Oklahoma lawmakers OK $8 3B budget bondbuyer.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bondbuyer.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Credit Oklahoma Capitol Restoration
After a week of speculation, Republican state leaders announced Thursday afternoon a high-level agreement on an $8.3 billion budget.
Gov. Kevin Stitt said the plan goes back to goals he laid out in February during his state of the state address. No. 1 was to make Oklahoma a top-10 place for business, No. 2 was to deliver Oklahomans more for their money and No. 3 was always to invest in our fellow Oklahomans, and I believe this budget has accomplished all three of those items, Stitt said.
Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat said the plan for fiscal year 2022 looks a lot different than the one for FY21 announced last May during a socially distanced news conference and with more than $1 billion in cuts.
Policy Matters: Nickel-and-diming our justice system By: Ahniwake Rose Guest Columnist May 12, 2021
Ahniwake Rose
Our state’s courts and justice systems have a funding problem, one that is placing an outsized burden on the backs of rural Oklahomans.
Due to systematic underinvesting by the state, our courts and public safety services have become increasingly dependent on a vast array of fines and fees that pay for even the most basic operational costs. A new analysis from the Oklahoma Policy Institute found rural Oklahomans are often asked to pay more in court fines and fees – and have higher collection rates – than their urban counterparts. This inequity means rural Oklahomans effectively contribute more to fund our courts than those living in urban areas.
Oldest Tulsa Massacre Survivor Turns 107 as Fight Against the City Continues
According to
Tulsa World, Viola Fletcher, who turned 107, is believed to be the oldest survivor of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre in Oklahoma.
According to Justice For Greenwood, “the match to the fuel of racial resentment that was lit on the morning of May 31, 1921,” when a White mob attacked the Greenwood district of Tulsa.
Photo credit- Twitter- @dreisenheath
NowThis presented a tribute video to Fletcher where personal messages from the likes of actors Danny Glover and Piper Perabo and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker were shared.
“For you showing strength, letting the world know of truths that tried to be buried today we celebrate your love and your light,” Booker said in the video. “You are touching generations not yet born.”