Legislature advances unusual measures
Capitol Report for dailies for week of March 5, 2006
 By Jim Campbell
OPA Capitol News Bureau
Think about teacher pay tied to lawmaker salaries, no more property tax hikes if you're 65 and judges packing heat in self-defense in their courtrooms.
And who would ever have thought it necessary to enact a law banning protests at funerals?
These were among ideas outside the usual range of legislation that advanced as Oklahoma wrapped up the first month of the 2006 lawmaking season. 
Rep. Ken Miller, R-Edmond, former chairman of the Legislative Compensation Board, proposed House Joint Resolution 1054, linking teachers' and legislators' pay as an incentive to raise teacher salaries. As chairman, he got the board to freeze lawmaker pay through 2010.
 "I never did say legislators are paid too much for what they do," he said. "I believe that even more today. I do believe legislators are paid too much in relation to what we pay our teachers. I'm trying to correct that imbalance."
 Rep. Trebor Worthen, R-Oklahoma City, opposed the measure, arguing it would only serve to raise legislative pay. The legislature already is working to raise teacher pay to the regional average, he said.
The committee sent it to the House floor. Co-authors include Senate Republican Leader Glenn Coffee of Oklahoma City and Reps. Fred Morgan, R-Oklahoma City, and Lance Cargill, R-Harrah.
County assessors couldn't hike your property taxes more than 3 percent a year -  and if you're 65, rich or poor, they couldn't raise them at all.
That would the case if House Joint Resolution 1002 by Rep. Guy Liebmann, R-Oklahoma City, should survive Senate action to reach a statewide ballot and be approved by the voters. It passed the House 68-28, with some lawmakers voicing concern about its effect on county governments and schools.
"It is not a decrease to schools," Liebmann said. "It is a 3 percent increase each year instead of 5 percent."
Seniors 65 or older would be free of ad valorem tax increases as long as they stay in their home.
Basketball fans, volunteer HOmHfirefighters, coal producers, military retirees, hybrid vehicle buyers and stay-at-home parents also are among the beneficiaries of new tax breaks that advanced. These were outside larger tax cuts proposed by the governor and House and Senate leaders.

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Sales tax breaks linked to hopes of keeping a National Basketball Association team in Oklahoma City quickly drove the length of the court to applause from many lawmakers and the governor.
Elimination of the sales tax on New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets tickets, hailed as an economic development tool and job-builder for downtown Oklahoma City, easily passed both houses. A companion bill extends the sales tax break to other sports. 
But the cheering was not universal. Reps. Opio Toure, D-Oklahoma City, and Darrell Gilbert, D-Tulsa, argued instead for tax breaks on food or other necessities to help poor people. Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, called the Hornets deal an unconstitutional forgiveness of debt. 
"If the only way we can get a professional sports team in Oklahoma City is to increase taxes on poor people, I would say send the Hornets packing," said Toure.
Rep. Susan Winchester, R-Chickasha, said the downtown area, once abandoned after dusk, is now jammed with sports fans and restaurant patrons.
"You run a bill to eliminate the sales tax on groceries and I'll be the first to vote for it," she said.

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Following debate recalling arguments over kids in the bed of pickups, the Senate passed a bill providing some protection for minors riding all terrain vehicles.
As passed 31-15, Senate Bill 1830 by Sen. Bernest Cain, D-Oklahoma City, requires all riders under 18 to wear helmets. A provision requiring parental supervision for all riders 14 and under was stricken on grounds it was not possible to always have visual contact with someone on an ATV.  Also removed was a requirement that a passenger could not ride on a machine built for one.
Agriculture uses were exempted.
Cain cited a study published last May showing nearly 400 people suffered traumatic brain or spinal cord injuries, some of them children as young as 3, and 62 died. He said only 6 percent hurt while riding ATVs were wearing a helmet "and no one wearing a helmet died.

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A House committee passed a bill allowing judges to arm themselves in self defense and the Senate amended a courthouse security bill to add that provision.
The action was prompted by shooting deaths of three persons, including a judge, in a Georgia courtroom.
Sen. Brian Crain, R-Tulsa, in amending SB 1761 said a Tulsa judge had used a firearm to prevent an incident there.
Sen. Ted Fisher, D-Sapulpa, recalled the Georgia assailant took a gun away from an officer and suggested courtrooms would be safer it no one were armed.

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Gov. Brad Henry called it a shame that the funeral bill had to be passed, but he was glad to sign it.
SB 1020 was prompted by protests at soldiers' funerals by the Rev. Fred Phelps and members of his Topeka, KS, church who claim military deaths are God's wrath for the country's acceptance of homosexuality.
The bill was unopposed, but questions have been raised about unintended consequences, such as limiting patriotic demonstrations.
Attorney Michael Minnis, writing in the Oklahoma Publisher, said such bills fall in the category of what former longtime OPA leader Ben Blackstock called "legislating for nuts." 

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