Voting on a state budget is one of the most important things my Senate colleagues and I do during the legislative session. Leaders of the Senate and House appropriations committees have begun negotiating a state budget for the upcoming fiscal year. This comes after the Senate publicly unveiled its proposed budget in March and voted on it as a full chamber.I’m hopeful the House will soon lay out its budget proposal in a similar fashion because the Senate is committed to a fully transparent budget process from start to finish. Reforms the Senate implemented this year have allowed more senators to be directly involved in the budget-writing process while also giving the public a greater look at how the annual state spending plan comes together.April 11 was the deadline for House bills to be heard in Senate committees, and I advanced several bills just before week 10 of this legislative session came to a close. I passed legislation that aims to stop unethical real estate agents from preying on elderly Oklahomans through unfair service agreements.There is a practice across the country of some real estate agents signing people up for home listing agreements that give the Realtor an exclusive, 30-year listing on a home or property. A standard listing agreement lasts for six months or a year. But some agents are using questionable tactics to entice people to sign these 30year listing agreements without the homeowner really knowing what they’re getting themselves into. The Oklahoma chapter of the AARP brought this issue to Rep. Steve Bashore and I because the group felt some real estate agents were taking advantage of elderly residents through these contracts.I’ve also signed on to be the Senate sponsor of House Bill 3304, a bipartisan piece of legislation that allows employers who sponsor health benefit plans to consent to paperless billing for their employees. Essentially, electronic delivery of health plan documents would become the default option for employees. However, employees could request to receive paper documents instead. This bill recently passed out of the Senate Retirement and Insurance Committee.The Legislature has taken positive steps in recent years to reduce the obstacles that can make it difficult for Oklahomans with a criminal history to find employment. But we also recognize that someone with a criminal record might not be the best fit for some sensitive jobs in the judicial system. I recently passed House Bill 3634 that ...
