Senate Leader Bingman Moves His Bill To Another Committee

  This morning, Senate President, Brian Bingman told KFAQ Radio that he has pulled his School District bill out of the Education Committee after the chair of that committee, John Ford, let the bill die without a hearing or vote. Bingman's hand-picked Rules Committee will be assigned to hear and vote on the bill, which could result in a committee passage and a senate floor vote.  Broken Arrow Senator, Nathan Dahm then called the station to announce his support for the bill. Dahm is also a member of the Rules Committee.

"It is a good starting place, if legislators will just stop listening to those with a vested interest in inertia and start thinking about improving the quality of Oklahoma schools." - Tulsa World editorial

  Bingman's bill addresses the several dozen Dependent School Districts which do not provide a full k-12 common education to it's students. Bingman would merge such districts into the administrative oversight of the independent school district where they feed their high school students into.

 Bingman Ignored the Asset Forfeiture Reform Bill

  While Senate President Bingman used his personal rank to trump the dictatorial powers of Senator Ford, he has ignored the similar plight of Senator Kyle Loveless' Asset Forfeiture bill. Justice Committee Chair, Anthony Sykes, has also used his dictatorial powers to refuse to hear a key reform bill. Sykes has been laying the groundwork for a 2018 run for Attorney General, and he seems to have made a commitment to law enforcement agencies. Endorsements from law enforcement are seen as essential in the AG race. So are campaign contributions from police unions and other such special interests.
Will Bingman extend his authority and resolve the Asset Forfeiture issue with a real floor vote?

State Amendment Needed

  The blatant abuse of dictatorial powers by legislative leadership has become brazen and widespread. While the current Oklahoma Constitution does allow each legislative house to create their own rules, it is clear that our elected leaders have an affinity for dictatorship powers. If the politicians don't fix this, perhaps we, the people, will need to tell them that we fixed it, one way or another.