This is the final legislative report for the 2012 session! I am sure most of you will be disappointed. The rest of you that regularly deleted the report, well, there will be less during the summer.
The biggest news of the session is the fact that despite the rhetoric all session long, a final tax reduction plan was not agreed upon or approved. My personal opinion is that was due to the lack of certainty regarding our national recovery, the continued depression of the natural gas industry, and what incentives would be terminated. With no clear consensus it became impossible to settle on a final plan.
One issue that took a lot of interest was the transferability of tax credits. One can debate the rationale of tax credits, but if a tax credit was going to continue our position was that it remain transferable. The business community stood united in that position and in the end transferability of tax credits remained intact.
This was not a good year for us in our efforts to curtail municipal regulations. We were not successful in getting a moratorium on residential fire sprinklers nor were we successful in obtaining meaningful flood plain regulations.
Don't misunderstand me --- fire sprinklers are not part of the state code. However, cities still have the option of including them in their local code adoption. We had tried to removed that ability from a city to mandate in their code. Bottom line - you will have to remain vigilant in monitoring what your local city officials are adopting in the building codes.
As usual, the complete legislative report is attached. If you have any questions, please let me know. However, before I sign off I want to take the opportunity for a couple of reminders.
First, the primary elections are just a little over three weeks away. It is important that you participate and exercise your constitutional right! If you have any questions about our support of any candidate, I plan to send that out in a few weeks of those candidates where we have put your PAC dollars.
Second, our summer convention is open for registration. We have some great speakers lined up and you will be sure to get something you can use in your business. Check out our website --www.okhba.org-- for more information.
Have a terrific and safe summer,
Mike Means, State EO
Final bill tracking report here.
