OFFICE OF GOVERNOR MARY FALLIN

2011 Legislative Accomplishments: A Historic Session for Conservative Reform and Governance
Creating Job Growth and Higher Paying Jobs by Promoting a Business-Friendly Environment Governor Fallin signed a series of bills this year in support of her goal of bringing higher paying jobs to Oklahoma by building the best possible environment for business. These measures include landmark lawsuit reform, comprehensive workers compensation reform, the creation of a governors closing fund to attract businesses to the state, a one-stop-shop for business licensing and permits, among others. Legislative/Policy Highlights Comprehensive Tort Reform: o HB 2023: Requires the actual amount paid by claimants for doctor, hospital, ambulance service, drug and similar bills incurred in treatment to be the amount admissible at trial in any civil case involving personal injury, not the amounts billed for expenses incurred in treatment. It states that if no payment has been made, the Medicare reimbursement rates in effect at the time of the injury are admissible. o HB 2024: Authorizes a court to order that future damages incurred after the date of judgment that exceed $100,000 be paid in whole or in part in periodic payments rather than by a lump-sum payment. Such periodic payments cannot exceed seven years from the date of entry of judgment. o HB 2128: Lowers the recovery limitation for noneconomic damages in a civil action for bodily injury to $350,000. o SB 862: Eliminates joint and several liability stating defendants are only responsible for damages that they themselves are responsible for.

o SB 865: Directs that juries be informed that awards are not subject to taxation. Workers Compensation Reform: o HB 2038: Authorizes the Workers Compensation Court Administrator to compile annual reports relating to characteristics of cases including amount of surgeries, length of temporary total disability, permanent partial disability, and other medical treatments and therapies. o SB 878: Cuts the maximum time to draw weekly temporary total disability benefits from 6 years to 3 years. Mandates that doctors rating permanent impairment use only criteria found in the AMA Guides. Allows permanent disability evaluations to be completed only by an MD or DO. Limits discretion of judges by putting more decision-making in the hands of medical experts which can be appointed on any issue at any time. Requires for the first time in history, physicians and Courts to be bound by the Official Disability Guidelines (ODG), strict, nationally-recognized treatment guidelines (This will limit unnecessary surgeries and significantly reduce medical costs). Mandates overall 5% reduction in Fee Schedule for reimbursement for medical treatment. Establishes the Electronic Data Interchange system to gather information to track success or failure of reforms. Gives more power to the Administrator in effecting settlements. The Administrator of the Workers Compensation Court can approve settlements reached in mediation, without the intervention of an attorney or a judge. Ensures injured workers receive proper care and can return to work in a timely manner. Quick Action Closing Fund: o HB 1953: Creates a new fund for the Department of Commerce called the Oklahoma Quick Action Closing Fund. Monies accruing to the fund may be budgeted and expended by the Governor for the purposes of economic development and related infrastructure development in those situations where expenditures of such funds would likely be a determining factor in locating or retaining a high-impact business project or facility in Oklahoma. Due to budget constraints no funding was provided this fiscal year; however, we intend to fund the program as collections increase. One-Stop-Shop for Businesses: o HB 1601: Creates the Oklahoma State Government Business Licensing One-Stop Program and directs the states Chief Information Officer to adopt procedures for state agencies to enter into a shared services arrangement with the Office of State Finance for the provision of real-time, web-based licensing and permitting services. Job Creating Tax Incentives: o HB 1008: Provides income tax credits to engineers hired by or contracting with aerospace companies between January 1, 2009 and July 1, 2011 until January 1, 2015, and the companies that hire them, with the purpose of enhancing the states
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ability to attract and retain a top-notch workforce pool for the Oklahoma aerospace industry. Supporting Oklahoma Energy Producers: o HB 1909: Modernizes oil and gas statutes to better accommodate technological advances associated with horizontal drilling in shale reservoirs. Positions Oklahoma to more effectively compete against other shale plays around the country, and helps ensure that drilling dollars stay home in Oklahoma. Building a Smaller, Smarter, More Transparent Government that Better Serves our Citizens As Governor Fallin outlined in her State of the State address at the beginning of the 2011 legislative session, state government too often operates like an 8-track bureaucracy in an iPod world. To create a more modern, cost-effective government and to save taxpayer dollars, Governor Fallin asked lawmakers to pass legislation consolidating and modernizing the states aging Internet Technology (IT) infrastructure, combining various state agencies with overlapping functions, and pursuing other reforms that streamline government services. The Legislature responded in the final weeks of session, sending those bills to the governors desk. Additionally, Governor Fallin and legislative leaders worked to pass and sign into law a series of reforms designed to improve the fiscal outlook of the states public employee pension systems, which currently have $16 billion in unfunded liability. Legislative/Policy Highlights Government Reform and Modernization: o HB 1034: Authorizes the State Purchasing Director to use a state purchase card for acquisitions with no limit on the amount of the transaction for interagency payments and certain professional services, to streamline purchasing. o HB 1035: Requires state agencies to use the Trip Optimizer System for vehicles used by state employees and requires that the maximum authorized travel reimbursement shall be the lowest cost option determined by the optimizer. o HB 1086: Requires all State Treasury disbursement payments be electronically transmitted. Requires the Chief Information Officer (CIO) to maintain a website to allow public access to forms produced by state agencies and requires state entities to submit their forms to the CIO in a searchable electronic format. o HB 1207: Authorizes state agencies to accept an electronic signature in the application process for any license or permit. Requires a financial services cost performance assessment that documents each appropriated state agencys cost for providing financial services. Agencies that rank in the bottom 10% of the cost performance assessment will be required to contract with the Office of State Finance (OSF) for the provision of shared financial services if the Director of OSF determines that it will result in cost savings to the agency.
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o HB 1304: Requires the transfer and consolidation of agency information technology assets and positions. Currently the State has 56 financial systems, 22 unique time and attendance systems, 17 imaging systems, 48 reporting and analytics applications, 25 different desktop operating systems, 133 email systems, and 27 SQL Server and Oracle systems. This bill normalizes systems, eliminates redundancy, and creates efficiency and substantial cost savings. o HB 2131: Expands eligibility for community sentencing, allowing more offenders to qualify for community punishment in lieu of incarceration in a Department of Corrections facility. o HB 2140: Consolidates various administrative agencies including the Department of Central Services, the Office of Personnel Management, the Employee Benefits Council, and the State and Education Employees Group Insurance Board into the Office of State Finance to create a one-stop shop for benefits, state employee and administrative services. o HB 2172: Consolidates all powers, duties and responsibilities of the Indian Affairs Commission into a single liaison position within the Office of the Governor as an appointee. o SB 435: Modifies the membership of the State Board of Education, allowing the governor to appoint to the board one member from each congressional district and one member from the state at large, with each appointment serving at the pleasure of the governor. Previously board members served staggered terms and did not serve at the pleasure of the Governor. o SB 541: Requires all state agencies to submit a report to OSF of all the employees and resources dedicated to financial services. Requires OSF to publish a ranked, financial services cost-performance assessment on each agency by January 1 of each year. o SB 763: Consolidates the Oklahoma Human Rights Commission into the Office of the Attorney general, creating the Office of Civil Rights Enforcement. Reducing Unfunded Liability for Public Pensions: o HB 1007: Modifies the method by which dedicated state revenues are transferred to Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System. Contributions into the teachers retirement system will be counted in the per pupil spending average. o HB 1010: Increases the retirement age for new members of the Uniform Retirement System for Justices and Judges who started work after January 1 st of this year. For new members with 8 years of service, the measure increases the normal retirement age from 65 to 67 years old. For new members with 10 years of service, the measure increases the normal retirement age from 60 to 62 years old. o HB 2132: Eliminates unfunded cost of living adjustments by requiring that they are fully funded.

o SB 347: Provides for the forfeiture of a municipal officer or employees retirement benefits upon conviction of crimes related to their office (bribery, corruption. etc). o SB 377: Raises the normal retirement age for new teachers from 62 to 65 years of age and establishing a minimum age of 60 for full retirement benefits for teachers who meet the rule of 90. Currently, there is no minimum age requirement for those employees whose age and service equals the sum of 90. o SB 794: Ensures that elected officials are treated the same as other public employees when calculating retirement benefits. Also, applying the same minimum retirement ages to all new public employees as SB 377 does to new teachers: a minimum age of 60 when the rule of 90 is met and a normal retirement age of 65. o SB 891: Requires cost of living adjustments to be appropriated by the state rather than drawing them out of the pension system itself. Fighting the Federal Health Care Law While Pursuing Oklahoma Solutions for Better Health At the beginning of 2011, Governor Fallin joined Attorney General Scott Pruitt in announcing a legal challenge to the federal health care law and its unconstitutional mandates. Since then, the governor has also rejected $54 million in federal funds to ensure the state cannot be tied to ObamaCare. In addition to resisting the presidents health care law, the governor has worked to support initiatives that will improve the health of Oklahomas citizens and work to create a more flexible funding for Medicare and Medicaid in Oklahoma. The Governor also signed into law important legislation helping to fund Oklahoma hospitals that otherwise might be in danger of closing. Legislative/Policy Highlights Fighting ObamaCare: o Joined Attorney General Scott Pruitt in announcing that the state of Oklahoma would file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the federal health care law. o Refused $54 million in federal grant money to ensure that Oklahoma cannot be tied to the federal health care law. Improving Oklahomas Health: o Worked with the Health Department to unveil the Shape our Future campaign, encouraging schools, businesses and communities to embrace healthy living options. o Included additional funding in budget for rehabilitation programs for those suffering from drug/alcohol addiction.

Improving Oklahoma Schools and Delivering Quality Education Building a better and more prosperous Oklahoma requires strong schools and universities that produce the kind of educated, highly skilled work force that can compete in todays global economy. The reforms enacted will help to ensure that schools are delivering the kind of education that will help our children compete in the 21st Century. Legislative/Policy Highlights Education Reform, Teacher Quality and Student Performance: o HB 1380: Reforms the due process system by eliminating trial de novo and allows locally elected school boards get rid of in-effective teachers without a long and costly appeals process. o HB 1456: Creates an A-F grading system for public schools. Directs the State Board of Education to prepare annual reports of the results of the Oklahoma School Testing Program that describe student achievement in the state, each school district and each school site. Requires the reports to include the median scores of all eligible students who scored at or in the lowest 25th percentile of the state in the previous school year. o HB 1744: Amends The Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Program Act, originally passed in 2010, to ensure that students with physical and mental disabilities are eligible to receive scholarships to attend private schools. The Act allows students with disabilities who have an individualized education program (IEP) to qualify for a scholarship to attend any public or private school that meets the accreditation requirements of the State Board of Education. Authorizes the State Department of Education to administer the program rather than local school districts to increase consistency and reliability for students and parents who choose to participate in the program. o HB 2139: Empowers the independently elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction with control over the State Department of Education, instead of the Board of Education. o SB 346: Ends social promotion for students going from third to fourth grade. States that if the reading deficiency of a student, as identified by assessments, is not remedied by the end of the third grade, as demonstrated by scoring at the unsatisfactory level on the reading portion of third grade criterion-referenced tests, the student must be retained in the third grade.
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SB 969: Creates the Oklahoma Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship Act, enabling school choice by providing tax credits to businesses and individuals for their contributions to educational scholarship organizations which provide vouchers to low income children wishing to attend private schools.

Protecting Children and the Lives of the Unborn Governor Fallin believes that one of governments most important responsibilities is to protect our children and the lives of the unborn. The 2011 legislative session produced important laws that will continue to affirm Oklahomas culture of life and defend our children from those who would do them harm. Legislative/Policy Highlights Protecting the Lives of the Unborn: o HB 1888: Prohibits an abortion from being performed or induced unless the physician has first made a determination of the probable post-fertilization age of the unborn child. It states that failure to make such a determination constitutes unprofessional conduct. Prohibits a person from performing or inducting an abortion on a woman when it is determined by the physician that the probable post-fertilization age of the woman's unborn child is 20 or more weeks, unless in reasonable medical judgment it is determined the life of the mother is in danger. o HB 1970: Requires a medical examination and scheduling of a follow-up appointment before the prescribing of an abortion-inducing drug. Expands current statutory restrictions on the administration of RU-486 (mifepristone) to include any drugs with abortion-inducing properties that are prescribed with the intent of causing an abortion. It requires physicians who provide such drugs to do so according to FDA protocol and as authorized by the drug label. o SB 547: Prohibits inclusion of elective abortion coverage in any health insurance policy offered by the state's health exchange, as established by the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Prohibits elective abortion coverage in any plan not offered by the exchange but offered within the state, except by supplemental coverage with a separate premium. Requires any insurer offering such a plan to calculate the premium for such coverage so that it fully covers the estimated cost of covering elective abortions per enrollee as determined on an average actuarial basis. Protecting Oklahomas Children: o HB 2136: Requires the Department of Human Services to conduct criminal background checks on all adults living in a home before a foster child is reunited with a parent. o SB 576: Authorizes the Department of Human Services to release a delinquent or missing parent "Most Wanted" type list of individuals who are in arrears in their district or administrative court-ordered child support obligations or who are sought for the purpose of establishing a child support order.

Expanding Gun Rights and Defending the Second Amendment Governor Fallin is serious about gun rights and protecting the Second Amendment. The bills Governor Fallin signed into law this year will help to expand rights and protections for law abiding citizens who own guns. Legislative/Policy Highlights Protecting Gun Owners and the Second Amendment: o HB 1439: Expands the right to use deadly force when in fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm to a persons place of business. A person or owner, manager or employee of a business is presumed to have held a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm to themselves or others when using defensive force that is likely to cause death. o HB 1652: Allows gun owners with conceal and carry permits to leave guns in locked vehicles while on Career Technology campuses. Gun owners already have that right on college campuses, sporting events and most other locations in the state.

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