House completes deadline week

The House completed its third reading deadline on Thursday, March 14. We passed 422 bills and joint resolutions off the House floor before the deadline, just a fraction of the thousands of measures filed this year. These bills covered various topics, including banning rankedchoice voting, inflation relief and public safety. We’ll now swap bills with the Senate and consider their 279 bills, beginning with hearing measures in our House committees before they advance to the floor.

I want to briefly discuss House Bill 3156. It would ban rankedchoice voting within the state. Ranked-choice voting requires voters to designate their top choice in a race, their second choice, and so on down the ballot. It makes voting more confusing and has delayed election results everywhere it has been tried.

For example, if a ballot has five offices and each office has four candidates, each voter would be expected to review and rank four candidates for each race, resulting in 20 votes. If no candidate receives a majority, the least popular candidate is eliminated, and their voters’ votes are reallocated to their second-choice candidate, repeating until one candidate has a majority.

Ranked choice voting has already been banned in Florida, Tennessee, Idaho, Montana, and South Dakota; hopefully, Oklahoma will be the next state to ban it.

Another important piece of legislation that passed is House Bill 1277. It provides a 2% COLA for state retirements and a 4% COLA for plans over 80% funded, helping retirees offset inflation. It provides a cost-of-living adjustment for certain members of certain retirement systems, including state employees, teachers and law enforcement. Especially in today’s economy, bills like HB1277 are crucial to ensure the financial security of retirees.

I want to end with House Bill 2950, which provides a tax cut with a path to zero income tax. To be more specific, it would replace the bracket system for personal income tax with a 4.75% flat tax, reducing the rate to zero over 10 years. HB2950 aims to stimulate economic growth by attracting individuals and businesses with the goal of lowering taxes. By simplifying the tax code through a flat tax system, the bill seeks to promote fairness and ease of compliance while enhancing the state’s competitiveness in attracting talent and investment.

It was a productive week in the House, as we passed significant legislation, and I look forward to considering Senate bills next week.

Again, thank you for electing me to serve District 21. It is truly an honor and privilege to represent you at the State Capitol. As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to me with any concerns at 405-557-7366 or cody. maynard@okhouse.gov.

Rep. Cody Maynard, a Republican, serves District 21 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, which covers Bryan and Marshall counties.