It was standing room only at VOICE's Accountability Session with candidates for OK House District 88 and Senate District 46 and delegates from VOICE member institutions.  All candidates publicly committed to working with VOICE leaders around issues identified in hundreds of conversations across the midtown district: mental healthcare, affordable housing, drivers' licenses for Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) holders, and criminal justice fines and fees.  All candidates additionally agreed to work with VOICE on the issues raised. Leaders will follow up with the officials elected to ensure commitments made are commitments kept. 

[In photo (with backs turned to camera): Marshal Gimpel of First Unitarian Church and Michele Payne-Popielec, Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma]

Candidates Focus on Variety of Community Issues in Oklahoma City Midtown District, The Oklahoman [pdf]

When Oklahoma Gas & Electric (OG&E) first attempted to shift the cost of plant updates to consumers rather than to shareholders VOICE-OKC fought back, urging the utility commission to stop the plan and leveraging the Attorney General's support for a lower charge. In 2016, OG&E proposed a rate increase of $92.5 million ($7 per month) to cover the expenses, but they again found themselves up against dogged VOICE leaders.

This year, Elise Robillard declared on behalf of VOICE-OKC, "It's time to stop protecting profits for major corporations like OG&E and start protecting the families of Oklahoma, people who are going to have to choose between buying groceries and paying their electric bill." Finally succumbing to organized campaigns of weekly calls to address the issue, the utility commission ruled, permitting OG&E an $8.9 Million rate increase (only 72 cents per month). Furthermore, the commission will claw back $50 Million in back charges to residential users, inappropriately charged by OG&E prior to the ruling.

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Talking to someone in jail costs a lot of money -- and the people footing the bill are families. Says Sundra Flansburg of VOICE, the state of Oklahoma is "trying to fund the criminal justice system on the backs of these inmates and their families."

VOICE is siding with the FCC in the implementation of a rule passed last year reducing phone call charges to inmates by 40%. Fighting the new rule is the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, the Oklahoma County Sheriff and the Oklahoma County Sheriff's Association.

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When Oklahoma Gas & Electric attempted to pass on the cost of updating a gas plant to consumers, rather than to the shareholders who benefited from a 50% increase in dividends while the utility delayed environmental compliance through lawsuits, leaders from VOICE-OKC urged the utility commission to reject the utility's plan. They additionally called on the Attorney General to get involved in the $1.1 Billion case to better protect residential consumers; this is the largest case ever presented to state regulators.

Rev. Jonalu Johnstone, a minister at the First Unitarian Church of OK City, argued, "It falls to you, the corporation commissioners, to stand for the consumers in this case, many of whom barely make it now from paycheck to paycheck."

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