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I wanted to share with all of you my thoughts on the #OKLA2020 budget that has passed the House and that I voted for. First, I commend all of the fiscal staff personnel who have worked diligently on organizing the various components in this budget agreement. I also want to thank all of the leaders who’ve been negotiating during the past few months between the House, Senate, and Governor. These include my colleagues Appropriations and Budget Chair Kevin Wallace and Vice Chair Kyle Hilbert, along with all of the Appropriations and Budget subcommittee chairs who have contributed toward developing their respective budgetary areas.
Our governing process requires us to be pragmatic and seek forward-thinking solutions. Instead of setting unrealistic expectations for perfect policy, we must concentrate on good policy that is continuously improved. In Oklahoma, we understand that our rankings and statistics on major indicators like education, health, and incarceration need to change in order for us to be competitive in the 21st century. We all want this change to occur expeditiously, but our governing system is designed in a way that means policy proposals are supposed to be deliberately considered through various procedural obstacles that lead to the best possible ideas signed into law. There are always going to be folks who critique this process and proposed solutions because they believe more can be done in a different way. Having these differences of opinion and debating them is a strength of our democratic republic. Certainly, the #OKLA2020 budget is the result of stakeholders coming together and prioritizing our core services. I’ve consistently stated that we need to pass an additional $1,220 teacher pay raise and increase classroom funding, and this budget includes both of these elements. In fact, the legislature has now increased the Common Education budget 26.25 percent during the last two years. There is also an additional $1,400 state employee pay raise that I strongly support. I hope that we continue to make progress during the next legislative session on getting our retired state employees a much-needed COLA increase. There has been discussion throughout this session about the merits of saving a portion of the surplus instead of appropriating all of it. This budget does put $200 million into our savings, which I believe is fiscally responsible to ensure we are adequately prepared for a future economic downturn. Because of our commodity-based economy, it’s absolutely paramount that we make fiscally prudent decisions when economic conditions are favorable for increasing our savings. Moreover, this budget also includes several critical policies that can help move our state forward. The State Auditor’s office is appropriated $700,000 to hire more auditors, and the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT) will have $1.7 million to provide objective fiscal data to the legislature. Concurrent enrollment for high school seniors is fully funded. Criminal justice reform investments include $10 million for Smart on Crime programs through the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, $1.5 million for the Women in Recovery diversion program, and $1.7 million to address increasing demand for mental health services. In terms of health care, there is $10 million allocated to decrease the Developmental Disability Services wait list and increase provider rates, along with a $105 million reallocation to increase provider rates for physicians, hospitals, and nursing homes. There are even more investments in the areas of agriculture, infrastructure, and public safety that will make a positive difference for Oklahomans. Overall, I believe the #OKLA2020 budget is fiscally responsible because of its emphasis on savings and good policy because of the numerous investments in our core services. Of course, we still have more work to be done in making Oklahoma a top ten state, but I believe this budget puts us on the right track moving forward. I look forward to working with my colleagues to build on the momentum from this budget.
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 The House has passed the budget for Fiscal Year 2020, and after the Senate votes on it next week, it will proceed to the Governor’s desk. I’ve written a separate post elaborating on my thoughts regarding the budget. Overall, I think it makes tremendous progress in the right direction that we can continue to build on during next session and beyond.
Governor Stitt signed a fourth bill that I’ve authored this session: HB 1070. This piece of legislation clarifies that if a congressional vacancy occurs during an even-numbered year, the Governor can issue a proclamation to ensure that the regulatory election serves as the special election, too. This week, I had the opportunity to participate in a few events with my colleagues. On Monday, I played in the annual Oklahoma House of Representatives softball game. This tradition is a great opportunity to hang out with fellow legislators and have a little fun as we conclude the legislative session. On Wednesday, a few colleagues and myself participated in the first legislative bike ride celebrating National Bicycle Month and the bicycle safety bills that passed this session. On Thursday, I toured Tinker Air Force Base and learned more about how the aerospace industry contributes to our state’s economy. After we pass the remaining bills that have gone through conference committee, we should be finishing this legislative session next week. Please come to tomorrow’s town hall meeting if you’re able to make it. We’ll be discussing the budget and major takeaways from this session at the Lawton Public Library, Meeting Room 1 from 1 PM to 3 PM. If you’re interested in receiving newsletters and updates from me throughout the legislative session, please send me your email address. I’ll also regularly update constituents through my website: http://www.danielpae.com/news As always, I can be reached via email at daniel.pae@okhouse.gov and phone at 405-557-7374.  This week, we continued to accept Senate Amendments on the House Floor, and for those of us with conference committees, we worked diligently with stakeholders to improve the remaining legislation that is on the agenda. Budget negotiations continue between the House, Senate, and Governor. I’m still hopeful that we’ll have a final agreement very soon.
On Monday, I passed HB 1070 off the House Floor. This is the final piece of legislation that I presented for this legislative session. HB 1070 cleans up statute language relating to special elections for congressional vacancies in even-numbered years. The Senate added further clarifying language, so that’s why we had to vote on it one more time. HB 1070 now goes to the Governor’s desk. I want to thank the State Election Board staff for all of their help on this bill! Ethan Kinslow was my page this week. He is my third page of the legislative session, and I’m excited that he was recognized as Page of the Week by his fellow pages! Ethan is currently a sophomore at Lawton High School and plans on studying mechanical engineering in college. He’s involved with Student Council, Key Club, Academic Team, and Spanish Club. Ethan admirably represented his fellow Lawtonians at the State Capitol! I also enjoyed helping judge student presentations at the Spring 2019 Civics Day for Generation Citizen! I was impressed by the articulate and well-researched middle school students who have been working hard this semester on their projects. Young people need to be civically engaged and informed about what’s going on in their local communities. If you’re interested in receiving newsletters and updates from me throughout the legislative session, please send me your email address. I’ll also regularly update constituents through my website: http://www.danielpae.com/news As always, I can be reached via email at daniel.pae@okhouse.gov and phone at 405-557-7374. This should be the last month of the first session of the 57th legislature. We’re constitutionally obligated to finish by 5 PM on May 31st. Thus, it’s fair to say that we’re in the endgame now. In addition to conference committees, the last major item on our agenda is passing a budget for the next fiscal year. A major topic of discussion is how to utilize the surplus money toward investing in education, whether some of it ought to be devoted to a $1,200 teacher pay raise or all of it needs to be added to the funding formula. In my view, this shouldn’t be a binary choice because both options are extremely important for improving our education system. We need to ensure we’re paying our teachers at a competitive salary relative to our neighboring states. At the same time, teachers must have the tools and resources they need for their students to be successful. As budget negotiations continue during the next several days, I hope that we’ll be able to reach an agreement very soon. There were a few really awesome events I attended this week. On Tuesday, the Oklahoma Black Caucus Foundation hosted the 22nd Biennial A.C. Hamlin Awards Banquet, which is named in honor of Oklahoma’s first African-American legislator. The proceeds from the banquet are used to provide scholarships to deserving college students. On Wednesday, I really enjoyed catching up with former HD 62 Page Dean Lester at the Annual State FFA Legislative VIP Banquet. This evening, I’ll be attending Cameron University’s commencement to support and congratulate graduates of the Class of 2019. If you’re interested in receiving newsletters and updates from me throughout the legislative session, please send me your email address. I’ll also regularly update constituents through my website: http://www.danielpae.com/news As always, I can be reached via email at daniel.pae@okhouse.gov and phone at 405-557-7374.  |
Daniel PaeDaniel is the Republican Representative from Oklahoma's 62nd House District Archives
May 2020
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