posted May 28, 2014
 

What a great session the Oklahoma Hotel & Lodging Association had in the 2014 legislative session just concluded last Friday. From my viewpoint, the legislature finishing a week early is always a wonderful thing. But more than that, there was not one item passed during this session that was harmful to members of our association. 

 

There are always items left unfinished, or not taken up at all, but nothing harmful happened, and it doesn’t get any better than that. When I lobbied for the Oklahoma Press Association, the legendary Director Ben Blackstock told me, “Benny, you always want to leave a few cuttings on the press room floor.” That was his way of saying there is always more your members want than can be gotten, but always leave a few thoughts out there for the next legislative session. One of those was a commitment to get rid of smoking in all public places. The ORA/OTIA/OH&LA introduced a resolution to take to a vote of the people whether they wanted to stop smoking in public places. As the session unfolded it was decided to save that until next session. This year is an election year, and a tough vote for legislators, no matter when it is taken. The Governor also asked we hold off until a later time as well. 

 

Below are a few pieces of legislation that were our focus this session.

 

HB 1023 by Newberry in the Senate, and Speaker Hickman in the House—HB 1023 is legislation the OTIA/OHLA/ORA introduced pre-empting cities and towns from enacting ordinances dealing with minimum wage or sick leave. This was the first piece of legislation I have ever dealt with personally that passed the Senate and the House without an amendment of any kind. It was signed by the Governor without fanfare, and became law. Since that time many questions have been raised about the legislation, but none before it was enacted. 

 

SB 1715 by Holt in the Senate and Grau in the House—This bill was a much-needed piece of legislation that helps event planners dealing with charity organizations or public events, and those catering with mixed beverage licenses. It cleans up much of the law dealing with charity and public events, and even allows for a once-a-year license for up to eight of those kinds of events versus having to file a separate event license for each event. Previously, it was difficult for liquor to be donated and cater food at the same event. It also made it difficult to cater public events. Members are going to find this new law to be very beneficial as they plan tourism events.

 

HB 2711 by Senator Clark Jolley and Representative McNiel in the House—HB 2711 will be a boon for tourism, and events in this state benefiting our members. It cleaned up the language in the Quality Events Act enabling cities to reap bonus sales tax funds for hosting major events. The law was in place before HB 2711, but was very unclear about how to reward cities and towns for the hosting, and therefore no bonus funds had been given, even though the law to do so was in place. 

 

For me, the best feeling came from defeating legislation that would harm the industry. SB 2064 would have combined the Oklahoma Arts Council and State Historical Society, along with the JM Davis Museum, into another council under the control of the Department of Tourism. The Governor and Director of Tourism drove this legislation. The law would have decimated both organizations and made them totally ineffective. Combined with a tremendous outpouring from our three organizations, as well as those entities directly affected, this legislation was defeated very soundly. 

 

Also, earlier in legislative session, HB 2850 was a stand-alone piece of legislation that would have defunded the Arts Council over 4 years. It, too, was defeated. 

 

Overall, it was a very good session for the hospitality and tourism industry. Thank you for letting me represent you.