Tulsa Metro Chamber members lobby at Capitol; About 225 metro leaders push a variety of causes
OKLAHOMA CITY - About 225 Tulsa-area business leaders worked the halls of the state Capitol on Wednesday afternoon, pushing for better roads, more money for schools and other priorities of the Tulsa Metro Chamber.
Gov. Mary Fallin, state Treasurer Ken Miller, House Speaker Kris Steele, R-Shawnee, and Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman, R-Sapulpa, spoke to the group before it fanned out on the chamber's annual lobbying blitz.
The chamber urged a six-item agenda: increased state funding for education, state bond funding for a popular culture museum in downtown Tulsa, funding for a quick-action closing fund to attract employers, protecting key tax credits and incentive programs, transportation funding and more funding for physician training programs.
On some of those items, especially the pop museum and tax credits, the chamber may be swimming upstream.
Many lawmakers are determined to limit bond funding this year and do away with transferable tax credits as part of an income tax reform and reduction effort.
Fallin spent some of her time with the group talking about the importance of a substantial cut in the state income tax, but chamber President Mike Neal said essential government services have to be paid for first, and all of the items on the chamber's agenda are essential.
The chamber backed Fallin's plan to put money in a quick-closing fund that would allow for last-minute incentives to companies considering Oklahoma as a place for new facilities.
Neal said the state has lost hundreds if not thousands of jobs because it doesn't have money for that purpose, while other states competing for jobs do.
The Legislature created a quick-closing fund last year but didn't put any money in it.
Rep. Ron Peters, R-Tulsa, gave the chamber group some encouragement on the possibility for bond funding for a popular culture museum.
Bond funding for the project will be difficult this year, but Capitol talk about bond spending has been ballooning in recent days, Peters said.
The Tulsa project might be able to get in on that momentum, he said.
Chamber Vice Chairman for Government Affairs Jeff Dunn told the citizen-lobbyists that Oklahoma is underwriting the medical treatment of sick people in other states because some Oklahoma-trained physicians have to leave the state for medical residencies.
Sen. Rick Brinkley, R-Owasso, pointed out that if the state can increase funding for residencies for three years, the federal government will pick up the cost subsequently, allowing Oklahoma to have more physicians to treat poor and rural areas.
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