Now hiring
How’s this for irony: The most secure employment in Oklahoma today is helping the jobless get their benefits. The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission has added employees and may have to do so again to keep up with the traffic in jobless benefits. As unemployment increases, OESC workers have their hands full handling claims for compensation. Phone lines have been so jammed that equipment upgrades were needed. Payments to jobless workers may reach record levels because the maximum benefit has been increased. The state’s unemployment rate in November rose to 4.5 percent from 4.2 percent in October. Imagine how busy the commission would be if joblessness ever hit double digits. That would force the need for more employees, thus reducing unemployment by a fraction of a percent.
Poling place
With all the serious business facing lawmakers in this year of economic challenge, the plight of the barber pole may seem insignificant. But those revolving striped poles are serious business year-round for barbers. State Rep. Gary Banz, R-Midwest City, wants to make sure the poles stay exclusively linked to the barbering business, the Tulsa World reports. Banz got the idea from his barber, who is also chairman of the Oklahoma Barber Advisory Board. The bill would restrict barber poles to shops with licensed barbers, preventing other hair cut providers from using them. First offense would carry a warning. Subsequent violations would carry a fine. We must admit to ignorance when it comes to knowing this was a problem or even that the state has a Barber Advisory Board, one of more than 500 state agencies, boards and commissions. If anything needs a shave, it’s that number. Still, trimming the inappropriate use of barber poles may be worth a hearing in the 2009 legislative session. We hope, though, that lawmakers won’t take too much off the sides of time when they mull this hairy issue.
Rainy Day ruckus
We’re just halfway through the 2009 fiscal year, and already there’s talk of using the Rainy Day Fund to prop up the FY 2010 budget. The noise by some at the Capitol follows news from the state Tax Commission that receipts for next fiscal year could be down by $250 million. Gov. Brad Henry has prudently left the Rainy Day Fund alone during his six years in office, and as a result there’s now about $600 million available. Henry says he doesn’t favor tapping it. Neither does Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee, who’s correct in saying next year could be worse and so it’s best to keep away. Energy-rich Alaska faces up to a $400 million deficit in this year’s budget, but Gov. Sarah Palin isn’t reaching into her state’s sizable reserve fund. “It’s not pouring rain in Alaska. It’s sprinkling,” she said this week. The same is true for Oklahoma.
Targeting the bullet tax
Under the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, Americans have the right to buy and consume alcoholic beverages. But that doesn’t give them the right to avoid paying taxes on beer, wine and spirits. Two Democratic Oklahoma lawmakers think guns and ammunition should be exempt from state sales taxes because, in the words of one of them, “We should not have to pay a tax to exercise our constitutional rights – especially our Second Amendment rights.” State Rep. Eric Proctor, D-Tulsa, and state Sen. Kenneth Corn, D-Poteau, say they’ll seek the tax exemption in the next legislative session, one that will be dominated by how to fund government in a down year for state revenues. We assume that exempting guns and ammo from state sales taxes means they’d be exempted from local sales taxes as well. Of the many unneeded bills being talked about before the session begins, this ranks among the most pointless. Lawmakers should take aim and shoot down this proposal early in the session.
Not quite ready
Having endured what was then the nation’s worst terrorist attack, Oklahoma was in a position to help with advice for the cities affected by the 9/11 attacks. Is the state in a position to handle another such emergency? Not quite, according to the 6th annual disaster preparedness report issued by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The state met seven out of 10 benchmarks for preparedness, the report says. That’s actually not too bad - six states met only five of the benchmarks. A state’s preparedness score is presumed to indicate how ready we are for a disease pandemic, natural or man-made disaster or a bioterrorist attack. Oklahoma is lacking in preparedness for a flu pandemic. It also hasn’t increased funding for public health services by an amount deemed necessary by the report’s author. The third area of deficiency is the lack of law limiting the liability exposure of business or non-profits that respond to an emergency.
Here we go again
Where have we heard this before? A public official commits a crime that shames himself and his office and costs him his career and a huge chunk of his pension. But after a series of appeals, the pension is returned. It happened with former state Sen. Gene Stipe. Might it happen again with former Creek County District Judge Donald Thompson? In 2006, Thompson was convicted of four counts of indecent exposure for masturbating and using a penis pump during trials. The Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System revoked most of his pension, which stands at better than $97,000 per year. This week Thompson’s attorney argued that OPERS was out of line and that Thompson didn’t violate his oath of office. An administrative law judge is hearing the appeal and will make a recommendation to the OPERS board in January. Restoration of the pension after such revolting behavior by a man who was supposed to honor and uphold the law would indicate that in Oklahoma, anything goes.
Safety regs needed for crane operators
Oklahoma’s labor commissioner is doing the proper thing by exploring the regulation of heavy-equipment operators. Work on such regulations is ongoing, and began after two recent fatal crane collapses in Oklahoma City. The first occurred in July, when a crane holding a church steeple toppled and crushed a car, killing a man who was watching the work. On Oct. 20, a worker painting a parking garage downtown was killed when the aerial basket he was standing in fell over. Commissioner Lloyd Fields says there are as many as 200 cranes, bucket trucks, aerial baskets or other such heavy equipment operating in the state. In Oklahoma City, a work zone permit is needed when heavy machinery is used. Those permits require that safety guidelines be followed, such as roping off the work area. But the state doesn’t have any rules for those who operate heavy equipment. Fields has been looking at laws in other states. It’s possible the Legislature could have a bill to work with next session. We hope that’s the case. As one construction company president said, “You can’t work on a toilet unless you are a licensed plumber, but you can take a piece of heavy equipment and work without a license.” That needs to change.
Two good men
We recently chided a liberal trial lawyer group for its low ranking of a legislator despite his record on health care. A conservative group deserves the same scorn for its targeting of state Rep. Doug Cox, R-Grove, for being too liberal. The group says Cox has strayed from conservative principles. The trial lawyers targeted state Rep. Kris Steele, R-Shawnee, for voting the “wrong” way on bills the lawyers thought important. Constituents in the district served by Cox are being asked to vote his Democratic challenger. Steele and Cox, a physician, are among the finest members of the Legislature. Both have dedicated their time to improving the health care of all Oklahomans. Few may agree with every vote made by Cox and Steele, but their overall record makes both worthy of another term. Neither deserved the criticism.
Chicken litter losses
AG loses on two fronts
There were two pieces of bad news this week for Attorney General Drew Edmondson. The first came Monday when a federal judge in Tulsa rejected Edmondson’s bid for an injunction to stop the spread of poultry litter inside the Illinois River watershed. Judge Gregory K. Frizzell said the state hadn’t made its case that the litter, which is used as fertilizer, needed to be banned because it threatened human health. Later in the week, the Tulsa World reported that the amount of litter used in the watershed actually increased this year. One reason? The AG’s move to ban it. Farmers “just panicked” and “ended up probably using more litter in the watershed than they would have initially planned to over the last season,” Sherri Herron with the nonprofit BMPs Inc. told the World. “They were afraid that they might not get to use it again.” The law of unintended consequences at it again.
Restaurant smoking rules
Ban of bothers
ADVOCATES and opponents of smoking bans in restaurants have been trading statistics for years over the financial effect of bans.Supporters claim bans have affected the bottom line at restaurants and bars – in a positive manner.Sales and employment at Oklahoma restaurants have increased since restaurants were required to physically separate smoking and non-smoking areas, a report from the state Health Department says. Whether the increases would have occurred anyway is impossible to say.
Since 2006, restaurants that allow smoking have been required to provide separate and well-ventilated areas for smokers. Most restaurants made the decision to go smoke-free, and that decision has apparently not resulted in a loss of business.
Campaigns for and against public smoking have been accompanied by grave predictions of financial declines. A group opposing a smoking ban in Chicago several years ago cited dire financial results of bans from around the globe.
But the Health Department report says that hasn’t been the case in Oklahoma. The report will likely bolster attempts to make the smoking ban inclusive – meaning restaurants that went to the expense of building smoking rooms would have done so in vain. The owner of Cattleman’s Steak House in Oklahoma City, for example, spent $33,000 for a smoking room. That’s not small change. Lawmakers should tread carefully in considering a total ban.
