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Top Oklahoma lawmakers and Gov. Kevin Stitt on Thursday unveiled their plans for the state budget next fiscal year, which begins July 1.
The new budget agreement for Fiscal Year 2022 would total $8.3 billion dollars. Top Republican lawmakers say the agreement would maintain all state core service funding while also providing tax relief to individuals and businesses.
The corporate income tax would be cut from 6 percent to 4 percent, while personal income tax would be cut from 5 percent to 4.75 percent.
Oklahoma House Speaker Charles McCall said he s optimistic about what can come from the tax cuts. We will see more dollars in the state of Oklahoma, we will see more business, more people, and we can operate at a lower threshold of tax burden on all entities in the state of Oklahoma, said McCall.
Oklahoma lawmakers may have a deal on a bill that fights back against federal overreach.The possible agreement comes after the House of Representatives and the Senate were split about how exactly they should go about that.The House originally proposed a version of the bill that claimed to allow the legislature to declare on its own that federal laws and presidential orders are unconstitutional. The Senate leader said that was a disproven legal theory and proposed a different way forward instead, and it now looks like lawmakers may have come to an agreement.The new version of the bill, which was just filed, will have to pass both chambers. It keeps the idea the Senate added of setting up an attorney general unit to review federal actions and sue over them if the attorney general thinks they re unconstitutional.The bill also says if the attorney general doesn t sue, the legislature can hire its own lawyers but can t itself overrule the federal government.State Sen. Greg Treat, R-O
Sen. Jessica Garvin, R-Duncan, the Senate author of SB 131, said managed care conversations are ongoing, but she would like the Senate to vote on the bill. I m not opposed to managed care, really, I m just opposed to doing it with companies from out of state, Garvin said. With my professional experience as a nursing home administrator, I work with managed care companies every single day and they ve never really been beneficial for patient care.
In contracting with the Health Care Authority, the insurance companies agreed to have a presence and staff in Oklahoma.
What would Gov. Stitt s Medicaid plan do?
Oklahoman
Political pressure is mounting on both sides of a controversial bill that would ban public schools and universities from teaching critical race theory.
Some educators are urging Gov. Kevin Stitt to veto the legislation, which passed both chambers of the Oklahoma Legislature with overwhelming Republican support.
House Bill 1775 would prohibit instructors from teaching that “one race or sex is inherently superior to another,” and that “an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive.”
It would explicitly forbid critical race theory, which examines the way race and racism influence American politics, legal systems and society.