Many urge lawmakers, 'don't forget us"
Capitol Report for dailies for week of May 21, 2006
By Jim Campbell
OPA Capitol News Bureau

As spending and tax cut proposals competed for the attention of Oklahoma lawmakers in the final days of the 2006 regulator legislative session, a Greek chorus of interests responded, "Don't forget us."
Advocates for nursing homes, education, social services, public safety, mental health, county governments, district attorneys, ambulance services and more came to the Capitol to plead for help. 
"There's a lot of people at the 'trough,' but the trough is full," said former Democratic Sen. Dave Herbert, legislative liaison for the County Government Legislative Council.
Herbert said the state owes counties about $46 million in repayment for property tax breaks given manufacturers and other business locating in their counties.
He said the reimbursement fund received about $25 million a year from a 1 percent of the state income tax, but pays out about $50 million a year. With the proposed tax cuts, Herbert said, counties would get even less.
"Tax cuts are fine," he said. "But let's pay our bills."
"It's clear to us and should be clear to the people of Oklahoma the surplus we now have should be invested in Oklahoma," he said. "We stood by silently when the state was going through lean times and put band-aids on roads and bridges, waiting for better times. Better times are here and we should do the right thing for the people of Oklahoma."
Gov. Brad Henry said the counties' needs would be taken care from $125 million in revenue left on the table from his compromise budget agreement with House Speaker Todd Hiett, R-Kellyville.
To put human faces on statistics, House Democrats brought in state employees working in vital services.
"Some patients are sleeping on mattresses on the floor," said Jessica Thomason, a nurse for 20 years at Griffin Memorial Hospital in Norman. "We don't have enough beds."
It's a dangerous job and nurses are short from inability to hire them at the wages paid, she said.
Department of Human Services employee Mike Merritt of Norman wanted to make it clear up front and said, "I am not a registered Democrat." He then described how his family could not make it in low-cost Mangum on three incomes, one of them from serving as a pastor. He transferred first to Tulsa County, then Oklahoma County and finally Cleveland County where he now makes about $27,000 a year.
Turnover is "tremendous," he said. "Seventy-five percent don't make it to the first anniversary." They start at $20,000.
Nursing homes were in particularly dire straights, the legislators said. The 75 that have closed in the last 12 years, scattered across the state, amounted to about 17 percent of the total. More are in jeopardy, they said, as demand will grow with aging baby boomers.
"Our elderly citizens have been taking the brunt of state health-care budget cuts," said Rep. Rebecca Hamilton, D-Oklahoma City.
 "These are our parents and grandparents, many of whom are military veterans," said Rep. Mike Brown, D-Tahlequah.
The Democratic caucus proposed a $20.4 million increase in the Health Care Authority appropriation, $17.2 million of it for nursing homes.
It was not just Democrats concerned about the budget compromise.
Sens. Jonathan Nichols, R-Norman, and Todd Lamb, R-Edmond, said it does not adequately fund district attorneys. Nichols, a former prosecutor, said he was concerned the DAs "would not receive the additional funding they have requested to ensure that criminals are prosecuted and punished for their crimes.
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Next year arrived early for legislative anti-abortion forces.
The Senate passed a Republican bill including language from several bills killed earlier in the year and sent it to the governor for his signature. The vote on Senate Bill 1742 was 38-8.
Henry said he would have to review the bill before deciding whether to sign it.
Anti-abortion provisions in this bill and others had been held up in committee by Sen. Bernest Cain, D-Oklahoma City, who called them "abusive of women." Since Cain is term-limited, the measures had been considered a sure thing next year.
SB 1742:
- Requires consent of one parent before a minor can receive an abortion.
- Expands recognition of an unborn child as a separate victim if a crime is committed against the mother.
- Provides that a mother is informed that a fetus 20 weeks or older may feel pain, and that anesthesia could be administered to relieve it during an abortion.
- Allows funding to be directed to groups providing counseling and support.
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The state's emergency life-saver is itself in an emergency.
Speakers at a rally on the Capitol steps said demand for emergency medical services is growing exponentially and certain to accelerate as Oklahoma's population ages. But 40 Oklahoma EMS providers have closed since 2000, leaving a dozen communities orphaned, and more are at risk.