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Oklahoma
Posted: Mar 21, 2025 9:32 AMUpdated: Mar 21, 2025 9:59 AM
CAPITOL CALL Powered by Phillips 66 3-21-25
Tom Davis
State Senator Julie Daniels and State Representative John B. Kane were our guests on KWON's CAPITOL CALL Powered by Phillips 66 of Friday where the topics ranged from the state budget, new bill, cutting the fat and showing goats.
Regarding the budget, Senator Daniels said, "I think we're going to take all of our finance bills, all of our tax credits, anything that we want to keep alive for budget discussions. They're just going to go and become part of the greater budget discussion that Representative Kane has such a large role in. And that way, all the vehicles that we might need to do different things are alive."
Daniels also presented a workers' comp bill for the pro tem this week that was prompted by Phillips 66 and others in the oil and gas industry for bringing a solution to a problem.
Kane said, "We've done the same thing with all of our fiscal bills. We've struck title, and they'll come back, and we'll see how they fit in the budget and what we really can do with them." He added, "The busy week is coming this week, a lot of bills to be heard. As we've talked about before, we have fewer bills than we've had in my first two years. Not all of them will get to the floor, just the same as in the Senate."
Kane brought up the Oklahoma Youth Exchange, the largest youth livestock show in the country, that occurs in Oklahoma City every year. They invite the legislators to come out one night, and they get to show animals.
Kane sid, "The kids, I've bragged over and over about some of these FFA kids I've gotten to meet. Oh, they're wonderful kids. I showed this time with a young man, Clayton Cunningham. He had a goat, so I was showing a goat this year at the event."
Getting back to the state budget, Kane said, "You know how markets don't like uncertainty? Well, budget people don't like uncertainty. And certainly with everything going on on the federal level, we've got an eye on that because there's a trickle down to that." He added, "We know that we will be affected, but we just don't know how yet. And so it makes it very hard for us to commit going forward to any really, oh, let's say, big changes or big asks until we get some more clarity on that."
Although lawmakers did have Congressman Cole at the Capitol to ask questions Kane and Daniels said that they can't just pretend like it's not coming and that's factored into how lawmakers are looking at their numbers.
Prior to our show, both lawmakers were in Nowata with Senator Lankford's representative, Mack Savala, who's originally from Nowata. Daniels said "Mack admitted, that you may hear things before we do. Senator Lankford's running all the traps. So if you hear something might be affected, you need to call us because we then need to go start asking questions. Don't assume that we know ahead of you what DOGE is going to do next. As he put it, he said, right now they're just breaking things. And that doesn't mean breaking things bad."
When it comes to 'cutting the fat,' Daniels said, "I'm sure you've probably read in the news, that our Oklahoma DOGE program, and the governor's found a million, $2 million worth of ways to maybe cut some, we'll call it waste, out of our budget. Which every little bit helps. And just to keep an emphasis on that.
Kane said, "Because I don't necessarily think it's anybody with any nefarious motives. But you get the bureaucracies, they naturally grow. And you have to keep them in check and pull them back. And for any of us to think that we can really fix this for our nation and not have it affect us, each and every one of us is going to feel some pain, some level of pain if we do this right. So we just have to be ready. And we have to be ready to adjust to it and do the very best we can to provide the services that our citizens want. But we have to fix the problem for our children and grandchildren."
Senator Daniels told us she is working on a bill on that Unfair Sales Act, trying to take off that 6% mandatory markup saying, "I will run that this week. My counterpart, Representative Bashore, who ran his already, and we'll get that out of the Senate and then see what happens."
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