Has Kim Holland and Kris Steele lost it...

HOLLAND PROPOSES CURBING DRIVER’S LICENSES, FOOTBALL TICKETS OF THOSE WITHOUT HEALTH PLANS
WTF !

Oklahoma must take drastic steps to improve its dismal ranking in the number of residents who have no health insurance, state Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland said Thursday during her agency’s Summit on the High Cost of Health Insurance.

Barring a law requiring the purchase of health insurance, which Holland concedes would be a political long shot, "inducements” that penalize those who fail to insure themselves would help, she said.

Among the possible inducements Holland proposed was forfeiture of football season tickets to University of Oklahoma or Oklahoma State University games, forfeiture of lottery or gaming winnings, loss of state income tax deductions or licenses to drive, hunt or fish.

Holland said policymakers need courage to enact major changes to boost the state’s poor standing for health care coverage of its residents.

State Rep. Kris Steele, co-chair of the House Health Care Reform Task Force, said requiring Oklahomans to purchase health insurance is not a popular stance among lawmakers.

"I believe the place to start is to create a situation within our state that people are without excuse for not having health insurance,” Steele said. "Once we get to the point where people are without excuse, then we create the incentives.”

Those incentives would include rewarding those who obtain insurance and punishing those who don’t, said Steele, R-Shawnee.

"You need the carrot and the stick,” he said.

Holland said the use of inducements, such as revoking in-state tuition discounts for uninsured Oklahomans, would send a message. "We have developed this culture over the years that some don’t feel like they have to pay their medical bills,” she said.

Insure Oklahoma, which uses state and federal money to help small businesses get health insurance for employees, probably is the best vehicle to make health care coverage more accessible, she said.

Big issues for 2008 legislative session From Cleveland County lawmakers

Immigration, infrastructure 

likely to be big issues for 

2008 legislative session, 

Cleveland County lawmakers say

Transcript Staff Writer

Published: January 06, 2008 12:00 am

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Call it the problem of "what they need to be doing versus what they'll get to do."

With just over five weeks left before lawmakers return to the state capitol, the list of issues needing legislative action grows almost daily -- education funding, teacher pay, health care, transportation, corrections and, of course, the budget all "desperately need attention."

But many legislators -- including some from Cleveland County -- are concerned those issues will take a back seat to one which has dominated the state's political landscape for more than a year: immigration.

And some worry the issue -- like Frankenstein's monster -- just won't go away.

With Moore Rep. Randy Terrill's recent announcement that he plans to file the "son of" his previous immigration bill, House Bill 1804, some state lawmakers worry Terrill's newest bill could divert attention from many other pressing issues.

"Immigration, it's an issue that shouldn't be No. 1, but it is," said state Rep. Bill Nations, a Norman Democrat. "We ought to be talking about education and health care and other things, but Rep. Terrill has us talking about immigration."

And that debate, Nations says, is a distraction.

"They should be dealing with it in Washington, D.C," he said. "The bill that Randy wrote is causing economic hardships. It's going to distract us from dealing with more important things. But you can rest assured there will be a lot of press and immigration will be a front page issue."

Instead, Nations said, lawmakers should be working on issues such as health care.

"We need to look at some type of universal health care for children," he said. "I don't know if we are where it can happen, but there is a moral obligation to see if we can cover all the children in Oklahoma."

And while Nations says lawmakers and policy experts haven't solved the health care problem yet, he believes there is hope.

"State Insurance Commissioner (Kim) Holland's task force isn't quite finished with its study," he said. "She and I have talked and I may be pushing their timing, but I believe there is a need to keep the conversation in people's mind. We have a need and responsibility to do that."

But health care isn't Nations' only concern.

A slow down in growth has the five-term Representative cautious.

"Our budget will be fairly quiet," he said. "It's not so bad a revenue picture that we'll have to make drastic cuts."

That is, cuts in spending or cuts in the tax rate.

"I certainly hope we don't try any more tax cuts," he said. "I agree with (OU President) Boren and the State Chamber of Commerce. We can't afford any more tax cuts at this point. We already have incredibly low taxes and, by any way you want to slice it, we need to hold off on any future ones."

An idea that some of Nation's more conservative colleagues support.

"I think we'll probably have to assess our situation," said Moore Republican Paul Wesselhoft. "We don't know how important additional tax cuts will be until we can see what our needs are and know how much money is available."

Wesselhoft, who says "he's not against tax cuts" said lawmakers should "exercise some caution" with future reductions in state revenue. "I read what President Boren had to say," he said. "You've got to see the whole picture and see what the needs are."

For Wesselhoft, those needs include repairing the state's ailing roads and bridges and reducing the number of inmates in the state's corrections system.

"The most important issues are roads and bridges and the corrections system," he said. "We're going to have a tighter budget than we did last year and getting our roads and bridges repaired and answering the problems with the corrections department, those issues should be our focus."

To do that, Wesselhoft said he wants to earmark all the state's growth revenue -- about $32 million -- for road and bridge repair.

"That means it won't go to teaches salaries," he said. "But infrastructure is not a sexy topic. It doesn't lend itself to political rhetoric and gamesmanship. It's not a ribbon cutting kind of policy."

The state's bridges, he said, are crumbling.

"Chunks are falling through windows and killing our citizens. That should send a chilling message to lawmakers. It's a concrete example of why we should invest in infrastructure."

Wesselhoft also wants to reduce the number of inmates in state prisons by expanding the use of community based sentencing programs, alternative forms of incarceration and drug courts.

"We have an overcrowded prison system," he said. "We need to give more thought to putting those incarcerated for drugs into different programs. We are going to have to develop an alternative system, such as community sentencing for these people."

State Sen. John Sparks, a Democrat, agreed.

"We should look at the reasons for incarceration," he said. "We should decide if we can use alternative sentencing more."

The issue, Sparks said, comes down to money. "Without over simplifying the deal it comes down to this: How much do we want to pay to keep people in jail?"

Sparks says he would rather earmark state revenue for education.

"We need to get a handle on our higher education system," he said. "I think everyone would agree that higher education benefits the state. The numbers don't lie. If you don't have a healthy, well educated work force, economic development isn't going to happen."

Sparks said the state "needs to step up" and make higher education a priority. "It's important to understand, this isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. It's a commitment, a long term commitment. We're not going to fix the problem in one year. It's going to be an 'every year' issue that is going to take an 'every year' commitment."

For state Rep. Scott Martin, a Norman Republican, the focus will be on transportation issues.

"We're going to look at removing the trigger and the cap on transportation spending," he said. "So I'm sure that will be something that's heavily debated and discussed."

Two years ago, Martin said lawmakers passed legislation which had a 3 percent growth trigger. "If growth hit 3 percent, there would be additional funding to the Oklahoma Department of Transportation," he said. "If it didn't there would be extra funding, but not as much."

And while growth didn't reach the 3 percent threshold during last year's legislative session, Martin said it hit the mark after the session, but lawmakers "weren't able to go back and appropriate additional funds for roads and bridges."

"I'd like to review that," he said, adding that he also wants to reapportion fuel taxes which should be going for transportation issues but currently are not.

Like Martin, state Rep. Wallace Collins agrees that lawmakers should focus on transportation. But unlike Martin, Collins, a Democrat from Norman, said that discussion will probably be on light rail.

"We should be looking at transportation issues," he said. "And we'll probably be dealing with rail, it will get some attention. But I don't think ethanol as an alternative fuel is going to solve much of anything. I think it's a distraction."

Education and mental health, he said, along with the state's prison system and pay raises for state employees "all need to be dealt with."

"It's vital that we deal with them," Collins said. "I just hope we won't get bogged down with immigration and more tax cuts."

Editor's note: Despite repeated attempts, The Transcript could not reach state Rep. Randy Terrill, Sen. Jonathan Nichols or Sen. Anthony Sykes for this story. Their views on the session will be included in future stories.

VoteLaw: IRS and FEC complaints filed against Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland Attacker

From VoteLaw ~ The group Public Citizen has filed complaints with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Federal Election Commission (FEC) alleging that a political operative and his controversial group identified by TMRO as key players in the 2006 television attacks on Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland violated federal election law and the group's tax status.

The complaints name the nonprofit group Americans for Job Security (AJS). The complaints, which were also sent to congressional committee leadership as part of a request for an investigation into the issue, ask the IRS to revoke the group’s tax status and the FEC to fine the group for election law violations.

It's the same group implicated in placing robo calls against Mary Fallin and Denise Bode in the 2006 Republican congressional primary.

Americans for Job Security is registered under Section 501(c)(6) of the tax code, the category reserved for business leagues and trade associations. Groups that are registered under this section are prohibited from engaging in efforts to influence elections as their primary purpose. But AJS, which maintains no Web site and appears to have only one paid employee, spends millions of dollars on advertisements to influence elections without appearing to engage in any other substantive efforts, according to the complaint. While many groups registered under 501(c) of the tax code participate in some level of electioneering activity and others may have violated the law, Public Citizen has identified AJS as one of the most egregious offenders. In response, Public Citizen is asking that the IRS revoke AJS’s 501(c) status, collect back taxes for its undeclared electioneering activities and require it to pay penalties for violating its tax-exempt status.

In 2006, TMRO reported, "The president of the controversial Americans For Job Security, Mike Dubke, has been indentified by The McCarville Report Online as the man leading the $250,000 attack on State Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland.

"TMRO learned that the television commercials attacking Holland were placed by Dubke, a conservative Republican power broker who routinely launches attacks on Democrats, and sometimes moderate Republicans, in election years from his suburban Washington office in Olde Town Alexandria, Virginia.

"The commercials were placed through Crossroads Media, located at the same address as AJS. Dubke, over the last five years operating as an advertising agency, has placed attack radio and television commercials in races all over the country. He has been investigated, threatened and described as a 'political jackal' because he represents groups that don't disclose the sources of their money. He says that is deliberate, because keeping the sources secret means the debate is on his targets rather than his donors.

"AJS is located in Suite 555 at 66 Canal Center Plaza in Alexandria, VA. Crossroads Media, listed in Oklahoma television station documents as the agency on the anti-Holland commercials, is located in Suite 555 at 66 Canal Center Plaza in Alexandria, VA. A Federal Election Commission document located by TMRO lists Dubke as 'Crossroads Media/Partner.'"

In 2006, Attorney General Drew Edmondson said he'd reached a settlement with Americans For Job Security about robo calls placed against Mary Fallin and Denise Bode in the 5th District Republican primary and has found no evidence that any of their opponents was involved in the calls. Edmondson said AJS and vendor Advantage Inc. agreed to pay $3,000 each to cover investigative costs into the violation Edmondson alleged, that the calls did not contain the name of the entity sponsoring them in the proper place and did not contain a call-back telephone number. Edmondson said the investigation by his Consumer Protection Division concluded that "no other candidates were found to be associated with the calls."

Hat Tip to Mike @ TMRO'