Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome, welcome, welcome.
It's time now for our community connection and it takes a little bit of
a different tone here today. And our community Connection is brought to you by
Arnold Moore and Kneecamp Funeral Home, Paul grassmo Unders and also Wesley and Kitty
College. The big story today is that Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stentt announced that he's
filing a lawsuit with the US Supreme Court against the House Speaker Charles McCall and
a Senate pro tempy treat lawsuit was announced yesterday after the States Senate and the
House both voted to override the governor's vetos on tribal compacts. Now, the
governor said that he simply wants to keep the eastern part of Oklahoma from becoming
a reservation. Here's what he said yesterday. But with this new language,
what they're hoping to do is turned our state into a reservation. I don't
think that's good for Oklahoma's On the mcgart ruling, said that reservation was still
in existence for the major crimes only, and now you're seeing tribal governments argue
that the reservations exist for all purposes. They're pushing for taxes on income taxes.
They're pushing for the City of Tulsa not to have authority to write speeding
tickets. So that's what I mean by moving to a reservation for all purposes.
And we spoke just a few seconds ago. Just got up the phone
with the state Senator Julie Daniels to get her reaction. Here's what she had
to say in our conversation. I can understand the two legal questions the governor
would like answer. Can the legislate sure ignore its own statute that said the
governor has the authority to negotiate the compacts, because some could argue that the
vote to override the veto and do an extension, that the extension was actually
a negotiation. Now, the legislative leaders will push back on that, but
I'm curious about that, And in fact, Senator Dom made that argument two
weeks ago on the floor that if we want to take away the executive branch
authority to negotiate, we should do that through statute and not through two bills
to extend compacts, which some could set are actually pleasure negotiating a compact.
That's one legal question. The other was when you go into special session,
you do it from a call and you list specifically what you're going to do
in that special session. This year, because the budget was done so late
because of education issues. Talking about education, we called a concurrent special session
to do our budget bills, so that if we ended the last Friday in
May, like the constitution requires, and the governor vetoed any budget bills,
we would be able to come back in that special session to decide whether or
not to override any vetos. Legislative leadership attached these two bills that were run
at the end of session to that call, not officially, but because they
involve money revenue, does that make feem budget related enough that they could be
part of this very specific call for the concurrent special session. Now that's very
much in the weeds. The other question is much easier to understand. But
I can understand the Governor's office wanting clarification. It's just that we continue to
add fuel to this fire of disagreeing between the governor and the legislature. I
voted to sustain the veto because I do believe the governor is the one who
should be negotiating, and we have undercut any ability to negotiate. Others would
say there's no trust at all with the tribes, and so no negotiation is
going to take place. But that negotiation had until December thirty one of this
year, and I think we should have less that in the hands of the
governor or amended the statute to take that authority away. So that's it in
a nutshell, as I understand it. Senator, I have a question for
you. The governor might be trying to do the right thing. Is it
perhaps the tactic or the temper meant Is that the thing that's probably the most
drawing the ire from some lawmakers. Yes, but one could also say that
the press release is coming out from the Speaker and the pro tem are also
a part of the back and forth, and so those of us who respect
both men are trying to find this middle way to continue to have good relations
and work with both the governor, and of course I work with my pro
tem. So it's disconcerting and disappointing to me. But when you add up
the steps towards this conflagration, it makes some sense that we are where we
are. I do know it was very disappointing to me to see a photo
on the front page of the Okhman this morning with two tribals chiefs high fiving
each other. I don't think that's good for the state of Oklahoma either.
So you know, today to new day, we'll see what the Supreme Court
says. These compacts are either extended for a year or they've actually been renegotiated.
I guess it would be up to the tribes to decide how they interpret
that. But now I'm getting over my skis and beyond what I can intelligently
comment on right this moment, and that is State Senator Julie Daniels commenting on
the governor instead finding a lawsuit against the House Speaker and the Senate pro tem.
And that is our community connection for today. And it's been brought to
you by Arnold Moore and Knee Camp Funeral Home, Paul Grassmotors, and also
Wesley and Kidney College. Right here on Kay one, the one you trust.