More than 3,400 bills await Oklahoma Legislature in 2016

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Oklahoma lawmakers have more than 3,400 measures to consider when the 2016 session begins on Feb. 1, and that doesn’t include dozens more bills that will be needed to build a state budget with a roughly $1 billion hole in it.

A total of 1,725 new House and Senate bills and resolutions were filed by a key legislative deadline last week on a wide variety of topics. There are another 1,700 bills that remain active from the 2015 session.

The issues range from the serious, like public education and state tax policy, to the not-so-somber, like a bill to mandate people subscribe to their local newspaper.

But much of the focus of the upcoming session likely will be on managing a $900 million hole in the state budget.