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Senate approves expansion of major-sports rebate to include women’s professional leagues amid heated questions
Summary
Senate Bill 820, which expands the state's major sports league rebate program to include certain women's professional leagues, passed 26-18 after extended floor questioning and a series of disputed claims raised during debate.
Senate Bill 820, presented by Senator Boren, expands eligibility under the Oklahoma five-major-sports leagues rebate program to include three professional women’s leagues: the WNBA, the National Women’s Soccer League and Women’s Professional Fastpitch. The bill's sponsor said the threshold for the rebate remains unchanged and that no immediate fiscal impact was expected because only the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder currently qualifies for the rebate.
Floor questioning on the bill extended and included a series of assertions and questions from Senator Devers about organizations affiliated with women’s professional leagues and allegations regarding their public positions. Senator Devers posed multiple factual assertions about outside organizations and their activities; in response the sponsor frequently told the body he was "unable to verify the claims" being raised from the floor.
On the legislative intent, Senator Boren said, "Yes. That's the basic intent of this bill, is to ensure that when we say we want to save women's sports, that we do that as we cast the vision for professional sports in Oklahoma. That we include women's sports and men's sports in the professional realm when we are, planning for that future in Oklahoma." The transcript records repeated questions that included claims the author said he could not verify; the floor did not produce documentary evidence during the oral exchange.
The bill passed on final passage, 26 ayes and 18 nays. The transcript shows the floor debate included numerous unverified allegations posed as questions; the sponsor repeatedly declined to verify them on the record.
Ending: The bill expands the rebate program to include specified women's professional leagues. The record reflects substantive, contested questioning; several of the factual assertions made during the exchange were not verified in the transcript.
