House approves stabilization fund

House Speaker Chris Benge’s plan to ease the impact of volatile energy prices on state oil and natural gas taxes and stabilize the state budgeting process was overwhelmingly approved by the Oklahoma House on Thursday.

Benge, R-Tulsa, told House members that the fund will help ease the financial fallout from low oil and natural gas prices. Lawmakers are expected to have about $1.2 billion less to spend next year than they appropriated last year, due mostly to a sluggish economy and low energy prices.

“We’re trying to find a way to smooth out our gross production collections,” Benge said. He said volatile energy prices makes it difficult to project revenue to pay for state services.

“Our resources are finite,” the House speaker said. “At some point we run out of gas and oil. I don’t know when that is.”

House members voted 86-4 for the measure and sent it to the Senate, where it is expected to pass.

Under the plan, any gross production tax collections above a three-year average is automatically deposited into the fund. In years when gross production taxes fall below the average, the fund will deposit the difference into the state’s general revenue fund to help mitigate budget shortfalls.

The plan is similar to the state’s constitutional Rainy Day reserve fund, which captures up to 10 percent of general revenue funds collected in excess of the annual estimate certified by the Board of Equalization.

Lawmakers have voted to tap about $450 million from the Rainy Day Fund, about half of which will be used to fill holes in the budget year that ends June 30. The fund contained about $600 million at the beginning of the year.

The House also passed legislation to protect tenants of mobile home and RV parks from tornados and other natural disasters.

The bill by Rep. Pat Ownbey, R-Ardmore, requires the owner of a mobile home or RV park to provide tenants with an evacuation plan in case of a tornado, high winds or flooding. The plan must be developed with the help of emergency planners in the city or county where the park is located.

In February 2009, a tornado killed eight people in Lone Grove in far southern Oklahoma. All but one of the victims lived in a mobile home.

“This is really to me a no-brainer,” Ownbey said. “This will save lives.”

Opponents complained that the bill is a mandate on the owners of mobile home parks that will involve costs and duties.

The House approved legislation authorizing practitioners of equine dentistry and other animal husbandry practices to perform the services.

The measure amends the Oklahoma Veterinary Practice Act to legalize equine dentistry — also known as horse teeth floating, in which practitioners file and grind down the teeth of horses. Horsemen have argued they need the services because they can’t find veterinarians to do it.

A law that took effect in November 2008 threatened equine dentists with a felony charge for violating the Veterinary Practice Act. The bill requires minimum training requirements and a $200 payment to the state Veterinary Board to be certified.

Meanwhile, the Senate approved a proposal to allow public schools in Oklahoma to offer an elective course on the Bible beginning next school year. It allows the course to be taught to students in grades nine through 12.

The bill says the curriculum and course materials will come from the National Council on Bible Curriculum on Public Schools.