Budget battle continues into political season

Capitol Report for dailies for week of May 28, 2006
By Jim Campbell
OPA Capitol News Bureau


To be continued....
A legislative session that opened against a backdrop of big stakes electioneering will continue into the 2006 political season that officially begins with the June 5-7 filing period.
Deadlocked over details of a $7 million budget - specifically the House's first priority of tax cuts and the Senate's insistence on funding services before cutting taxes - the Legislature began a special session to be concluded in time to avoid a government shutdown July 1.
In announcing the extraordinary session that began at 3 p.m. May 25, to resume for three days in June, Gov. Brad Henry acknowledged the potential political fallout.
"In an election year, some people will be tempted to use the special session and the budget impasse to advance their own political fortunes," he said. "But I would urge those individuals to act like statesmen rather than campaign managers.
"Pointing fingers and using scare tactics won't get anyone closer to a budget agreement that benefits Oklahomans," said Henry, a Democrat seeking re-election.
The inevitable, however, was not long in coming.
"This special session is a failure of leadership by Gov. Henry," said Sen. James Williams, R-Tulsa, a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. "It is incredible to me that he apparently has no ability to convince any of the Senate Democrats to compromise on the budget and tax cuts."
Henry and House Speaker Todd Hiett, R-Kellyville, had agreed to a budget deal including an income tax cut to 5.5 percent from 6.5 percent. Senate Democrats, facing a tough fight to avoid a Republican takeover in November, refused to budge from commitment to an agenda that included higher raises for teachers.
Hiett, a candidate for lieutenant governor, said he was confident the budget ultimately enacted would include such major components of the deal he made with Henry as significant tax relief and record investment in roads and education.
Hiett had earlier embraced the 4.9 percent tax rate proposed by Sen. Scott Pruitt, also a GOP candidate for lieutenant governor.
Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Morgan, D-Stillwater, said talk of a government shutdown over failure to enact a new budget "is just nonsense. There will not be a government shutdown."
"Writing the state budget is the most important job the Legislature is required to do each year," Morgan said. "Others may have come here in February with a different agenda, but completing the budget has been my focus since the first day of the session and will remain so until the job is complete."
Senate Republican Leader Glenn Coffee of Oklahoma City quickly blamed "Senate Democrats and their willingness to allow a meaningful income tax cut for Oklahoma taxpayers in a year with a record tax surplus." 
Democrats hold just a 25-23 majority in the Senate, where Republicans will campaign furiously to gain their first majority in state history.
Both Hiett and Coffee said they believe Senate Democrats wanted a special session all along.
"They see some political advantage in going to a special session," he said earlier in the last week of the regular session. "I think it is a political wreck for them."
HHH
Henry's call limited the special session to unsettled budget issues including tax relief, agency appropriations and investment initiatives.
Advocates of two long simmering issues, dead for the regular session, urged their revival. 
Rep. Kevin Calvey, R-Del City, a candidate for Congress, joined Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, in urging Henry to add immigration reform to the agenda. And Rep. Dan Sullivan, R-Tulsa, called for the governor to include lawsuit reform.
HHH
Demonstrating the proposition that legislation can as readily be reborn as killed, the Legislature sent the governor a bill providing the death penalty for repeat child molesters.
On the last day of the regular session, the House completed action on Senate Bill 1800, 88-8, creating a Child Abuse Response Team and subjecting child predators to capital punishment or life without parole.
The first such proposal, by Sen. Jay Paul Gumm, D-Durant, died weeks ago in the House. Sen. Jonathon Nichols, R-Norman, narrowed its scope and brought it up in the final week of the session. 
In Senate debate, Gumm said death "is a proportionate punishment for a person who has killed a child's soul."
Nichols told molesters, "We will find you, we will prosecute you and then, we will put you to death."
Term-limited Rep. Opio Toure, D-Oklahoma City, a minister as well as a lawyer, made the last of his argument against the death penalty in a debate featuring quotes from the Scripture on both sides.
"I am opposed to the death penalty," he said. "I was against it when I was 15 years old, when my father was murdered and when my little brother was murdered. I am against it in all cases."
Rep. Fred Morgan, R-Oklahoma City, House author of the bill, said he respects Toure's consistent position, but "this common sense legislation will protect the children of Oklahoma by removing the worst pedophiles from the streets and potentially eliminating them from society."
Sen. Cal Hobson, D-Lexington, cautioned in Senate debate that someone charged with a sexual offense might not be an evil old man but "a 17-year-old boy who touches a 15-year-old girl."