It's that time of year again, the rains are falling, the birds are singing and the Oklahoma legislature is sending bills to the Governor to sign. Unfortunately the bills aren't all as needed or welcome as the rain and the birds. Governor Fallin in her infinite knowledge of what is best for the rest of the state has vetoed a very important parental rights bill regarding medical vaccinations and signed two bills I would have very much liked had never been sent to her. Governor Fallin vetoed House Bill 3016 requiring doctors to give parents written information about the vaccines being administered to their children at the time of immunization. Gov. Fallin stated the bill could have led to a drop in vaccination rates and increase chances for communicable disease outbreaks. She based this assumption on disputed information provided by the Oklahoma Medical Association and the Oklahoma Association of Pediatricians stating doctors would be required to provide parents with a 34 page appendix of outdated information written well above their heads. Both groups are for mandatory vaccinations of children and now we learn not only do they want to force vaccinations on you they also don't want to have to tell you anything about the vaccination. If they think the parent actually knowing about the vaccination their child is getting will lead to lower vaccination rates, what does that say about the actual vaccination? As a disclaimer let me state that I am pro-vaccination. I have vaccinated my children and will continue. This doesn't change the simple fact that it was my decision. I evaluated the risk and reward of the vaccination and made the decision I as a parent thought was best. On top of that every vaccination or prescription I have ever received or allowed my children to get already had an information paper provided by the maker of the medication. All this bill would have done is changed the requirement from me having to ask for the paper from some providers to having all providers have to give it to me requested or not. Gov. Fallin's veto of this bill is just a sign of her continued support of big government and trading the rights of Oklahoma citizens for the desires of special interest groups. I don't blame the special interest group. I blame Gov. Fallin. I would have less issue with Gov. Fallen vetoing the bill if her reasoning had been different. For example if her reasoning had been Parents can and should ask for this information, I'm not willing to shift this burden to the provider. As this logic would have been consistent with smaller government, I would have been harder pressed to argue against the veto. Gov. Fallin also signed two bills that I which had never been laid upon her desk. In this case I don't blame the Governor for signing the bills, but I do blame the legislatures for passing them. The first bill is House Bill 3146 which removed a municipality's ability to charge someone with DUI in all municipal courts except for Tulsa and Oklahoma City. The bill requires all DUI charges to be filed in a court of record. Most municipalities in Oklahoma do not have the population, statutorily required to have a court of record and can therefore only prosecute misdemeanors. The reasoning behind this bill was righteous, but completely ignorant of the realities of law enforcement in the majority of a rural state such as Oklahoma. The authors of the bill argued a drunk driver could be charged multiple times in multiple municipalities with DUI and never have it on their record. By requiring all municipalities to file district charges there would be a record of their drunk driving infractions. I admit this sounds good in principle. Here is the reality of requiring all DUI's to be filed in district courts. Lets take the City of Carnegie as an example. Carnegie is a small department in Caddo county, about an hour from the county seat in Anadarko. They have a jail, but there is usually only one officer on duty at a time. So the officer on duty stops someone for DUI. They do a field sobriety test which indicates the person is intoxicated. They drive the hour to Anadarko to conduct the intoxilizer test. Thirty minutes later the individual blows over the legal limit and the officer is attempting to book the drunk suspect into the County jail. The jail won't take them because they don't want to be responsible for an intoxicated individual so they send the officer and the prisoner to the hospital emergency room to get a medical release and hope the prisoner sobers up before the officer returns. Contrary to popular belief, Police officers don't go to the front of the line at the emergency room. The intoxicated prisoner is triaged just like any other patient and sent to the back of the line. Three hours later the officer receives the medical release for the prisoner and is headed back to the jail to again try and book the prisoner. Lets say the jailer is on his game and 30 minutes later the prisoner is booked and making the hour drive back to his jurisdiction. Remember, he was the only officer on duty and has now been away from his town for six hours, calls for service piling up the whole time he was away. Can you imagine having a fender bender and having to wait six hours for the police to get there? I know I can't. Prior to this bill, the officer could have administered the intoxilizer. If the suspect blew over the legal limit they could have either booked them into their own municipal jail or even released them to a responsible party. The now six hour ordeal would have been reduced to about two hours and the officer would have been back on the street. So what do you think is more likely to happen now that this ability to handle a DUI locally has been removed? Do you think it will result in more district charges of DUI outside of the metropolitan areas or that more drunks are going to wind up with no charges at all and just get a ride home? However you feel about DUI, I strongly believe this bill is going to have the opposite effect of what was intended. If they really wanted to make all DUI's accountable they just should have required they be reported. There is already a mechanism in place for this, albeit many small jurisdictions don't use it and might not even realize it's available. The second bill I am against is House Bill 2504. This bill makes all agriculture thefts of livestock and rolling stock a felony regardless of value. This is similar to a state statute which makes all oil field theft a felony regardless of value. Let me present another disclaimer. As many of you know I own and operate a cattle ranch. The income provided by my family ranch is a large part of our annual income. Any theft of our livestock or equipment required to produce the livestock would be a great financial detriment to my family. I am also an active member in the Oklahoma Cattleman's Association and Farm Bureau which were advocates for the bill. With that said, I don't think it's right for crimes against a specific industry, whether it be oil or agriculture to have more strenuous penalties than every other industry. While many would argue most livestock and rolling stock would meet the felony threshold anyway, this doesn't change the fact the state legislature is offering heightened penalties that wouldn't always be available in other circumstances. There shouldn't be a difference in someone stealing my $100 donkey and someone stealing a plumbers $100 pipe auger. Both are worth the same amount, but I would argue the loss of the pipe auger to the plumber has more effect on his ability to do his job. I would argue we need to punish the crime, not the motivation behind the crime. Further, who the victim is or isn't shouldn't be a statutory issue. All three of these bills are examples of big government. HB 3016 fails to require doctors to inform parents of vaccination information. (Parents can, and should, still require the doctor to provide it to them.) HB 3146 removes valuable discretionary tool local municipalities had at their disposal to fight DUI. HB 2504 is a complete slap in the face to the idea of equal crime equal penalty. As always I am willing to answer any questions regarding my opinions stated here and everything is open for respectful discussion. Stay tuned for a coming piece on why State Question 777 is all about small government and why all freedom loving individuals should support it.
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