Latest news with #StateoftheStateAddress
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
TSET board plans to sue to stop a new Oklahoma law restructuring its membership
Members of the Oklahoma Legislature listen as Gov. Kevin Stitt gives his State of the State Address in the House chamber of the state Capitol on Feb. 3, 2025. (Photo by Kyle Phillips/For Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY – A constitutionally created board charged with overseeing billions of taxpayer dollars plans to sue to block a new law that allows state leaders to alter its makeup at any time. The Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust voted 5-0 Thursday to file a lawsuit challenging House Bill 2783. The measure, which became law Thursday without Gov. Kevin Stitt's signature, requires the board appointees to serve at the will of the appointing entity and limits that service to seven years. The board members currently serve seven-year staggered terms. The seven members are appointed by the governor, treasurer, state superintendent, attorney general, state auditor and the leaders of the House and Senate and must have experience in health care or programs benefitting children or seniors. Some Democrats believe the measure is legislative retaliation and an attempt to strip the board of its independence after TSET declined to immediately provide $50 million for a University of Oklahoma children's pediatric heart hospital in Oklahoma City. 'What we are doing here is we are using legislative power to extract retaliation,' said Rep. Meloyde Blancett, D-Tulsa, debating against the measure earlier this month. Lawmakers put $200 million toward the project. 'These changes in statute appear to conflict with the Oklahoma Constitution, and the board needs clarity on this issue in order to protect the integrity of the TSET trust and ensure that any changes are consistent with the will of the voters who created TSET,' said Thomas Larson, the agency's spokesperson. Oklahoma voters created TSET, an endowment trust, in 2000 after 46 states sued tobacco companies. The tobacco companies paid states damages for illnesses caused by smoking. TSET's Board of Investors invests the funds. The earnings, which have grown to about $2 billion, are used to support efforts to improve health. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Stitt's Oklahoma DOGE portal sought to find savings. People used it instead to troll Republicans.
Gov. Kevin Stitt announced DOGE-OK during the State of the State Address on Feb. 3. (Photo by Kyle Phillips/For Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY — Dozens of people suggested that state government could be made more efficient without state Superintendent Ryan Walters and Gov. Kevin Stitt, according to submissions made to a statewide portal that asks the public for ideas about how to save money. In all, of the 90 submissions made to the Oklahoma Division of Government Efficiency portal around half targeted Walters, Stitt, and other Republicans leaders, including those serving in state's congressional delegation, according to Oklahoma Voice's analysis of portal submissions, which were released in response to an Open Records request. Submitters were particularly critical of Republicans' policies, including spending public money to pay for private school education, attempts to incorporate 'religion in schools and government,' and for removing options for state employees to work from home. Better known as 'DOGE-OK,' the Stitt-led initiative is modeled after President Donald Trump's federal Department of Government Efficiency. It requested submissions from the public in what a spokesperson for Stitt said is intended to be a 'jumping off point' to find savings within the state government. Stitt's office did not return a request for comment on if any submissions have been used to inform savings yet. DOGE-OK has reported finding over $51 million in savings in state government spending since its launch in February, though none of the existing savings appeared to align with the public suggestions in the portal. Stitt's DOGE effort is separate from the Oklahoma House portal launched in December. House lawmakers said submissions to that portal informed budget conversations, but also included 'spam' targeted at a statewide elected official legislators refused to name. Some submissions to Stitt's portal though appeared to be legitimate attempts at pointing out perceived inefficiencies. These included complaints about the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, too many public relations contracts at state agencies and recommendations to consolidate some of the state's law enforcement agencies. At least two individuals identified themselves as current or former state employees. They critiqued inefficiencies in the current process for purchasing orders and asked that the state revert to a previous process. One submitter suggested using artificial intelligence to gather public records for those requesting them from the state. Another recommended providing Department of Corrections officers with tablets to scan inmate IDs to 'allow for quicker, safer, and more accurate completion of counts.' Another suggested that the Oklahoma Tax Commission unnecessarily spends 'a lot of time and money going after tax balances that may not be collectable from many years ago.' But around half of the submissions targeted Walters, Stitt, or other Republican leaders, including U.S. senators James Lankford and Markwayne Mullin, U.S. Rep. Stephanie Bice and anyone who is serving on the DOGE-OK team. One person suggested Walters and Stitt not be paid a salary. At least one called for the increased deportation of undocumented immigrants though didn't include any specifics. Some submissions contained expletives or were left blank. Another commenter questioned the need for an 'entire new agency' to tell existing ones to be more efficient and criticized the creation of DOGE-OK as duplicating efforts and 'inventing a whole bureaucracy.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
144K jobs available in Ohio; Over half pay $50K+
(WKBN) — Are you in the market for a new job? The eighth-annual In-Demand Jobs Week could be your solution. A release from the Ohio Governor's Office announced next week from May 5-9 is In-Demand Jobs Week, a celebration of Ohio's top jobs, industries and skills. A map for events across the state can be found here. The Governor's office says Ohio has added more than 81,000 private sector jobs in the past six years and at least another 15,000 jobs are coming to the state through projects currently in development. 'Whether you are preparing for your first job, exploring a career change, or looking to advance in your field, there are countless opportunities in The Heart of It All,' said Governor Mike DeWine. 'This In-Demand Jobs Week, I encourage schools, businesses, and community organizations to get involved – host a job event in your region to let our workforce of the future know about all of the options at their fingertips in Ohio.' Right now, there are over 144,000 jobs posted on — 92,000 of which pay over $50,000 per year. There are also 2,287 internships available. To ensure the state's workforce is trained and ready to fill these jobs, Governor DeWine announced in his recent State of the State Address that Lt. Governor Tressel would lead the administration's effort to create Ohio's Workforce Playbook. As part of this work, Lt. Governor Tressel has traveled across Ohio, hosting a series of roundtable discussions with local business and education leaders to identify in-demand job opportunities in each region Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Oklahoma House rejects plan to add extra instructional day for every $25 million in new funding
Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid, listens during the governor's State of the State Address in the House chamber of the state Capitol on Feb. 3. (Photo by Kyle Phillips/For Oklahoma Voice) OKLAHOMA CITY — House lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected a proposal that would have required schools to add an extra instructional day for every $25 million more the Legislature appropriates to common education. Supporters of Senate Bill 409 said that having students in the classroom for an extra day would help improve lagging student outcomes by providing additional face-to-face instruction time, and give taxpayers and lawmakers something concrete to show for their extra investment. A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers panned the idea, questioning how much benefit an extra instructional day would provide relative to its cost. They also questioned how far a $25 million investment would go amid soaring costs related to maintaining school property, inflation and the growing list of unfunded legislative mandates. Rep. Danny Sterling, R-Tecumseh, said requiring schools to add an additional day solely because they received a level of new funding does 'nothing but make a mockery of the public education system.' He said lawmakers would be wasting taxpayer money on a strategy that has no valid data indicating it will produce benefits. Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid, the House author of the measure, said lawmakers in the past four years have put more money into Oklahoma schools than ever before, but outcomes have not kept up. In fact, he said, they've gotten worse. He said he hopes something like this will reverse the trend. 'If our teachers spending more time in front of our students isn't helpful, isn't impactful for the outcomes in their education, then man, we've got to have some other conversations because something must be wrong with the system somewhere,' he said. Caldwell said most data will show that probably the single greatest determining factor in a child's education is a quality teacher. 'So it just stands to my simple brain that if we give that teacher another day or two or five or 10, that's going to be better for the child,' he said. 'And when the senator, (Adam Pugh, R-Edmond), asked me to run this bill, I just never thought that I'm going to have to really fight to say teachers in front of our kids for an additional day that that's actually a good thing. I felt like that was pretty universal.' He said one extra day isn't going to 'drastically change the trajectory' of poor academic outcomes, but maybe it will get the state a step closer. 'We get asked every single year to invest more money in our schools, simply just giving it there and hoping that we get something out of it hasn't seemed to be working,' he said. Caldwell said taxpayers have a right to expect a return on their investment. Rep. Forrest Bennett, D-Oklahoma City, said the concern is that one extra day isn't going to move the needle and spending legislative time fighting over adding a single day is distracting from bigger priorities. 'We could be spending today on curriculum,' he said. 'We could be spending today on reining in the state superintendent, but we're instead spending it on this one piece of legislation that might add an extra day and cost extra money. Rep. Andy Fugate, D-Oklahoma City, said he's concerned about the impact of inflation and the growth of expenses on schools. He said property and casualty insurance is increasing in cost. Student enrollment is growing as are the number of programs and tests lawmakers are asking districts to implement. 'What does this bill do about those kinds of increases in expenses that might eat up to $25 million?' he asked. House lawmakers voted 22-63 to reject the bill. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tressel discusses workforce in Rio Grande Roundtable
Apr. 24—RIO GRANDE — Ohio Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel brought together business, education, and community leaders from southeast Ohio on Thursday for a roundtable discussion on the region's workforce strengths and its needs. Held at the University of Rio Grande/Rio Grande Community College, the roundtable marked the latest stop in Tressel's ongoing series of community conversations to inform the development of Ohio's Workforce Playbook. "As we continue to travel across Ohio, it is inspiring to see firsthand the incredible work being done to train and grow our workforce at places like the University of Rio Grande/Rio Grande Community College and beyond," Tressel said. "This is an exciting moment in our state's history. So many businesses and opportunities are moving into or expanding in Ohio. We need to make the most of this moment." Tressel's office said that, under the leadership of DeWine, the state has attracted a variety of economic development projects in recent years, which are bringing tens of thousands of new jobs to Ohio. To ensure the state's workforce is trained and ready to fill these jobs, DeWine announced in his recent State of the State Address that Tressel would lead the administration's effort to create Ohio's Workforce Playbook. By examining the needs and circumstances of Ohio's various regions, Ohio's Workforce Playbook will develop a plan to retain existing talent, recruit new talent to Ohio and rally Ohio's existing workforce to greater productivity. "That's why we're traveling around the state and holding roundtables and community conversations," Tressel said. "We need to make sure we're working together as a business and education community — aligning all of our efforts to not only prepare Ohioans for these amazing jobs, but to inspire them to stay and build their futures right here in Ohio." During the roundtable, representatives from the University of Rio Grande/Rio Grande Community College and major employers discussed workforce needs and strategies for strengthening Ohio's talent pipeline. Following the roundtable, Tressel joined Rio Grande President Ryan Smith for a tour of Davis Career Center.
