Samantha Buckalew
November 15,
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK- As the day commences for those involved with the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Legislature, the House members begin their day with committees. In the Orders of the Day, the members begin by going over the Freshman Bills that were decided on late last night. As the list began with four bills, there have been changes to the list as now the Freshman Bills are, OSU 531, OU 503, ECU 504, and ECU 501. From the first list of Freshman Bills only ECU 501 remains on the list as for the others, the authors either declined to present their bills, or were not considered freshman by their amount of stars.
The first bill on the list is OSU 531 (Tindle) and is titled the “Fair Wage” Act of 2018. Freshman Ashley Schultz (OSU) does see that this bill is a “good bill to debate” as there is a divide between everyone. Her committee also brought up that there is a small business debate that can always be brought up about how a higher minimum wage would affect the small business owners. This would be able to downgrade the proponency for the bill, as the new small business owners would not be able to handle the extra expenses in regards to raising the minimum wage which could cause workers to lose their jobs Showing that even though this bill is looking to improve the pay of workers it could lead to many losing their incomes altogether.
Following the “Fair Wage” Act of 2018 (Tindle), the next bill to be looked over in committees is OU 503 (DeGroot). This bill, titled “Energy and Employment Diversification” Act of 2018 described how business that establish themselves as energy efficient after 5 years will be able to get up to a 10% tax credit. However the oil, gas, and coal industries will have their taxes increased from 5% to 7%. This bill would have many ramifications as until it is implemented there will be no way to be sure that the 2% increase on the fossil fuel industries will be able to account for the 10% loss of the energy efficient businesses. Moreover, the bill is interesting in that rather than giving the fossil fuel industries high tax rates to deter people from being involved in the businesses, there is an incentive given to businesses that become for energy efficient and eco-friendly.
The next bill to be discussed was ECU 504 (Herman). This bill is titled “Equal Opportunity” Act of 2018. The bill relates to how homeschooled children will be able to participate in public school activities. However the committee under Blake Blanton (RSU) discussed how a large amount of homeschooled children already have this opportunity in their areas as there are activity leagues open to homeschoolers. As well they make the case that students who are homeschooled made the choice, or their parents made the choice, to forgo the advantages of going to a public school to be homeschooled.
The final Freshman Bill on the list is ECU 501 (Breedlove). The title of this bill is “Premature Piercing” relating to the issues of parents having their children’s ears pierced under the age of 5. Some effects of the bill being passed could include parents losing some parental rights over their children at a young age. This could happen because the bill would take away a small amount of a parent’s right over their children while their children are not as intelligent as they would be.
Overall the bills are each very impressive in their own rights. They explore new laws and regulations that many have not thought of, or regarded as controversial. As well, each of them provoke different thoughts from every Representative, each passionate about their stance. After going over each of the bills the bill that was chosen to become the Freshman bill of the 2nd session of the Fiftieth Oklahoma Intercollegiate Legislature was the “Fair Wage” Act of 2018 authored by Tindle (OSU).