Fallin talks new beginnings during day in Tulsa
TULSA — Gov. Mary Fallin came to Tulsa on Wednesday to talk about second chances and new beginnings.
Which somehow made talk of a special legislative session apropos.
Fallin spent more than an hour Wednesday morning talking to recently incarcerated women trying to start their lives over at Resonance’s downtown Take 2 restaurant.
From there Fallin retreated to a conference room at 36 Degrees North, the George Kaiser Family Foundationbacked business incubator in the Brady Arts District, where she and her Cabinet met for most of the afternoon and then helped welcome Coding Dojo, a national coding “boot camp,” to the premises.
In between, Fallin issued a written statement calling for a special session to rewrite the state budget, and fielded questions on the issue from the press.
The governor and some legislators, including some of her fellow Republicans, disagree on what to do about a $215 million hole in the departments of human services, health and mental health budgets created when the state Supreme Court ruled a $1.50-per-pack cigarette fee passed during the regular session was done so unconstitutionally.
The court has yet to rule on challenges to several other revenueraising measures passed at the end of the session.
Fallin said some legislators don’t want to come back into session, but she disagrees.
“We’re talking about people,” she said. “I tell my staff and cabinet, if somebody is going to die if we don’t fund something, then we need to do it.”
Fallin somewhat segued from that into economic development as a response to funding problems, and to the introduction of Coding Dojo at 36 Degrees North.
The company offers an intensive 14-week course whose graduates, officials said, could make an average of $72,000 a year, based on area demand for coders.
Patrick Fitzgerald, a special advisor to the governor with a broad background in the tech industry, has been promoting the idea of Oklahoma as a “Silicon Prairie,”
and said programs such as Coding Dojo will help fill training gaps in the workforce.
Earlier, at Take 2, Fallin said she was encouraged by stories she heard from the women working there.
“It’s very inspiring to see these ladies ... getting away from the things that have been destructive to their lives and trying to make a new start,” Fallin said.
Resonance is a private, nonprofit agency that helps women being released from prison integrate back into society through addiction treatment services, job training and family reunification.
Take 2 is staffed by Resonance clients, some of whom live on the premises. Its purpose is to develop job and life skills for women as they move into mainstream society.
“Obviously, it is emotional to hear these women’s stories,” Fallin said. “This is a way for them to get back ... to prove there can be a great life for everyone.”