Capitol Week In Review: State Lawmakers Amend Bills, Break Down Budget

The battle is over to save a 100-year-old veterans center, but it’s just begun for teachers demanding another raise.

State retirees asked for a 4% cost of living adjustment. It would be their first raise in 11 years, and pensioners like retired teacher Theo Crawley say it’s needed.

“Medicine is three and four hundred dollars a month right off the top,” said Crawley. “Food takes a backseat.”

 A bill that would ban the use of vaping products on school property advances to the House floor.  

“(It) Would allow for school police to write tickets if that’s something they want to do. But that leaves it up to the school,” said Representative Mark Vancuren (R) Tulsa.

Governor Kevin Stitt, meanwhile is ordering an audit of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, after the agency requested an emergency $16 million appropriation to fend off furloughs. 

And the State Department of Veterans Affairs gets a federal grant to open a center in Sallisaw and close the facility in Talihina.

Finally, lawmakers won’t make the April first deadline for having school funding in place and will not give teachers the $400 million the Oklahoma Education Association is asking for, so OEA isn’t ruling out another walkout.