McALESTER — Well, we did get out a week early as anticipated, however, was it early enough?

I was pleased to carry the nomination for former Gov.  Brad Henry’s nomination of Martin Hayes, M. D., of McAlester, to the Physician Manpower Training Commission. This commission’s purpose is to enhance medical care in rural and under-served areas of the state. His service to this commission is appreciated and he will be a great voice for rural medical care in the state of Oklahoma.

As I mentioned last week, the budget for Fiscal Year 2012 was passed and the governor signed it into law. If you think that the tornadoes of the last two weeks caused grief, destruction and uncertainty, this budget is worse. Every state agency was cut in its appropriation from 0.2 percent to 9 percent. This is in addition to the previous cuts of 10-12 percent the previous year. The governor has declared an emergency on the disasters from the flooding and tornadoes; she needs to declare a disaster on the state of Oklahoma because of this budget. Now, if you read the press releases from the governor and the majority party, this budget is the best thing for Oklahomans since sliced bread. Wrong.

The governor stated that “This has been a historic legislative session that will lay the groundwork for long-term prosperity and job creation in Oklahoma.” How can the governor state “It was perhaps the single most productive legislative session in state history and one which every conservative lawmaker can be proud of,” when the legislature cut common education 4.1 percent  and 5.8 percent for higher education and career tech?

With a $500 million shortfall, the leadership agreed to allow a tax cut trigger to go into effect to reduce the top income tax rate from 5.5 percent to 5.25 percent. If we had left the trigger alone, this would have helped offset the budget cuts to education and the state agencies.

Lawsuit reform has been the hue and cry of the majority party for many years and we have passed meaningful tort reform over the past several years. This year, four lawsuit-reform bills were passed by the legislature and signed by the governor. In each of these bills enacted into law, tell me who wins, the victims who are injured by the wrongdoer or the wrongdoer and their insurance companies? Watch, next year there will be more “lawsuit reform” on the table. I guess we will finally have enough lawsuit reform when we close the courthouse doors to those injured by the tortfeasors.

Public education is on its way to extinction. The legislature did more this year to destroy public education than one could believe. Former Gov. Henry Bellmon is probably rolling over in his grave after what the legislature did to provisions he had enacted in HB 1017 many years ago. One of the most disastrous results is the elimination of the rights of a terminated teacher to have the right of a trial de novo if the teacher is terminated.

Charter schools have been granted so much broader authority that they are a threat to our public schools.

Virtual schools are becoming increasingly available to those that do not want to actually attend public school.

State funding to private schools is increasing and that erodes the money available for the public schools and students.

Another bill will require each school in the state of Oklahoma to have a grade of A, B, C, D, or F. The purpose of this legislation is to allow the parents to know where their children are schooled and how that school is compared to a set of standards set by the state. I guess it is a good thing that the legislature is not graded in this manner.

Can you imagine a legislative session being given an F for that session? Where and when is this going to end? I guess when we do not have public education in Oklahoma.

All of the retired public school educators and retired state employees will not see a cost of living increase in the future unless, it is self-funded. This session several bills were enacted by the legislature that will change the state pension systems. All will now have to work longer and be older before they retire. The purpose of this legislation was to shore up the pension funds in the state of Oklahoma which are severely under-funded.

One of the things that I have talked about the most is the need for sentencing reform and what to do with our serious problem of prison overcrowding. This year, the leadership finally began to notice this was a problem and addressed it in a manner that is better than we have had in the last several years. We passed legislation that will require that our community sentencing process be utilized more than it has in the past. This is something that I have advocated for many years. We need to do something with those that are addicted to drugs and alcohol,  therapeutically, and not incarceration. We need sentencing reform and this means letting the judges do the sentencing utilizing a grid for the crime and time.

Was this a good legislative session? Time will tell. The people have spoken. They have for the first time in state history elected a Republican governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, insurance commissioner, labor commissioner, treasurer, auditor and inspector, secretary of state (appointed by the governor), state superintendent for public instruction and corporation commission members, as well as having both the Senate and House of Representatives being controlled by the Republicans. We will see if the changes in the political officeholders will in fact lead this state and lay the ground work for long-term prosperity and job creation in Oklahoma as promised by Governor Fallin.  I thought that was what right-to-work was going to do several years ago.

Next session will be here before we know it and I am going to be anxious to see if the major changes enacted this year are working or will we still need to tweak the system.

Till next session.

Richard Lerblance, D-Hartshorne, is the District 7 state senator.