Rep. Echols Answers Sen. Treat's Criticisms of House

10/28/2017

Senate Floor leader Treat upbraided both parties in the House, this morning. House Floor Leader Echols Responded.

The senate adjourned Thursday, expecting that the House would have a solution by Saturday morning. When Saturday came, their was nothing in the 'IN' box. So senators were told to "stay home and see your families". But Sen. Greg Treat was not going to shut up.

"I, like a lot of Oklahomans, am disgusted... this is not the student council. Real lives are going to be impacted."

As for Speaker Charles McCall; his lack of action is very puzzling. The speaker & Speaker Pro Tempor are ex officio voting members that can participate in any committee vote. Neither of them did.

When Friday afternoon JCAB convened, Speaker McCall was absent from the press.
When the meltdown happened in Friday's JCAB over a bipartisan compromise occurred, McCall did not step in to vote to move the bill to the whole house.
McCall did not release a statement or convene a 'presser' after the Friday JCAB mess.
When the Saturday floor calendar needed an agenda for this morning's session, McCall ignored the emergency funding which JCAB passed on Thursday, and so 100 House members were called in for nothing.
When Senator Treat ripped into the whole House institution, McCall did not respond. Instead, Majority Floor Leader, Jon Echols fielded the heat and took the issues.

Floor Leader Jon Echols (left) negotiated with Democrat Eric Proctor, after Scott Inman abruptly resigned, on Wednesday.

 It's time to start talking about some stuff that can pass,"
said House Majority Floor Leader Jon Echols, R-Oklahoma City.

As for Jon Echols, he called on the Governor & Senate to stop interferring.
"Eventually, the governor's branch and the Senate are going to have to stop micromanaging the House. A lot of these votes are because they're demanding them from both parties before they'll unleash some real solutions. If we can't get there on GPT and cigarette tax, the Republicans are going to have to abandon cigarette tax and the Democrats are going to have to abandon GPT."

A Solution Without Tax Increases (for now)

Echols said two options include

raiding $83 million from cash left over from last year's budget to help stem the $215 million budget shortfall.
Senate lawmakers could also take up legislation in February that would unlock more than $100 million. The bill, a holdover from last session, would cap non-charitable itemized deductions at $17,000.

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