember the number that we gave last year for growth, you know in enrollment growth it was.

A one time that it was sold as a one time last year. Well, they did not get all that back.

They got a portion helped me out someone who maybe in that six million dollar range that I think after we took one time's out and came back. They so they did not get all that. It's not it's certainly not because we don't believe in career tech. I'm a fan, maybe almost as big as representative strong of what you've done for our state and what tra County Tech does right here in Barnesville.

It's pretty evident for all of us to see.

But that's just we couldn't fund everything, and they didn't get all they after for, but they did get an increase for some of that, as it is right, but I think it deserved more than just a mansion getting rid of the mandatory six mark up.

Could one of the let's could do that.

I think I talked to you about in.

February February, but it.

Wasn't It was a big deal since it had been on the books for seventy six years and most of us didn't even know it existed.

So we're just going to allow businesses to be more competitive.

You will no longer have to mark your goods you're a fuel, your diapers, you're food up six percent, uh, just to level some sort of imaginary playing field.

And so I think that's just another free market.

Action that we took, and really please I think we've got We've got a huge amount of support of both the House and the Senate.

Initially, the House.

Bill exemptant fuel the six percent was going to stay on fuel, but we didn't do that in the Senate when it got over the House.

The House was great with that.

We just increased a little bit of the anti trust penalty if you do try to sell.

Something below cost. So I'm excited.

My co author over in the House, Steve Bayshore from Miami, he's excited because he said, if you live in one of the border counties, that six percent really does affect the sales tax to your municipalities. To just cross over the border where there isn't the six percent markup and you already have a bit of a discount. You a had that to exempting the sales tax on groceries last year and the income tax cuts we've done this year, and we're still increasing spending some We're just in a really.

Good spot right now in the state, I think.

And there's only other spaces that have a mandatory back. Yeah, anybody does not one over here with the state Wood Cosmetology, I know, it was a big deal all over the kind of future for that state. I'm gonna take this and I'm gonna back up to last year.

Last year I went to that than Skychook at the whatever, the Beauty College.

It was a it was a chamber function and one of.

The directors of that that school came and said that she had people that were graduating from cosmetology school that were waiting ninety to one hundred and twenty days for their certification.

So that's how long they had to wait until they could go to work.

And it's frustrating to me working with OBS and so many of the government agencies.

How we have worked to I guess simp simply.

Digitalives and and electrify everything and make things work faster, better, more efficient. And after about two weeks had tried to work on the phone back and forth, I went to the cosmetology office and said I.

Wanted to know what the problem was.

And the walls were lined with the WATS mailboxes with snail mail. You mailed in that I'm going to graduate, They mailed back something. You mailed that back with a check, and you just had people in there going through envelopes, and so we work through. I mean that there's way more to it than that, but simply that's something we

Future of that board is and what they're going to be doing from now on.

And so the cosmetology and barbering and that does have another year to figure that out. And so that's where that went on. There's and I believe in the Governor's opinion. We worked out they didn't need that board anymore because now we're.

Doing so much of that obs.

But when it came down to it, the people that are in that industry, which are everywhere, and not people you want to make mad because they cut your hair, it was very important to keep it going, you know.

Charles were taking my my freshman year.

We went in and one of the biggest fights was about a massage therapy bill and I said, man, I just can't believe we're spending so much time on this.

And he said, well, get ready, my friend, every year you're gonna deal with massages and hair cosmetology. And I thought, no way, every year those are the big things.

Something of bunch.

So that's where that came from. Falgression.

So that's that's what the thing is there is. Yes, there's there's a question of what the operation of that board should be. We continued it for another year to operate it as it does, but we're still doing a lot of those functions overdobs to make it better and more efficient.

Probably would you like to ask John a questions?

So I'll just add to this. We did a lot of regulatory reform this year. Doesn't most people don't even understand it. We passed a huge thing called the Rains Act.

You know, hundreds of regulations coming each year.

We review them and then we say yay or day. But these woods have to be vote on separately. Now, this is interesting. My governor is really keen on this reform. We had to fight him tooth and nail for him not to vetoe this.

This was a huge deal.

This also gave him more power. When they draft their rules, his office will now look at them and go, you're not even going to send that to the legislature.

You better go back. You're not passing this.

We gave him more power, the executive branch more power. We increased the oversight that we're going to do. And I had to have multiple meetings in my office with the governor's staff, the Secretary of State, and the interest groups and the authors to try and work out their problems with these bills because.

There's more than one.

And he did in the end sign them.

So you know, when he said all the bills that got vetowed were things that were going to increase regulations and make things cost more, we had to work really hard to get him to sign one that actually made things cost less and was less regulation. And in these boards and commissions, the thing is that why didn't cosmetology clean up their own act all these years? Why weren't they trying to digitize? Why are they making their customers the people who work in the enterta that's what gets us,

Or more yes, Sir, annexation of on land by cities now arena all Oklahoma. There are signs all over in the northern part of the media guys, no annex.

Apparently there is a loophole in the regulation where oh yeah, we can do it anyway, despite the fact that the people who live there.

Don't want it. Ever across anybody's desk in all the cities.

Yes, I was originally opposed to the bill. I do try to look out for municipalities. Nobody pays any attention to them.

Al Reno followed the law.

It wasn't really a loophole. It's very rarely used this provision. It's growing over there. I won't get onto all the details.

They went to court. They will win in court. But in the meantime people have stepped forward to change that law.

So now if you want to annex without the permission of sixty five percent or more of the property owners, the city can tell me, you have to do it in district court. The judge has to go this is a big enough deal that you need to annex this property. But it's a very high bar, so it's probably not going to happen.

Very often.

Municipalities wanted to keep it for just these rare circumstances where you may need it. I talked to Mike Bailey says they've never forcibly annexed anything. He reminds me that the Price Baseball fields are not in the city. You know, they'reright in the middle of town, but they're not in the city. Said, you could do a lot of this in a friendly way. I don't know why Reno chose to do it in an unfriendly way. But that little loophole you called it is now a little loop, is really really tiny.

Well that's above my he said, rapacious. M Oh, they were in the capital.

Basically, Mm, they won't get the award for knowing how to do diplomacy this year.

You know, they could have handled it different.

There was another legislation as well that if the city doesn't live up to its promise within a certain amount of times for what they're gonna do with the land, that will revert.

Back to the landowners.

Yes, and then we passed legislation as well that the the original landowner had to right of first refusal to get back to that land he or his heirs if it didn't take. If it'd been annex it was actually taken, that it could return back then.

Would be of everyone's time.

So I'm sure the three of these folks will stay up here, and if you want to ask a question or any statement, I'm sure I'm go'll be glad to visit with you.

But thank you today and we the rest of your day.

Go ahead, Judd, I don't know, I don't know.

Oh I heard.

I'm going to cut us off.

We're gonna be thanking people about it.

Thank you, Thank you, guys.

And remember we're home for eight months now for all the important stuff.

Let's get together while we're home.