Oklahoma House of Representatives
Mike W. Ray, Media Division Director
February 27, 2004

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The two and one-half hours the House of Representatives devoted to debating and voting on the State-Tribal Gaming Act -- which passed with one vote to spare, 52-47 -- was the focus of attention at the State Capitol on Feb. 26.
However, below the radar screen the House considered several other important issues, including identity theft, child custody/visitation, a tax break for veterans organizations, an examination of the state's public pension systems, and registration of lobbyists.

THIS IS MY IDENTITY,
GET YOUR OWN!
Misappropriating someone else's identity is the subject of House Bill 2287, which the House endorsed 97-0 and transmitted to the Senate.

The legislation would make it a crime to "use personal identifying information" of another individual, living or dead, "to avoid summons, arrest, prosecution, or to impede a criminal investigation."

The bill defines "personal identifying information" to mean name, date of birth, Social Security number, driver's license number, bank account numbers, credit/debit card numbers, personal identification numbers (PINs), electronic identification codes, automated or electronic signatures, biometric data, fingerprints, passwords, or "any other numbers or information that can be used to access the financial resources of a person, obtain identification, act as identification, or obtain goods or services."

Identity theft in Oklahoma is "spiraling upward," said the principal author of the bill, who also was the House sponsor of the original identity-theft legislation enacted in this state. Identity theft "steals a person's life" and "drives many people into bankruptcy
and wrecks their credit," he said.

State laws enacted in 1999 and 2001 deem identity theft to be a felony crime that can be punished with a two-year prison sentence and/or a $10,000 fine.

HB 2287 stipulates that identity theft would be considered to have been committed in any locality where the person whose identifying information was stolen resides, or in which any part of the offense took place, "regardless of whether the defendant was ever actually in" that place.

The bill would empower courts to require an identity thief to compensate any person or estate "whose personal identifying information was appropriated." Restitution could include actual expenses incurred in correcting "inaccuracies or errors" in a consumer report or other personal identifying information.

Another provision of HB 2287 would allow the Attorney General and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to issue an official "identity theft passport" to anyone in possession of a certified copy of a court order that his/her name or other identification "has been used without their consent" by someone who has been charged or arrested in connection with the offense.

TAX EXEMPTION
FOR VETERANS
Charity games operated by military veterans would be exempt from some state taxes by House Bill 1889, which the House approved, 83-11.

The bill would amend the Oklahoma Charity Games Act by exempting state military veterans' organizations from paying the one-cent tax on each bingo face and each U-PIK-EM bingo game set, and from the 10 percent gross receipts tax on break-open ticket games sold in Oklahoma.

The estimated tax savings for veterans has been calculated at $1 million. More than 365,000 veterans have been counted in this state.

CHILD CUSTODY
ISSUES CLARIFIED
Several child custody issues, including visitation schedules for squabbling parents, are addressed in House Bill 2528.

The legislation spells out factors to be considered in establishing visitation schedules that enable non-custodial parents to spend time with their children, such as:
* a substantial and chronic pattern of missing, canceling or denying regularly scheduled visitation;
* a lack of demonstrated parenting skills;
* the distance between the child's home and that of the
non-custodial parent;
* whether the non-custodial parent is financially unable to provide adequate food and shelter for the child during visits;
* the best interests of the child;
* the child's preference;
* whether visitation would endanger the child's physical health or significantly impair the youngster's emotional development;
* incarceration of the non-custodial parent in a jail or prison;
* the visitation schedule of siblings.
State law provides that in cases involving the custody or guardianship of or visitation with a child, the court must consider evidence of "ongoing domestic abuse" or of child abuse. HB 2528 would delete the term "ongoing" from that statute, because of a judicial
opinion.

The state Court of Appeals ruled that the word "ongoing" adds a connotation that objectionable conduct must still be occurring or have recently occurred, and at least some suggestion that the abuse is developing or evolving. It gives rise to "some expectation that it will continue or will recur and thus will constitute a threat to any child of whom the abusive person is granted custody," the court ruled. "As such, 'ongoing domestic abuse' is not merely one or two isolated instances of proscribed behavior."

HB 2528 specifies that a "standard visitation schedule" would have to include "a minimum graduated visitation schedule" for children under the age of 5 and for children 5-17 years of age. It also would have to include midweek and weekend time-sharing, consideration of differing geographical residences of the parents, holidays, summer vacation and midterm school breaks, transportation and associated expenses,
grandparent and relative contact, the child's birthday, sibling visitation schedules, special circumstances such as emergencies, and religious, school and extracurricular activities.

Guidelines governing visitation arrangements would have to take into consideration the continuity and stability of the life of the child, making a child available to attend family functions such as funerals, weddings, reunions, religious holidays, etc., and maintaining the child's regular school hours.

A court could alter a visitation schedule to "reasonably accommodate" the work schedule of both parents, the distance between the parties and the expense of visitation.

A custodial parent would have to notify the non-custodial parent within 24 hours of being notified about all significant school, social, sports, and community functions in which the couple's child is participating or being honored, and the non-custodial parent would be "entitled to attend and participate fully..."

The bill also provides that support payments by a non-custodial parent would be suspended during summer visitation periods.

HB 2528 decrees that in any litigation in which child custody or visitation is at issue, the judge could order either parent or the child to submit to drug and/or alcohol testing.

HB 2528 declares that "parental care shall be presumed to be better ... for the child than surrogate care..." That provision seems to reinforce a section of law which declares, "It is the policy of this state to assure that minor children have frequent and continuing contact with parents who have shown the ability to act in the best interests of their children, and to encourage parents to share in the rights and responsibilities of rearing their children after the parents have separated or dissolved their marriage."

An amendment attached to HB 2528 would clarify a provision in state law pertaining to "residual parental rights and responsibilities" that remain with a parent even after partial transfer of legal custody of a child.

Residual parental rights and responsibilities "shall not include the right to consent to the marriage of a minor," the amendment dictates. The edict further specifies that a parent/guardian of any child who is younger than 18 and who is in the custody of the Department of Human Services or the Department of Juvenile Justice "shall not be
eligible to consent to the marriage of such minor child..."

The author of that amendment said it was prompted by an incident when the estranged parent of a child who had been placed in the custody of the Department of Human Services granted permission for that child to get married.

HB 2528 passed the House unopposed and was referred to the Senate.

LOBBYISTS
HAVE DEEP POCKETS
Lobbyists would have to pay a $100 annual registration fee, by Dec. 31 each year, and the proceeds would be credited to the State Ethics Commission, under House Bill 2664.

Data on the Ethics Commission's Internet website indicate more than 400 lobbyists are registered in this state.

HB 2664 also mandates that any political action committee or political party committee that accepts contributions or spends more than $500 in Oklahoma in a calendar year would be charged a registration fee of $50 and would have to file a statement of organization with the Ethics Commission.

Because of a state funding pinch, the Legislature cut the Ethics Commission budget of appropriated revenue, revolving funds and carryover by 13 percent last year. The $447,124 appropriation to the Ethics Commission for the current Fiscal Year 2004 is only $600 greater than the appropriation for FY 2000, when the agency received $446,511, and is $61,600 lower than the FY 2001 appropriation of $508,730.

HB 2664 passed the House, 89-8, and was referred to the Senate.

PERUSE PUBLIC PENSION PLANS
Legislation that would create a task force to perform a comprehensive examination of Oklahoma's six major public retirement systems passed the House in a split vote, 78-18.

The 13-member task force established by House Bill 2536 would be comprised of state legislators and officers from the Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System, Oklahoma Teachers Retirement System, State Police Pension and Retirement System, State Law Enforcement Retirement System, Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System, and the Uniform Retirement System for Justices and Judges.

Some areas of task force study and review could include:
-- a history of the benefit design in each of the six pension systems, including benefits for retired members and surviving beneficiaries and the method by which benefits have or have not been funded at normal cost;
-- analysis of funded status of each major retirement system and its historical data and the impact of salary cap treatment in any major retirement system that had a salary cap in place at any time during its history;
-- review of dedicated tax or other revenue sources in the adequacy of funding; and,
-- a history of cost-of-living or similar increases for retirees and an analysis of the impact of inflation upon retirement benefits.
Because of constitutional term limits, "Next year about half the members of this House will have only two years of legislative experience or less," said the author of HB 2536, who is himself a second-term "sophomore" legislator. "I think it would be wise and prudent for the newer members to have some information about these six retirement systems."
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