Lottery officials get their wish
FOR years, directors of the Oklahoma Lottery asked the Legislature to change a rule requiring that 35 percent of lottery profits go to education. And each time, those pleas were ignored by Republicans who controlled both chambers.
Until this year. On Tuesday, Gov. Mary Fallin signed House Bill 1837 into law. The bill by Rep. Leslie Osborn, R-Mustang, and Sen. Kim David, R-Porter, guarantees at least $50 million in lottery revenue for education each year, and sends profits above that amount to specific K-12 initiatives.
Lottery officials say that doing away with the 35 percent mandate will allow them to redirect money to boost prizes, which in turn will increase ticket sales and ultimately provide more money for education.
Annual lottery revenue has declined in recent years, and that was expected to continue with the 35 percent rule in place. Rollo Redburn, the lottery’s executive director, said education stood to lose about $25 million in the next five years, but with this change, it could gain $85 million or more in that time.
Is that being overly optimistic? Time will tell, although other states have seen lottery funding for education increase after removing their profit requirements. In the end, the votes for HB 1837 were 75-20 in the House and 36-10 in the Senate, a sign that — far unlike in years past — plenty of lawmakers were willing to give this idea a chance.
Democrats push back?
Given Republican dominance in recent Oklahoma elections, some wondered if Democrats could find a credible gubernatorial candidate in 2018. But the state’s continuing fiscal woes under Republican leadership have emboldened Democrats, and their slate of serious candidates continues to grow. This week, former Attorney General Drew Edmondson became the latest to throw his hat in the ring. And not only did Edmondson announce his candidacy, but he did so with a strong dose of Bernie Sanders-style, leftwing populism. Edmondson promised to “take on Wall Street and their huge corporations, the powerful, our Legislature …” He touted his record as attorney general as one where he fought “foreign corporations,” “Wall Street and Big Tobacco,” and promised to “stand up to the outsiders who every day are trying to hurt our way of life for their own profit ...” It appears 2018 may not be a quiet political year in Oklahoma after all.
IT consolidation
The benefits of state government information technology consolidation, which began in 2011, became apparent with recent Oklahoma storms. Abundant rainfall and high winds knocked power out in several areas, including the Capitol complex. But power stayed on at the state’s Data Center, which houses servers connected with more than 100 state agencies, thanks to a plan that includes up to four 1,450-horsepower generators cranking out 1,000 kilowatts of power. “This weekend’s storms demonstrated another success of IT consolidation, keeping the state online during a power outage,” said Preston Doerflinger, secretary of finance, administration and information technology. “While storm damage is never a good thing, it did show that the emergency systems we’ve put in place worked to secure and keep the state’s data online during an outage.” Thus, consolidation may have not only saved taxpayer dollars, but also improved service.
Students feeding students
The motto of the National FFA Organization is “Learning to do, doing to learn, earning to live, living to serve.” This week, Oklahoma FFA participants provided a shining example of that last phrase by surpassing their goal to help feed hungry schoolchildren across the state. The 226 chapters that took part in the FFA Hunger Challenge donated enough livestock — 540 cattle and hogs — and money to produce more than 1 million protein sticks for backpack programs sponsored by the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. The total was 25 percent more than a year ago. The food bank’s Beef for Backpacks and Pork for Packs programs help the agency make sure chronically hungry students in more than 500 elementary schools have something to eat on weekends. “We spend a lot of time with our animals,” one participant said. “To give it back to something bigger than ourselves is very inspiring to me.” It’s inspiring to others as well. Kudos.
Outdated
We’ve often noted that Oklahoma statutes are cluttered with obsolete and outdated laws that should be repealed. This week, the governor signed legislation repealing two such laws that made it illegal to seduce an unmarried female or impute unchastity to females. The seduction law, enacted in 1910, authorized sentences of up to five years in prison for violations. One can agree with the sentiment undergirding those old laws without thinking those offenses should be prison-worthy crimes today. As Sen. AJ Griffin, the Guthrie Republican who authored the repeal, noted, Oklahoma law still protects minors in such situations, and adult women can make their own decisions about entering into any relationship. Unlike the seduction law, other unnecessary statutes are still enforced and impose unreasonable restrictions on Oklahomans today. Hopefully, the repeal of the seduction law will lead lawmakers to rethink other antiquated statutes that have more serious modern-day consequences.
Vending machine fees
We recently noted that state lawmakers were considering a significant increase in the fee imposed on vending machine operators despite the fact that the last such fee increase generated far less than expected. House Bill 2359 would have raised the fee on most vending machines from $75 to $100. This week, the Oklahoma House of Representatives rejected that bill on a 20-76 vote. Rep. Jason Murphey, R-Guthrie, was among the most vocal critics of the bill. In a recent column he noted the last such fee increase was expected to raise the total generated by the fee to more than $8 million annually. Instead, by 2011 the total was just $2.1 million, leading lawmakers to cut the increase in half. But Murphey noted, “To this day, this fee generates less revenue than it did in 2009 before the increase.” It’s a welcome occasion when logic wins the day.