Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee an attorney, has filed Senate Bill 997 to make dues voluntary to the Oklahoma Bar Association instead of mandatory.
Coffee said the Bar Association has lobbied on issues ranging from abortion to lawsuit reform and workers compensation judges.
"A lot of times, while there are legal aspects, there are also public policy issues that their members may or may not agree with them on," said Coffee, R-Oklahoma City.
The Oklahoma Bar Association was created by the Supreme Court. It has about 11,000 active attorneys in Oklahoma, according to its Web site.
Formed in 1904, the Bar Association is not a state agency. Its activities are funded through dues and other revenue.
It investigates complaints and makes recommendations for disciplinary action to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
Jon K. Parsley, Bar Association president and a Guymon attorney, said the OBA is opposed to the bill but is willing to work with the Legislature to find an appropriate solution.
"In the past, the Oklahoma Bar Association has taken a position on tort reform," Parsley said. "That is an issue that directly affects the rights of the citizens of Oklahoma."
Coffee said he would like the OBA to come up with an alternative proposal.
Thomas Paine could have been talking about the Oklahoma House and Senate Republican Caucus or the Oklahoma Republican Party as 'sunshine patriot'
"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is darkness only that gives every its value."
-- Thomas Paine (The American Crisis, No. 1, 19 December 1776)
The Sad thing is that REPUBLICAN KILL
Official English, and the
Cap to annual property tax increases at
the lesser of 3 percent or the rate of inflation
OKLAHOMA lawmakers have produced few noteworthy bills this session and haven't been inclined to give voters much of a say on issues, either.
An English-only measure pushed by Rep. Randy Terrill, R-Moore, was shipped to a conference committee last week after being diluted considerably in the Senate. Its chances of emerging before session's end are slim. Even if it had been sent to the people as originally crafted, the bill wouldn't have stopped the state from offering driver's tests in Spanish — one of the main things Terrill wants to see abolished.
A conference committee also is where a term-limits bill for statewide office holders now sits. The attorney general fought the bill, which would have limited time in office to 12 years for his job and others such as state superintendent and corporation commission. Deep-sixed this session was a resolution that sought to let voters choose if they wanted to cap annual property tax increases at the lesser of 3 percent or the rate of inflation.
One of the few survivors (though probably not for long) would let voters decide if judicial appointments made by the governor should get Senate approval. An original stab at this failed. A second attempt has passed the House and is headed to the Senate. The resolution pertains to those named to the state's Supreme Court, criminal and civil appeals courts, the Workers' Compensation Court and the occasional appointments to district court posts.
At present, the governor chooses from candidates who have been recommended by the Judicial Nominating Commission. Senate approval would provide one more filter. As we've said previously, how sensible is it that senators must OK appointments to such agencies as the Polygraph Examiners Board and the Oklahoma Mining Commission, but not those in line for these most influential positions?
Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee an attorney, has filed Senate Bill 997 to make dues voluntary to the Oklahoma Bar Association instead of mandatory.
