July 14th 2019 Newsletter
The Trump Index Bills
The list of prospective bills is nearly done for the 2019 Trump Index, the list of bad votes by the House and Senate. Refer back to the June 23rd newsletter for Trump's positions on the issues.
We have nineteen bills that made the cut so far but haven't totaled the votes and ranked the legislators yet. All nineteen bills might not make it on the index because it is good statistics to throw out the highest and lowest votes at time, the outliers, those that are outside the normal range. We do that by looking at the most conservative legislators from the previous year and seeing how they scored. That is a double check and if we see the most conservative legislators voting for a bill that appears to be bad we know we need to call them to find out their justification so we are sure we haven't missed something important about the bill.
That said, there were few conservative legislators that scored perfect scores and we don't expect them to, we expect them to vote with their district. The Trump Index is a rational and reasonable score to compare Oklahoma legislators. All of the bills are "bad" bills, all should have received a no vote from Republicans and conservative Democrats.
1. HB1014 Finger Print Bill allows the OSBI to access drivers license finger prints and bio metric info without a court order. The legislation is supposed to help those that are missing, endangered, or deceased. The first two categories are wide open to interpretation and thus subject to abuse. We were told that these real ID bio metrics would be kept confidential but once the data is out there it will show up anywhere and be abused. This increases privacy abuses without a corresponding benefit for security.
2. HB 1089 Hospital Subsidy Program Extension This legislation extends the supplemental hospital offset payment program fee for five years. The system taxes the hospitals, then uses the money to provide care for welfare recipients and trigger federal dollars to flow in to Oklahoma. For 2019, hospitals will pay SHOPP assessments of $204 million, and receive supplemental payments of $475 million. This is bad legislation, people ought to have skin in the game for medical care and pay for the majority of their own needs which helps keep all medical care costs down.
3. HB 1100 slashes the penalties for selling drugs in school zones and makes it much harder to prosecute criminals for selling drugs to school students. It reduces the distance from a school from 2000 feet to 500 feet and only allows the use of the statute during hours of school operation. So a drug dealer targeting a school isn't going to be doing business while class is in session but will conduct business before or after the school is let out. The bill cuts prison time from seven years to life in prison to not more than ten years in prison.
Do the math, a typical defendant will spend a year awaiting trial then serve no more than one fifth to one third of his sentence after good time behavior. So you could be seeing a two year sentence, minus the year awaiting trial, one year in prison. Worse, they plead these cases down to misdemeanors or simple possession all the time and even with felony sentences they give our far more suspended and deferred sentences than they do actual prison terms. The sad fact is that you usually go to prison for refusing to pay the court costs and fees rather than selling drugs to school kids. The bill didn't make it through the process so is still a live round for next session.
4. HB 1263 Zero Emission Tax Credit This bill extends the zero emission tax credits for up to ten years and allows the credits to be carried further than 10 years but refundable at 85%. These tax credits don't create jobs, they reward businesses that bribe politicians.
5. HB 1269 Scrubbing Criminal Records Act This bill allows for a simplified and accelerated expungement of the criminal charge and conviction if a person had been convicted of a felony for a crime that is now considered a misdemeanor. It also allows the Pardon and Parole Board to release convicted felons if the crime they were convicted of is now a misdemeanor. Even felons out on suspended or deferred sentences that are revoked for committing more crimes or refusing to pay the court fines and fees or restitution can be released if the new misdemeanor sentence is shorter than the time they already served in county jail awaiting trial or while out in the world serving a suspended sentence.
So there is no longer a toll for breaking the law if you are out on suspended sentence or deferred sentence. This tactic is used a lot to get criminals off the street without a lot of expense by the state. They get their day in court but it is a very quick hearing. It is great that an ex con can clean up his record after five or ten years of good behavior but it is another thing to scrub the criminal records so that employers or potential partners/spouses cannot find a felon's criminal record.
6. HB 1411 Affordable Housing Builder Credit In Metro extends the affordable housing tax credit, expands the counties where the credit is available and limits the carry forward to two years from five years. Pure corporate welfare, these houses would be built regardless of any tax credit. This is just businesses and a trade association bribing legislators to get money back.
7. HB1774 route 66 commission act was pushed by idiot Lt. Gov. Matt Pinell. The idea is to spend millions preparing for a centennial celebration for Route 66. What a waste of tax dollars just a greasy turd politician gets some publicity.
8. HB 2009 the Reduced Prison Time for Sex Offenders Act reduces sentence on second conviction for non violent and sex offenders. Now sex offenders face up to twice the original sentence if they are caught and convicted again. Had this bill passed this year sex offenders would face only up to one quarter of original sentence plus whatever sentence is handed down for the second offense. Keep in mind that most crimes are pled way down to avoid the cost of a prosecution and trial so the majority of these child molesters never face serious prison time under the 85% rule. Luckily the bill failed to pass but it is still a live round for next session.
9. HB 2095 Clean Fuels Credit Extension Extends the tax credit on clean fuel vehicles seven more years, removes hydrogen fuel cells from the list of acceptable technologies, but lowers the tax credit amount for passenger cars and trucks and massively raises it for heavy trucks. Limits it to $20 million a year but this is basically welfare for trucking companies and large fleet owners.
10. HB 2218 Waive Court Costs for Criminals Act This bill waives fines, costs, and fees if a parolee is enrolled in work training, school, or vo tech center. The law credits the value of a forty hour week at minimum wage against court fees and costs. Nothing states that the parolee or ex con has to complete the classes or pass, attendance alone will chop off $290.00 per week so in ten weeks of class the average convicted felon will have his court fines and fees paid. Considering that the vast majority of convicts rarely pay a cent of their court fines and fees and if they do it is at $40.00 per month, this seems excessive. It also drives a lot of career criminals into school for a few months without asking if they are even a candidate for straightening up their lives. A change to requiring a completion of a degree would help, as would allowing them $40.00 per month credit to keep the court off their back while they are in school. But allowing over $1,100.00 in fees and fine credit for nothing is a very bad idea and subject to abuse.
The bill also makes a maximum of two years on DA supervision and limits the cost to $40 per week. That is actually a decent idea although $40.00 a month plus drug testing would be enough for a parolee. The law also allowed a judge to consider if the convict was working a job and allow weekend incarceration instead of revocation and prison yet judges already have the ability to do this and more. The law also limits deferred sentences to four years and community supervision to one year. And what is community supervision? The Court supervises the convicts, they walk in the door, lay down a check, and leave. Parts of this bill are good and meet the idea that once a criminal pays his price to society they are helped to get back on their feet but if they don't pay their fines and fees all they have lost was a few months or years of their liberty and lets face it, if that was precious to them they wouldn't be criminals. With work this bill could meet the Trump standard but it doesn't in the current form.
11. HB 2273 The Parolee Protection Act waters down the parole violation process and allows acceleration in the last six months of the convict's sentence. Keep in mind how little of a sentence is actually served, from one fifth to one third of the time the sentence lists. You will find convicts with six year sentences going into prison one year and coming out the next and this legislation would cut that time in half if a pardon was requested. Again, this doesn't help an convict that has served his time, it shortens his time to a ridiculous amount and provides a graduated scale of punishments, limits the sentence after a parole violation to two years.
12. HB 2367 Workers Comp Subsidy To Insurers Expands the ability for workers to get benefits for repetitive injuries by striking out the clause that required 180 days of work at the company before repetitive injuries could be claimed. This bill was pushed by the corrupt Rep. Chris Kannady to pay off his lawyer donors. The half year requirement made sense to avoid workers comp fraud by workers. Working in a factory is physically demanding but workers get used to it and shouldn't expect a workers comp check for normal aches and pains from working.
13. HB 2369 created the Criminal Justice Coordinating Commission, a new 13 member commission studying soft on crime solutions to the prison over crowding. No good will come of this committee as they left out law enforcement and the bail industry representatives in favor of liberal non profits that are bleeding the criminals dry by shuttling them through one of their own non profits that charges hundreds of dollars a month.
14. HB 2739 Gov.'s Closing Fund Subsidy This is pure corporate welfare, a slush fund for the Governor, added $5 million dollars to the quick closing fund.
15. SB 184 DNA on arrest bill. This law allows the capture of DNA on arrest and it throws the door wide open on who is allowed to collect the DNA instead of relying upon trained law enforcement officers. It also changes the use from law enforcement purposes to DNA identification purposes.
16. SB 200 expanded tax credit for films. Another Lt. Gov. Matt Pinell supported scheme to provide corporate welfare for campaign donors. The legislation was passed years ago but Pinell bragged in one of his mail outs about extending the corporate welfare program.
17. SB 252 Catch and Release Bill This law would have made judges lower bail bonds as bail cannot be set higher than the person can afford to pay or high enough that the lack of ability to pay might prevent their release. In other words, a mentally ill person will simply be let out of jail as they have no income to pay for bail. Or career criminals that refuse to hold a job so as to avoid paying court fines and fees or restitution. It doesn't matter if the defendant's family has the ability to pay, it is his ability to pay that has to be considered. If no bail granted the judge must make a finding of clear and convincing evidence that the person is guilty of the crime, which is a scary thing when a court pre judges someone guilty of a crime.
The law would also remove the ability to withhold bail for those caught manufacturing drugs or drug addicts that commit crimes to pay for their drug habit. In place of that the law would allow a pre trial release program to vouch for the inmate. The bill aslo allows OR, own recognizance bonds, someone's promise to show up for court to be given to all defendants except those that have already escaped jail or prison, those charged with domestic abuse, violation of a protective order, or stalking. Basically if a man commits a crime against a woman he isn't eligible for OR bond at no cost. Other changes in the law are requiring a specific threat must be present to a specific person, changing the law from a history of violating court orders to a history of violating protective orders, and again it removes the drug or alcohol use history of the criminal from being considered.
18. SB 608 Liquor distribution law change. This was pushed by a big donor to Rep. Chris Kannady, a guy named Hendershot out of Tulsa who runs a liquor operation. Hendershot and Kannady were very bold in skirting ethics rules and state law to the point of distributing checks during the legislative session and making it very obvious that the checks were quid pro quo for supporting this legislation. The law basically forces suppliers to sell to all wholesalers regardless of quality standards and regardless of the amount of markup on the liquor. Whether it is good for consumers or not isn't being debated; but the strong handed corruption involved is enough to question anyone that took Hendershot's cash and voted for this legislation. The measure also may well violate the state constitution by restricting free choice of who a manufacture can sell to.
19. SB 749 Infrastructure Funding Assistance to Corporations serving Military. Sounds good but it actually expands Oklahoma Development Finance Authority loans to for profit businesses. AKA corporate welfare for companies that would have zero problem qualifying for a loan from a bank.
