OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahomans will vote next month on two proposed constitutional amendments:
• State Question 805 would prohibit a defendant’s previous nonviolent
felony charges from being used to enhance his/ her sentence for a nonviolent felony.
Under current law, individuals who are sentenced to prison can have their terms extended if they have prior felony convictions.
SQ 805 provides that people convicted of nonviolent felonies could still receive the maximum sentence for that crime, but would not receive additional time — called a “sentence enhancement” — because of past convictions. In addition, this measure would allow offenders to petition a court to have their sentences shortened if they are in prison for nonviolent convictions and received a sentence enhancement.
For decades Oklahoma has maintained the highest incarceration rate for women and one of the highest overall incarceration rates in the United States. Oklahoma courts sentence people to prison more often and for longer periods of time when compared to the rest of the nation.
Sentence enhancements are a major contributor to those trends. Oklahoma courts levied sentence enhancements against about 80% of people eligible for them. Those enhancements caused their sentences to be 36% longer — nearly two years — when compared to those who did not receive the enhancements, according to an analysis by the Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs.
• State Question 814 would dramatically alter the allocation of tobacco industry payments to the State of Oklahoma.
Oklahoma and 45 other states sued tobacco companies in 1996 for targeting young people with predatory marketing, and in 1998 settled for a combined $200 billion over 25 years.
Currently 75% of the annual payment (which is approximately $75 million per year) is earmarked for the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Fund; interest earnings from the corpus, which has climbed to $1.3 billion, are used for tobacco prevention program, cancer research, and other programs to maintain or improve the health of Oklahomans. Of the remaining 25% of the annual payment, 18.75% is deposited in a Tobacco Settlement Fund for appropriation by the Legislature, and 6.25% is earmarked for the Attorney General’s Office for enforcement of the Master Settlement Agreement with the tobacco companies.
TSET earned $69,766,822 in interest last year. “TSET funds programs from the earnings on the corpus, and our current year budget is $46 million,” said Thomas Larson, director of public information and outreach.
SQ 814 would switch the percentages. According to the Oklahoma Policy Institute in Tulsa, 25% of the annual payment would be deposited in the TSET Fund and the Legislature would receive 75%; the AG’s office would continue to receive 6.25% but it would come out of the Legislature’s share.
The proposed constitutional amendment would mandate that the funds directed to the Legislature be used to help fund the state’s Medicaid program, which Oklahomans voted to expand via SQ 802 on June 30.
Medicaid expansion is projected to cost the state between $123 and $164 million annually. The Legislature is constitutionally mandated to find a way to fund the expansion.