Capitol Insider

Melissa McLawhorn Houston was appointed Oklahoma Labor Commissioner by Governor Mary Fallin after Commissioner Mark Costello was murdered by his son in 2015.

Melissa McLawhorn Houston was appointed Oklahoma Labor Commissioner by Governor Mary Fallin after Commissioner Mark Costello was murdered by his son in 2015.

The primary work of the second legislative special session of the year is over. On Friday afternoon, Governor Mary Fallin signed SB0001XX and SB0002XX to provide supplemental funding for the Oklahoma Health Care Authority and Department of Human Services to get the agencies through April. The Senate passed the bills on Wednesday and the House of Representatives passed them on Friday, without any no votes, to send them to the governor. The Oklahoma Health Care Authority will receive $17.7 million

The Oklahoma Department of Corrections is requesting a one billion-dollar increase in funding. DOC officials say the funding is long overdue. The $1.53 billion budget includes plans to increase staff pay, build two new medium security prisons and expand rehabilitation programs aimed at reducing recidivism rates. DOC Spokesman Matt Elliott told KGOU, some state prisons are in need of things like locks and sewage system repairs. “This is just a result of the neglect that corrections has dealt with

Restoration work is ongoing at the Oklahoma state capitol. Recently, project manager Trait Thompson led KGOU’s Dick Pryor and eCapitol news director Shawn Ashley on a tour of the building.

The Oklahoma legislature’s special session continues, as a compromise bill failed in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. Lawmakers nearly agreed to increase taxes on beer, tobacco and fuel, and were close to a deal on raising taxes on oil and natural production, which has been a major point of contention throughout the special session. The tax package required 76 votes in the House, but fell 5 votes short. Some Republicans who voted against the bill argued it would hurt an important industry,

As the Oklahoma legislature wraps up its sixth week in special session, only one bill has made it to Governor Mary Fallin’s desk. The House of Representatives and Senate passed a bill to appropriate $23.3 million from the state’s “rainy day fund” for the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. eCapitol reports the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services lost $75 million, approximately 23 percent of its annual appropriations, when the Oklahoma Supreme

A budget package that would fill the state’s $215 million budget shortfall and provide raises to teachers and some state employees was held up in a House committee Friday, and its future is now in doubt.

The Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services announced it will be forced to cut half of its services if lawmakers don’t fix the state’s budget.

The Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services announced it will be forced to cut half of its services if lawmakers don’t fix the state’s budget.