Parties disagree on
outcome of session
By Jim Campbell, OPA Capitol News Bureau 
To the Senate's Democratic leader, the 2004 Legislative session is the most productive he's seen in a 26-year legislative career. He gives credit to the work of Gov. Brad Henry.
"I've only had 26 shots but this is the most successful I've seen and we will top it off next week with successful tort reform," Sen. Cal Hobson, D-Lexington, said following passage of Henry's health initiative financed by a tobacco tax increase.
To the House and Senate Republican leaders, Henry's legacy could rest on the outcome of tort reform and workers compensation reform before adjournment next Friday.
"On Nov. 2, Gov. Henry will ask the voters of Oklahoma to smoke more to provide better health care and gamble more to provide better education," said House Minority Leader Todd Hiett, R-Kellyville. "No one will argue against better health care or education, but the governor's solution is fundamentally skewed."
Without meaningful lawsuit and workers compensation reform, said Sen. James Williamson, R-Tulsa, Senate GOP leader, said the "2004 legislative session can only go down as a failure."
And Sen. James Dunlap, R-Bartlesville, said Oklahoma could be left out of a national economic boon fueled by President Bush's tax cuts.
The exchange spotlights relentless campaigning for the top priorities of the two parties. Republicans have hammered daily on the need for lawsuit and worker's compensation reform, at the same time the Democratic leadership has pumped for the tobacco tax increase.
 "The easiest thing to do is throw bombs," Hobson said.
He said Sen. Mike Morgan, D-Stillwater, chairman of the joint task force on tort reform, said he hoped to have the bill together and ready for a vote as early as Tuesday.
Hiett said Henry's workers compensation committee has not met and lawsuit reform faces an uphill battle next week, "especially if the governor continues to remain engaged and standing on the sidelines."
Just before the House vote on sending the tobacco tax to the ballot, House Speaker Larry Adair, D-Lexington, said, "Tort reform is next."
Hobson credited Henry with the change in the way "this addiction" of smoking has been handled since his election, pointing to such legislation as the ban on smoking in public places.
Big tobacco, which had dominated the Legislature for years, "is out of business in Oklahoma," he said.
The House unanimously approved a bill clamping a lid on the fee imposed on private pay nursing home residents to subsidize reimbursement for Medicaid providers.
Oklahomans who have set aside money for their long term care now pay an extra $6.55 a day and, barring enactment of House Bill 2108, would pay $6.75 a day beginning in July. The bill says after July 15, "the Nursing Facilities Quality of Care Fee shall not be increased unless specifically authorized by the Legislature."
Starting at $4 a day under a 2000 health initiative, it was crafted as a way to attract more federal matching money for state nursing homes. Nursing homes are reimbursed the fee for residents on Medicaid but federal law requires the fee be imposed on all licensed facilities.
"Other states have had to repeal it because it was getting so expensive (for private pay residents) they just couldn't take it any more," said Rep. M.C. Leist, D-Morris, principal House author. "This makes sure it doesn't get worse."
"It makes sense to keep it from getting out of control," said state Long Term Care Ombudsman Esther Houser. But she said the money might one day need to be paid from the state should the federal government repeal the law providing the fee as a way to attract matching funds.
The fee also provides more ombudsman oversight, equipment, personnel and other services intended to assure quality care in nursing facilities.
Mary Brinkley, president of the non-profit Oklahoma Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, said, "If ever there was an issue that needed attention this is it."
"It is not fair that people who have saved for their retirement be required to subsidize Medicaid and getting nothing for it," she said. "This is huge."
The conference committee report went to the Senate, which approved the original bill 37-7.
HHH
If the House agrees next week, add cockfighting to the Nov. 2 ballot once again. This time it would reduce the penalty from a felony to a misdemeanor.
Sen. Frank Shurden, D-Henryetta, the Legislature's most persistent champion of the sport, won a 25-22 vote in the Senate.
In approving the original cockfighting ban, Shurden said, people "were not told the whole truth when they voted."
Cynthia Armstrong of Oklahoma Coalition against Cock Fighting strongly disagreed.
"The ballot language mentions the word felony four different times. The people were not confused about the felony provision."
She predicted the voters would reject the lesser penalties if the House sends it to a vote of the people.