Keating outlines goals for 2001 Legislature

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Community sentencing for first-time drug offenders and a cut in the state income tax rate are among Gov. Frank Keating's goals for the 2001 Legislature. <br><br>The legislative

Sunday, December 31st 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Community sentencing for first-time drug offenders and a cut in the state income tax rate are among Gov. Frank Keating's goals for the 2001 Legislature.

The legislative session is still more than one month away, but Keating is wasting no time in outlining his agenda. The Legislature convenes on Feb. 5.

Keating said Friday he wants to ensure that first-time drug offenders are sent to community sentencing programs instead of expensive prison cells generally reserved for hardened criminals.

Keating, a former FBI agent and federal prosecutor, said he believes prison ``is for violent and chronic offenders, those that are walking crime waves.''

``We never intended under my reform initiatives to provide an expensive jail cell for a first-time drug offender,'' Keating said. ``Those people ought to be in community sentencing.''

First-time drug offenders should be picking up trash, going to school and earning a living, he said. But many district attorneys have succeeded in getting first-time offenders sent to prison.

``They should not be paid for by the taxpayers of Oklahoma at a high-dollar rate,'' the governor said.

Last year, 35.8 percent of the new inmates coming into the prison system were drug offenders, according to state Corrections Department spokesman Jerry Massie.

Keating said the idea behind community sentencing was that people, including first-time drug offenders who haven't had a previous brush with the law, not be sent to a $15,000-a-year prison cell.

``That's something that obviously is going to have to be debated and discussed as we resolve the corrections request of this session,'' Keating said.

Keating also said he wants further reductions in the state income tax rate and also seeks tax relief to help the poor pay heating and cooling bills.

``We need to focus on the frailest and poorest among us and the difficulty low-income people are having in paying for heating and cooling ... ,'' Keating said.

House Speaker-designate Larry Adair, D-Stilwell, has called for an emergency appropriation to ensure that elderly citizens, children and other indigent Oklahomans get help with their heating bills.

In 1998, the Legislature approved Keating's plan to cut the state income tax rate from 7 percent to 6.75 percent. Keating wants to reduce the tax rate annually for five years until it is 5.5 percent.

Lowering the income tax rate would induce people to remain in Oklahoma, Keating said.

The state Board of Equalization said Friday that the 2001 Legislature will have $297 million more to appropriate than it had last session.