Bills moving through legislation

It's been a busy few weeks at the State Capitol. Thursday was our deadline to pass bills out of committee, and there are 495 House bills eligible to be heard on the House floor. There were over 1,200 bills filed in 2024 and an additional 1,463 filed last year were still eligible to be heard, meaning less than 30% of bills that could have been heard in committee passed. Fortunately, six of my eight bills passed through committees before the deadline.

On Tuesday, the governor signed a bill passed by the House last year to eliminate the state grocery sales tax, giving Oklahomans the largest single-year tax cut in state history. Oklahoma was one of only 13 states that still has a sales tax on groceries, but House Bill 1955 would eliminate the 4.5% state portion of the tax. Our House Fiscal staff estimates that Oklahomans will each see a savings of $105.79 per year once this takes effect in August.

The sales tax reduction will apply to all groceries, but certain items are still taxable, like prepared foods, alcoholic beverages, dietary supplements, and tobacco and marijuana products.

HB1955 only deals with the state grocery sales tax, so local and county sales taxes will still be collected. Municipalities depend heavily on sales tax in Oklahoma, so we don't want to take that funding away.

With the committee deadline behind, the House is turning its full attention to hearing bills on the floor.

I already passed two bills through the House, House Bill 3053 and House Bill 3050.

The objective of HB3053 is to prepare a comprehensive report containing recommendations to enhance the benefits for electricity ratepayers in Oklahoma by assessing the impact of the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) on Oklahoma's electricity infrastructure and recommending improvements. The report is due by November 1, 2024. This bill passed the House floor with a vote of 92-0.

The second bill I've passed, HB3050, was requested by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission Petroleum Storage Tank Division. The bill changes the time to appeal a Commission Order to the Supreme Court from 60 days to 30 days to be consistent with the appeal timeline for all other Commission cases appealed as a right to the Supreme Court. This bill passed the House floor with a vote of 94-1.

Both these bills now move to the Senate for consideration there. I have four more bills that I anticipate presenting in the next two weeks.

Our deadline to pass bills through the House floor is March 14, so we'll be spending quite a bit of time hearing bill presentations and voting. I'll send another update once we pass that deadline to detail my remaining bills and other major policies.

Rep. Brad Boles represents District 51 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, which includes Grady and Stephens Counties. Contact Boles at his office (405) 557-7405 or by email: brad.boles@okhouse.gov.