Tulsa World Staff Writer
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Enhancement of a scholarship program associated with Tulsa’s 1921 Race Massacre, new business courts sought by Gov. Kevin Stitt and a measure aimed at truck drivers who don’t speak English were among the matters dealt with by the Oklahoma House of Representatives on Thursday.
Those and most of the other measures passed before the 5 p.m. deadline for third reading of Senate bills in the House must go back to the Senate, and many must survive the final budget decisions for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
As is often the case at this stage of the session, though, the most interesting things didn’t necessarily happen on the floor. During the afternoon, a Senate bill was subbed out with language that would reconstitute the Oklahoma State Board of Education by adding four members chosen by the House speaker and Senate president pro tem.
The bill, SB 646, didn’t get a vote, but a spokeswoman for Speaker Kyle Hilbert said the substance of it is part of ongoing negotiations and could resurface.
State Superintendent Ryan Walters, whose actions in office prompted the proposed changes, raged on X about a “backroom deal” by Gov. Kevin Stitt “and his insiders,” to which Stitt spokeswoman Abegail Cave replied, “You just don’t like accountability. Or kids reading at grade level, apparently.”
Counterintuitively, the amended Senate bills that are headed for further negotiation after Thursday’s deadline are by now more House versions than Senate.
They include SB 632, which would set up special business courts in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Although generally in line with the Senate’s version, passed earlier in the week as HB 1562, it also differs in several significant aspects.
One is pay. Under SB 632, business court judges would earn the same as federal district judges — currently $247,500 a year.
HB 1562 would peg business court judges at the same level as state district judges — or about $100,000 less than SB 632.
Both bills circumvent the Judicial Nominating Commission but in different ways.
The governor alone would appoint business court judges under SB 632, while HB 1562 would establish a joint legislative committee of eight majority and two minority party members to nominate judges to the chief executive.
The judges would serve six- (SB 632) or eight-year (HB 1562) terms and could be reappointed by the governor but would not be subject to a vote of the people, as are all other state judges.
SB 632 passed the House on Thursday, 71-19.
SB 1054, which would expand eligibility for the Tulsa Reconciliation scholarship program established in 2001 to Race Massacre descendants regardless of where they live and would raise the income cap for non-descendants, passed 54-28 after extensive discussion and debate.
Rep. Gabe Woolley, R-Broken Arrow, attempted to amend the bill to make the scholarship “more merit-based” but failed. He and some others expressed reservations about the idea of taxpayer-funded assistance for something in the distant past.
SB 20 would require commercial drivers licensed in other states to be able to prove citizenship and demonstrate a mastery of English. House sponsor Jonathan Wilk, R-Goldsby, said the language is in line with federal trucking regulations and is intended to protect public safety.
Tulsa World reporter Andrea Eger contributed to this story.
randy.krehbiel@tulsaworld.com
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Tulsa World Staff Writer
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