By Caleb Wortz
In an event that had about 55 registered attendees, more than 70 people crowded into the upstairs banquet room at First United Bank on Thursday to hear from our local legislators.
Senator Todd Gollihare, Representative Mark Lawson, and Speaker of the House Kyle Hilbert discussed the upcoming legislative session and explained that their primary focus will be discussing taxes and tax reform, creating a comprehensive, long-term plan to address the mental health crisis and judicial reform.
Senator Gollihare spoke first, and said he believed tax reform would be the highlight of what will be the 60th legislative session. “We passed the grocery tax bill but the governor is wanting that quarter percent tax cut,” he said.
Gollihare said he was anxious about that tax cut and explained his desire to balance revenue and expenditures first. He also pointed out that he had no specific plans but looked forward to those conversations.
“I’m a fiscal conservative, I want to see the numbers,” Gollihare said. “I want to see how the numbers balance out, I don’t want to take a chance that revenue is going to keep growing.”
Judical reform was Gollihare’s next point of focus, where his view is that anything serious or important will go through the courts. He went on to describe the power of the courts and why that makes guaranteeing accuracy so important.
“The state of Oklahoma can take your personal property away, (or) take your children away, so we’d better be right,” he said. They can take your freedom away, and have the ability to take your life away because we have the death penalty. You’d better be right.”
He went on to describe an issue he had with a bill last year that would’ve made judge appointments life-long. Gollihare implied he wasn’t in favor of such a bill, and stressed the fact that Oklahoma allows voters to vote out a judge on a retention vote every six years.
“Every six years, you get to hold them accountable for whatever decisions they have, right?” Sen. Gollihare said. “Just like every four years, you get to hold me accountable for whatever votes I’ve taken and what I’ve done in the caucus.”
The Senator then introduced Representative Mark Lawson, who spoke primarily about using this legislative session to formulate a comprehensive plan to address the mental health crisis. One of the major concerns he discussed was the state jailing individuals for mental health reasons.
“We can easily throw money at something, say we check the box,” Lawson said. “But if we’re not addressing the root cause of that problem then we really can’t come here and look you in the eye and say that we did something about it.”
He went on to describe that the year would be spent primarily on planning. Some key focuses of this would be early intervention prevention, childcare, and the problem of incarceration being used to address mental health issues.
“There’s a lot that can be said in a post-COVID world,” Lawson said. “We’ve seen an epidemic of mental health. We’ve seen that destroy families. We’ve seen that really disrupt society.”
Representative Lawson went on to introduce the new and youngest-ever Speaker of the House, Kyle Hilbert. He mentioned that his age was used against him during his campaign as a negative, but described the importance of having the perspective of a 30-year-old starting a family in legislature.
“A lot of Oklahomans are having these challenges of childcare and working families and raising family, and we should have that perspective in the legislature,” Speaker Hilbert said. “I also think it’s healthy that whatever decisions that I make I’m going to have to live with those decisions for, hopefully, a long time.”
The speaker also put a lot of focus on tax cuts, mentioning the $5 billion surplus the state has but also the need to be cautious as they approach those cuts. He specifically cited his desire to make sure they plan for financial uncertainty, given the ability of Oklahoma’s economy to swing quickly.
“We want to make sure that we are prepared for that future downturn that will come,” Hilbert said. “It’s not a question of if. It’s a question of when.”
The Joint Civic Luncheon is an event that happens four times a year and is organized by the Sapulpa Chamber of Commerce. Each of the four occasions has a different topic, including legislation and education. For more about how to sign up for the next JCL, visit sapulpachamber.com
