Virgin addresses juvenile rights, open records law more in bills for final session - Norman Transcript

In her final legislative session before she terms out, state House Minority Leader Emily Virgin, D-Norman, filed a number of bills she hopes to see signed into law in her last opportunity to have bills passed.

Virgin’s bills cover a wide array of issues, from juvenile rights to open records law, she said.

H.B. 3524

This bill would amend current law to require that juveniles speak with an attorney before law enforcement could begin interrogating them. It would also put more safeguards around children to ensure their rights are not violated while being questioned by police, Virgin said.

“Currently, juveniles have the right during interrogation to talk to their parents, but this would also expand that to make sure that they have the right to speak to an attorney, and not just the right, but they would have to speak to an attorney before any interrogation would proceed,” she said. “This also would require that any interrogation with a juvenile be recorded. That’s because we know that juveniles are much more susceptible to false confessions. So what this would do is provide some safeguards and make sure that everything is documented, and also that they have actually spoken to an attorney, not just been advised of their rights to have an attorney.”

H.B. 3525

This bill would amend the Oklahoma Open Records Act to subject the state legislature, its members and its staff to the open records and meetings act.

The legislation would require that the committee meetings put out an agenda before the meeting. Details wouldn’t be allowed to change on the fly, and there would be more publicized details about the meeting beforehand, Virgin said.

The bill would also make all legislative communication subject to the Open Records Act.

“Anyone could request records, or emails, or calendars, things like that, in an open records request, just like they can for any other public body or public official,” she said. “There’s really no good reason for legislators to be exempt from open records, other than I guess when they were writing the law, they just didn’t want to be subjected to it.”

H.B. 3526

This bill amends the earned income tax credit that passed the legislature last year; it would increase the percentage of income people are able to keep over a yearly basis, Virgin said.

“What we’ve seen across the country and at the federal level is that the bigger the earned income tax credit, the better off folks who are working and making low to medium wages are,” she said. “So what we want to do there is make sure that people in those lower bracket, lower income levels are able to keep more of their money.”

H.B. 3622

This bill would phase out the state sales tax on groceries over the course of three years. A number of other legislatures have filed similar bills this session.

The bill would not affect municipalities’ sales tax — Oklahoma cities are funded solely on sales tax revenue — but it would phase out the state portion of that tax, Virgin said.

“It would be a four-and-a-half percent tax cut for Oklahomans on their groceries,” she said. “And so that’s a pretty big deal. Also I am hoping that it starts a conversation about how we fund municipalities in Oklahoma. We’re currently the only state in the nation that makes municipalities solely dependent upon the sales tax.

“So, I think that Oklahomans will probably be wondering, ‘why not eliminate the entire sales tax on groceries?’ but, if you do that, then you are taking out a huge chunk of a city’s revenue base.”

source: https://www.normantranscript.com/news/virgin-addresses-juvenile-rights-open-records-law-more-in-bills-for-final-session/article_69f67d7c-814f-11ec-9202-c78341d8247f.html

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