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Update Number 150

When I asked to serve as your State Representative, I stated that I wanted to incorporate a platform of representing Logan and Oklahoma county residents as opposed to capitol lobbyists and the groups that hire them. I have sought to implement this goal by setting in place a policy of refusing personal gifts and political contributions from lobbyists and the groups that hire them while aggressively building an open line of communication with the citizens I serve.

In order to accomplish this goal, I resolved to write an original update every week during my time in office. This article represents the 150th consecutive weekly update which I have written since I started serving as State Representative. I originally developed the idea of writing the column based on my observation of state Representative Frank Davis' policy of updating citizens about what was occurring in the Legislature with his weekly column entitled "Frankly Speaking".

I feel that by writing about issues on a regular basis, elected officials demonstrate that they are not afraid to take a stand and let citizens know how they will be voting on those issues. One of the tricks used by career politicians to stay in office for many years is to tell one group of people one thing while telling another group another thing entirely. Putting your position down on paper each and every week pretty much takes that deceptive method of telling the audience what they want to hear off the table.

The weekly process of writing a column and participating in the ensuing dialog allows me to feel that I am truly representing my constituency. The instant communication functionality provided by the Internet has made it possible for an immediate two-way communication process to take place following the publication of each update. Each week I spend a significant amount of time communicating with constituents who respond to the latest update. This communication has enabled me to understand how issues are having an effect on the lives of local constituents and I believed it has greatly enhanced my ability to represent them.

This process has also been very beneficial for me because I have enjoyed making so many new acquaintances which I would not otherwise have had to opportunity to make.

I am very grateful to the hundreds of people who have taken the time to communicate with me over the past 150 weeks and I especially appreciate Mark Radford and The Crescent Courier, Belinda Ramsey and The Guthrie News Leader, and Lisa Shearer and The Edmond Sun for printing the updates on a regular basis. I look forward to continuing this dialog during the upcoming legislative session.

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Real Property Tax and Education Reform

I believe I have received more feedback to last week's update about the need for property tax reform than I have ever received for any other update.

I wrote that high property taxes discourage home owners to keep smaller houses and not buy or build new houses. However, I received feedback which was quick to point out that this tax also serves to disincentivize homeowners from improving their current homes.

Reducing the property tax assessment cap from 5% to 3% or 1% would be a common sense reform which should occur sooner than later. However, in order to realize true property tax reform and provide Oklahoma students with better education opportunities, Oklahoma policy makers must take aggressive action to reform a system that has not worked well for many years.

Each year, approximately 85% of property tax revenue goes to common and career tech educational entities. This is in addition to the billions of dollars that are either appropriated by the state or supplied by federal or dedicated revenue funds each year. In fact, the Oklahoma Council of Public affairs has indicated that Oklahomans spend over 10 thousand dollars each year per student. However, despite the billions of dollars spent each year, the test scores of Oklahoma public education students have failed to improve in any significant manner.

One of the respondents to last week's update told me that she lives in a house which she built with her dad. The house took them several years to build but they built it without going into debt. She is now paying hundreds of dollars each year in property taxes, so that she does not want to make improvements to the site for fear of increased property tax premiums. But she does not want to move out of the house for sentimental reasons.

This person is a homeschooler and because she wants to focus on her children's education, she chooses not to work outside the home. She states that the property tax is a killer on their one-income budget. For each child that is being homeschooled, taxpayers are probably being saved about $10K per year.

Her story demonstrates the need for true reform. Here is how it would work. The public education system could realize massive cost savings if state government would encourage people to participate in private and homeschool education through the provision of a property tax refund which is often proposed at $4,000 per year. As more and more people participated in these educational alternatives, the thousands of dollars of net cost savings to the government could be applied to property tax reform for everyone and may even be significant enough to allow for true reforms, such as restructuring the property tax so that it would apply only when a property is sold.

The impact on the public education system would be tremendous because a good deal of the work load and pressure would be taken off the public school system. And this new system would encourage market forces to provide educational solutions because any number of private entities would be forced to compete for education dollars. This would be possible because the citizens would now be empowered to control their own money instead of turning it over to the government each year.

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Property Tax Reform - Again

Constituents continue to contact me about the issue of property tax reform.

The other day a constituent explained to me that he had built a new house. He could have built this house anywhere but he chose to build it in Logan County. Upon moving into his new house he was told that his property tax payment would be thousands of dollars each year to the point that the property tax payment will represent a significant percentage of his overall payments.

This story makes the point that property tax provides a huge disincentive for citizens to invest in real estate. Why should someone buy a nice new house when the property tax payment on their new house might be as large as the mortgage payment on their old house? Building new houses is a great economic activity generator. How many jobs have been lost because punitive property taxes have discouraged this type of investment?

A senior citizen constituent visited my office one day. He produced a detailed spreadsheet calculating the implications of a continued 5% increase on his home assessment price over the upcoming years. He could demonstrate how with compounded interest the amount of his property tax would double over a certain time period. In fact, his home property taxes were nearly equal to 25% of his social security income.

And even though property values are currently in a state of decline, because assessors have had to increase the price of properties in excess of the 5% cap in the past, many homeowners will likely continue to see their assessments rise by 5% even in a down economy when their personal budgets may be shrinking.

A very simple, common sense property tax reform proposal has been circulating through the Legislature for the past few years. The reform would allow people to vote on lowering the cap of the ability of the county assessor to increase yearly assessments from 5% down to 3%. The bill is usually approved in the House or the Senate or both, but somehow always manages to get jammed up in the legislative process.

This is not a dramatic reform. This is not even a tax cut. It is a simple reduction of the amount by which this punitive tax increases each year. It is absolutely unconscionable that the Legislature refuses to give people an opportunity to vote on this bill. If the Legislature refuses once again to take action on this proposal during the upcoming session, I believe it will be vital for the people to place this issue on the ballot by circulating a initiative petition.

It is always possible that an initiative petition effort will seek a more aggressive reform such as a 1% cap each year. I would suggest that the special interests who have opposed the very reasonable 3% percent cap should consider that their short-term unreasonableness may have long term consequences, because citizens cannot continue to just stand by and be punished in this unfair manner.

Town Hall Meeting, 7pm tonight (Monday), Crescent Community Center with Senator Anderson, Sheriff Bauman and Stuart Jolly from AFP.

The First 2010 Legislative Deadline

This week provides the first deadline by which legislators must pre-file their request for bill language for the 2010 legislative session. During the past few weeks I have written about a number of the legislative ideas I will be sponsoring. I have not yet had an opportunity to write about all of these proposals and look forward to continuing to write about them as the 2010 legislative schedule continues to develop.

I very much appreciate your feedback to some of the ideas I have already written about. I have received a large amount of constituent input based on the articles of the past few weeks and this pro and con input has been very helpful.

Representatives are limited to advocating for 8 legislative initiatives, so we much carefully pick and choose the ideas which we want to advance. I have historically maintained a policy of introducing a balanced portfolio of legislation that advances the effort to institute sweeping reforms and legislation that has an increased chance of passage.

Passing legislation is a challenging process. Only a small percentage of introduced bills (with the exception of appropriations bills) is successfully signed into law. What follows is a description of the process a bill must follow in order to be approved.

The House author must convince a Senator to sponsor his bill in the Senate. It is important to choose a Senator based on his/her abilities and commitment to the principle of the bill.

The bill will be assigned to a House committee where the Chairman has to give the bill a hearing and the full committee is required to vote on passage.

A bill passed by a committee must receive permission from the Majority Floor Leader in order to be considered by the full House. If he/she consents to providing a hearing on the floor of the House, the full House has to vote on passage.

Once the bill is approved by the House, it is sent to the Senate where the process is repeated, including a committee assignment, a vote in committee and a vote on the floor of the Senate. At any time the bill is subject to being killed because of no hearing.

The bill returns to the House where any Senate amendments must be considered.

The bill may be assigned to a conference committee. If either the Senate or the House fails to assign conference committee members (Conferees) to the bill prior to the deadline for assignments, the bill dies. If the Conferees are assigned, then the bill has to receive the support of a majority.

If the conference committee approves the bill, it needs approval once again through a vote of the entire House and Senate. If the bill was not scheduled by the deadline in either House, it did not pass. If both Houses (House of Representatives and Senate) approve the bill, it is sent to the Governor for approval. If the Governor vetoes the bill, it has to go back to the House and the Senate for a possible override vote. In order to override the Governor’s veto, at least two thirds of both House and Senate must vote for the override. In the past 15 years, only one bill has become law despite a veto.

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Giving the Governor the Power to Reform Government

Over the legislative interim, I have enjoyed observing the manner in which state agencies are reacting to the series of government modernization reforms approved by the Legislature and the Governor during the last legislative session.

Some agencies react to the challenge of saving taxpayer money in an energetic and positive manner. They are supportive of modernization efforts and seem to take to heart the importance of using technology and best practice to offer better service at a lower cost. Other agencies instinctively resist change and appear desperate to maintain the status quo of antiquated practices. These agencies can resist change by intentionally misinterpreting state statute or simply refusing to meet the requirements of the law.

This naturally presents a dilemma to Oklahoma policy makers. How should policy makers address the fact that agencies can hide behind a team of attorneys and refuse to implement needed changes? And what should occur if an agency refuses to put in place the necessary internal processes to control issues such as corruption and poor service?

Last week I wrote an article about county government's failure to have the appropriate check and balance mechanism necessary to make it difficult for corruption to occur at the county level. I believe that this same deficiency of control mechanisms exists in state government. In too many cases, when an agency refuses to put proper internal controls in place to follow the law, provide quality service and low prices, or prevent corruption, there is little that can be done to check their actions.

In last week's article, I pointed to the city model of governance as an example where professional administration is overseen by the check and balance of citizen oversight. Using that same example, can you imagine an instance where a city manager could not fire a police chief who was responsible for allowing corruption in his department?

In too many cases, this is the problem faced by Oklahoma state government policy makers, because it is very difficult for agency leaders to be removed by a responsible person, such as the Governor. If the Governor were given the power to remove agency directors for acting inappropriately, it would allow the buck to stop at the Governor's desk. If the Governor refused to take action, the people could hold him or her responsible at the next election.

With the exception of the Oklahoma Ethics Commission and Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation officials (agencies responsible for investigating political corruption), I believe the Governor should be charged with the task of removing agency directors who have failed to meet their responsibilities to the citizens.

I look forward to supporting this plan for reform during the next legislative session.

Reforming Oklahoma County Governance

One piece of legislation I have considered sponsoring for years is an omnibus reform of Oklahoma's county governance structure.

In the past, I have expressed that I feel it is important for a governing board which approves a budget to not have the ability to specifically direct where that money goes. The chances for politicians to engage in corruption and self-serving political pork appropriations are greatly enhanced when the board's ability to set policy and to specifically direct that spending are combined. In past updates, I have written about how Oklahoma legislators are becoming experts at getting around the Constitutional prohibition of this type of conduct.

Over the course of my years as a public official, I have observed that county government is a significant area in Oklahoma governance where these two responsibilities are not sufficiently separated. This blurring of the policy and expenditure power results in county governments which are extremely susceptible to "good old boy" politics where county officials can exert strong political influence over employees and vendors in order to create a small political empire funded by taxpayer dollars.

We can imagine the difficult situation this places those employees in. Should they provide political support for their employer by campaigning and donating? If they refuse to support their boss, will they lose their jobs? What happens if they support the incumbent, and the challenger wins the election?

This same pressure will be felt by county vendors. They may be vested in the outcome of an election, based not on the merits of the candidates, but on their ability to continue making money, depending on who wins or loses the election. It is difficult for people to know if a vendor is chosen because of his/her performance, or because he/she is a friend of the official. Public servants and vendors should be allowed to focus on their jobs and provide quality services to taxpayers, instead of being forced to play political games.

County government should operate much like the governance model used in city government. A largely uncompensated board of elected citizen county commissioners should have oversight over a professional county manager who has the same education and qualifications as a city manager. This person would be responsible for hiring the county department heads, thus providing for employees a level of protection from political pressure. Much like a city council, the Board of Commissioners would set policy and budget, but have no ability to direct specific expenditure of funds outside of a competitive bid process.

It is important to note that if I decide to pursue this legislation this year, it will not be part of any type of House modernization agenda. This idea is something that I have thought about sponsoring for several years, and I have yet to find the opportunity to advocate for it. Prior to making the decision whether or not sponsor this legislation this year, I would very much appreciate your feedback on this proposal.

“Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.” - Calvin Coolidge

About to speak at OkAPP meeting about purchasing reform issues.

Implementing a Shared Services Policy

A few weeks ago, the House of Representatives Government Modernization Committee conducted an interim study to explore the possibility of realizing taxpayer savings through the implementation of shared services among agencies.

Several state agencies testified at the interim study about their ongoing efforts to streamline and consolidate services, efforts which they state have not only saved the state money, but have also improved service. The goal of the study was to analyze the best practices at agencies currently sharing similar services and see how those concepts could be exported to other agencies.

The opportunity for savings is significant because routine services can be centralized to a single entity that can be more efficient and effective, all at a lower cost. This frees up the agencies to focus on their core missions.

One of the areas in which these shared services could be implemented is that of payroll processing. The committee heard testimony that there are currently about 114 state employees trained to process payrolls, with about 68 full-time employees dedicated to payroll functions across state agencies. According to an official with the Office of State Finance, centralization of payroll services could save as much as $2.6 million in salary and benefits alone—even more, if higher education is included.

The State Department of Tourism testified that they have already begun participating in the shared services model for payroll. A Tourism Department official said the agency has saved an estimated $40,000 per year by working with the Office of State Finance on centralizing the agency’s payroll. In addition to saving money, this reform has also made it easier for the individual employee to be able to ensure his/her payroll is properly reported in a timely manner.

The shared services model should not be limited to items such as payroll. It could also be expanded to areas such as financial services.

It is important to note that the driver of these reforms is the evolution of technology during the past few years. Without the flexibility offered by recent technological advances, the centralization of service would be difficult, if not impossible. It is vital for legislators to realize the savings that can be realized because of technological advances, and we should take advantage of them as soon as possible. This year, I expect to propose legislation which will create a road map to a more aggressive implementation of the shared services model so taxpayer savings will be realized sooner than later.

I believe that private sector businesses have been engaging in efficient practices along these lines for years and it is time for our state government to catch up.

Implementation of Shared Services

Last year, an omnibus modernization bill (HB 1032), made accessing state services more convenient for vendors and individuals, and could lead to the saving of millions of dollars in taxpayer expenditures.

The bill seeks to recognize that savings have been incurred by those state agencies who have modernized licensing and permitting processes by offering them online. In this way, not only are countless hours and dollars saved by the agencies who have modernized their operations, but hours are saved by the applicants who are no longer compelled to visit the local bureaucracy in order to receive service.

The economic downturn presented Oklahoma policy developers leaders with the necessity of cutting costs and becoming more efficient by adopting better practices for the incorporation of technology. Instead of reducing the level of service, this type of modernization will make accessing government services more convenient than ever before. As legislators, we should view the reduction of government revenue as being an opportunity for the government not only to become leaner but also more user friendly.

These types of technology upgrades should have occurred years ago. However, the lack of a need for cutting costs allowed inefficiency and inconveniences to remain a part of the system for several years.

For instance, applicants for motor vehicle tag renewals were not able to renew their licenses online for many years. Because of House Bill 1032, the Oklahoma Tax Commission is now preparing to offer online renewals of drivers licenses. Not to be outdone and very much concerned about a loss of revenue, Oklahoma tag agents are asking that legislation be placed into law mandating that tag agent operations also be made available online. This is just one example of where a technological improvement that should have happened years ago is now happening not only in state government but with the vendors who provide the service through state government.

The principle of making government more responsive and accessible to citizens should also be used in order to allow this same type of convenience to state agencies. By viewing state agencies as customers and allowing them to take advantage of shared services, it will be easier for agencies to deal with budget reductions by offering them more convenience and freeing them up to focus on their core missions.

The next round of modernization legislation should promote efficiency and savings through the shared use of services between state agencies. This will lead to the breaking down of bureaucratic barriers which unnecessarily wastes so many taxpayer dollars each year. Next week, I intend to write in more detail about some of the plans for enabling these services.

About to speak @InnoTech conference about state tech issues. @cox center #7

Realizing Savings Through the Implementation of a Technology Strategy

Last year as part of the House Modernization agenda, House Bill 1170 introduced the important step of requiring the state Chief Information Officer to consider the incorporation of innovative and low cost technology components in Oklahoma's IT strategy. The bill seeks to recognize the fact that the days of state government being forced to expend millions on expensive licensing agreements are in fact limited.

It is important for us to build on this momentum and advance additional legislation that encourages taxpayer cost-savings through the implementation of low cost technology options. Needless to say, some technology special interest groups may be very opposed to innovative low cost solutions. However across other government entities and inside of private corporations, low cost technology solutions are becoming more and more prevalent as these groups seek to save money.

These types of technology innovations can not only provide cost savings capabilities to state agencies, but also add convenience to those who need to interact with state government. For example, Oklahoma purchasing officers have in the past sometimes been hesitant to engage in private communications with prospective vendors once those vendors were committed to bidding on providing services to state government. Understandably, the purchasing officers did not want to be seen as providing a preference to a specific vendor and did not want to be accused of providing the vendor with information that allowed them to have an inside track on developing a successful bid. This unfortunate communication block may have been responsible for costing the taxpayers money, as other qualified bidders did not compete for state business because they were not sure about the bid details and did not want to risk incurring obligations they could not make a profit on.

Now, however, shared documentation could provide the solution to this type of problem at almost no cost to the state by allowing purchasing officials to respond to vendor inquiries in a public manner through a collaborative application that allows everyone to see the questions and the responses and eases the favoritism concern.

For example, all requests for proposals (RFPs) for contracts could be posted in a series of public collaborative documents with all bid specs having available attachments. Supplementary data such as attendee lists from any relevant public hearings could be posted, along with videos of hearings and RFP presentations. Most importantly, communications with the potential vendors on the RFPs would also be posted.

This type of openness would make it very hard for secret deals to ever be made behind closed doors.

In addition, I believe next year's modernization legislation should enable Oklahoma's Chief Information Officer to encourage a concept known as crowdsourcing. This effort begins when state agencies make sets of data easily available to the public. The use of these data will enable third-party application developers to analyze the data and produce informative applications that will allow the citizens to hold government responsible like never before.

These are some of the concepts I hope we are able to advance with next year's modernization legislation.

120 attended Woodcrest Town Hall Meeting.

Town Hall Meeting Update

This week I will be hosting the third of four Town Hall meetings which are scheduled in House District 31 during this year's legislative interim. At each of these Town Hall meetings, it has been my goal to bring together state and local officials to provide updates to area residents. At almost every meeting, I have invited at least one area State Senator and one local County Commissioner to provide a broad base of access to both state and local issues.

I very much appreciate the officials who have attended these events and am also grateful to the citizens who have participated. What I especially appreciate about this turn out is that it provides the opportunity for elected officials to hear first hand from citizens how they feel about issues. Especially in light of recent events, citizens have not been at all shy about making their voices heard.

Our first meeting took place in August, was held in south Logan County/Edmond, and was attended by about 140 individuals. Speaking at the meeting were State Senator Clark Jolly, State Senator Randy Brogden and County Commissioner Mark Sharpton. Aparticular focus of the meeting was the states' rights issue and many participants were especially anxious about what they see as the destructive, excessive spending habits and bad policies developed by the federal government. They want state government to stand up and assert its rights under the 10th amendment to shelter the public from these federal polices.

The second meeting occurred in Guthrie and was attended by about 40 participants. Michael Carnuccio from Oklahomans for Government Reform (OFRG) was present to talk about OFRG's recent effort to study transparency issues in Oklahoma school districts. State Senator Halligan sent his regrets as he had a schedule conflict on that evening. The Senator looks forward to meeting with Logan County residents at future Town Hall meetings. A special "thank you" to County Commissioner Mark Sharpton who agreed to fill in and speak at a Town Hall meeting for a second time this year.

This third meeting will take place this week (Tuesday, 7:00 p.m. at Woodcrest Fire Station) and is being attended by newly elected County Commissioner Mike Pearson and Stuart Jolly, Director of the Oklahoma Chapter of Americans for Prosperity. This will be Pearson's first appearance at a town hall meeting since taking office. Jolly will update the attendees on the ongoing federal health policy debate.

The final Town Hall meeting is set to take place at the Crescent Community Center December 7 at 7:00 p.m. Speakers will include state Senator Patrick Anderson and new Logan County Sheriff Jim Bauman. County Commissioner Monty Piercy may also be in attendance in order to answer road-related questions.

If you are available to attend one of the remaining meetings, I would certainly appreciate and look forward to your presence.

Logan County Town hall meeting, Tuesday, 7 pm at Woodcrest fire station. Commissioner Pearson and Stuart Jolly will be speaking.

Just finished reading new Perspective from @OCPAThink. Tom Daxon has a great article about disincentive created by Medicaid system.

Developing the Oklahoma Innovation, Efficiency and Accountability Act of 2010

In today's quickly changing world, private businesses are taking advantage of innovative programs such as allowing for employee telecommuting. Because of the ever growing reach of broadband Internet access, many job functions can be performed through the Internet.

One example of this new functionality is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) that allows for state of the art telephone functions to be performed online. Another important reason for the rise of telecommuting is the recent expansion of cloud computing (shared computing via the Internet). Because of high speed Internet access, individual workers are not limited to the capabilities of his/her own computer, but can work in a collaborative manner with other employees who are located miles away through the use of shared capabilities afforded by cloud computing. An example of this functionality is the ability of employees to co-edit documents in real time.

As the state government real property infrastructure deteriorates, the state government cannot continue indebting the taxpayers by issuing bonds and debt to build new office structures. It is also cost prohibitive to keep paying rent and utility bills when those expenditures could be avoided with an effective telework program. A recent study by one state agency demonstrated the possible savings of thousands of dollars if just 23 employees participated in a telework pilot program.

This type of program would both necessitate and provide for the opportunity to enact a series of quality control benchmarks to ensure that the quality of work performed via telecommuting does not deteriorate. These benchmarks could include the incorporation of a series of performance auditing indicators which could be used to develop a illustrative cost focused financial reporting system similar to the one envisioned in a recent Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA) report.

The OCPA report detailed the benefits to the taxpayers that would be afforded by the production of illustrative financial accounting documents. These documents could be used to compare a service offered by the government to those being offered in the private sector. This could create an important process that forces the government to justify its engagement in any number of activities that could possibly be better performed by the private sector. The performance data set could be posted on the ok.gov web site allowing Oklahomans to review the work load processed by the government including the ability to drill down to view the work load processed by each individual employee.

The telecommuting program will also serve as a tool for stopping the migration from rural communities into the city. No long will rural residents need to commute to the city in order to provide a service through state government. A similar program in Arizona, where the state recently reached 19.74 percent telework participation rate in Maricopa County, found that not only was the program helpful in travel demand management, it also increased participating state employees’ productivity and improved job attitude because there was a better work environment.

Because cloud computing based technologies are quickly developing and emerging, it is vital for legislative leaders to try to allow for a statutory scheme that encourages state employees to take advantage of these new technologies as soon as possible. All too often, government entities are slow to respond to technological changes and private market best practices. This slow adaptation is expensive in that it unnecessarily wastes millions of taxpayer dollars. I believe it is our job as legislators to be informed of these best practices and it is a moral imperative that we guard taxpayer dollars by applying these innovations as soon as possible.

Is getting a Nobel Peace Prize easier than a Google Wave invite?

I am starting to feel guilty for driving a hybrid. If we can't speed up global warming I am moving to Texas to keep warm.

Getting Your Input About Government Modernization 2.0

During the past few months it has been my responsibility to help develop the next series of Government Modernization legislation. As part of this process, I have met with a number of agency leaders to receive their input and have worked to ascertain best practices from the private industry and other government entities. The goal of these efforts has been to develop the proposals that will result in the quick elimination of waste and provide savings to Oklahoma taxpayers.

Over the next few weeks, I would like to use the forum provided by this column to role out these ideas and to receive your feedback. Some of the proposals may be rather aggressive and somewhat unorthodox in their approach to seeking savings. Your input will assist in continuing to develop the proposals to maturation.

As an example, one ideas I will write about and one of the key ingredients of the next round of Modernization legislation should be to promote efficiencies and savings through the promotion of shared services between state agencies. This will lead to the breaking down of bureaucratic barriers which unnecessarily waste so many taxpayer dollars each year.

Last year, House Bill 1032 made accessing services more convenient for those using state services either as individuals or as vendors and could lead to millions in savings. Now, this same focus should be provided to allow this same type of convenience to state agencies. By viewing state agencies as customers and allowing them to take advantage of shared services it will make it easier for agencies to deal with budget reductions by offering them more convenience and freeing them up to focus on their core mission.

Another idea I will write about and what I hope will be a key component of the Modernization legislation should be a very aggressive effort to allow state officials to incorporate best practices in utilizing new technological advancements. You have no doubt noticed how that over the past few years many of the items and services which previously cost a significant amount of money are now much more affordable. From long distance phone service to the cost of consumer electronics, the cost for using technology is much lower than it was just a few years ago. The same market forces which have made it much less expensive to use technology also enable government entities to provide a better, more efficient, less costly service to the taxpayers.

It is our moral imperative as Legislators to make sure government takes advantage of these more efficient processes and savings by educating ourselves on the new capabilities afforded by technology and by building a statutory system which allows for the use of these technologies as quickly as possible.

Over the next few weeks, I look forward to sharing some specific ideas with you and would appreciate your feedback.

Both Google and Microsoft now confirmed to present at our modernization committee's Oct 15th Open Source Interim Study.

Attending Public Safety Committee meeting on texting and driving.

I have been doing research today to develop 2010 modernization omnibus technology legislation. Please send your suggestions.

One of the Worst Examples of Wasteful Spending

Once in a while, I run across a law that makes my head hurt. A perfect example of one of these laws is Senate Bill 1347 which was signed into law in 2004. To see the effect of this law, I would suggest a drive down Memorial Road at the site of the new Broadway overpass. You will notice a series of elaborately designed artwork to aesthetically improve the new overpass.

Because I represent a growth area where local officials are desperate to fund the construction of roads, I cannot help but think that had the Transportation Department just been allowed to build a normal underpass without all of the associated artwork, the thousands of dollars wasted could be used to pave miles of desperately needy roads. Does anyone seriously think that the state of Oklahoma roads and bridges is so good that we can waste thousands of dollars with artwork on the new bridges?

Senate Bill 1347 requires that 1.5 percent of a construction budget for new buildings or renovations be spent for artwork. A significant number of the state's new construction projects are funded through millions of dollars of debt. This means that generations of Oklahomans could be trying to pay off the bill that comes with these art projects.

Earlier this year, the Director of the State Department of Agriculture testified before an Appropriation Sub-committee upon which I serve. He can point to the fact that a 5 percent reduction in his agency budget is actually a more significant discretionary spending reduction in percentage terms because he cannot lower the bond payments for his building. He stated that the bond/rent payments for his building were going to be very challenging for his department to deal with.

The department's building was recently constructed according to the requirements set forth in Senate Bill 1347. These requirements necessitated the construction of an outdoor plaza with monoliths carved in granite and an accompanying sculpture. The design reflects the work of the department, from livestock to crops to a larger-than-life plow.

In this day, when government taxation is so high and debt at all levels of government is skyrocketing, in my view it is insane to engage in this type of waste. This unfortunate legislative mandate is forcing state agencies to participate in a wasteful spending spree that will haunt Oklahoma policy makers for years to come. The Legislature should right this wrong and repeal the mandate as soon as possible.

The Need for Greater Transparency

I have either been involved in or closely observed some level of government for almost ten years. In that time I have studied a series of local, county and state government entities, as well as an array of government public trusts.

I have spent a good deal of time listening to those groups argue about why they needed to continue receiving taxpayer largesse, need more taxes and fees, or want approval for new debt spending. I cannot recall one single time when a representative of any government group admitted to having too much money and suggested that the money be returned to the taxpayers from whom it was taken.

A naive person who did not maintain a healthy sense of skepticism would quickly adopt the point of view that almost all elements of government are terribly underfunded and much good would be accomplished with higher taxes and more debt spending.

Those who advance the notion of more government spending usually do so in a smooth and professional manner but every once in a while, a bureaucrat mistakenly reveals the true state of affairs. This was illustrated when I recently attended a meeting in which a group government officials listened to a very professional presentation by a representative of a government entity. The presentation communicated the need for money faced by the agency and was not unlike any number of similar presentations I have heard over the years.

Following his sales pitch, the presenter introduced to the group a high ranking official in his agency. Apparently unaware that a few state representatives where in the room, that official announced that he had been very busy lately because his agency was nearing the end of its fiscal year and his boss had apparently discovered a few extra hundred thousand dollars and had tasked him with quickly spending the money before the fiscal year expired. After all, the agency wouldn't want elected officials to discover they had overfunded the agency, and certainly the agency did not want to run the risk of facing reduced funding.

To hear a high ranking official make this comment was shocking in and of itself, especially following the recently concluded sales pitch of his subordinate. However, what I found to be the most discouraging was the reaction of the audience. Instead of expressing shock or disgust at this obvious waste of taxpayer dollars, several of the government officials met the comments with applause and laughter.

Their reaction created the distinct impression in my mind that those who celebrated these comments support taking from the taxpayer even when it is unnecessary to do so. This speaks to the fact that they no longer consider their positions to be positions of trust in which their foremost duty is to guard the taxpayers' money.

Incidents like this illustrate the importance of tax reduction and much greater transparency. To this end, I look forward to drafting and sponsoring an aggressive schedule of legislation during the upcoming session that both cuts spending and brings about greater transparency than ever before. The taxpayers must have the easy ability to see how, where and when the government bureaucrats are spending our money.

Attending interoperability presentation at DC Fire Training center.

Making a lot of progress developing legislative outline for 2010 modernization issues.

Starting work on Modernization bills for 2010. If you have ideas, that you have not sent to me yet, please send them to me now...

Conducting a Review of State Employee Insurance

You may have read recent headlines regarding an increase in rates that state, school and county governments will be paying for the insurance of their employees. An increase in the cost of the co-pay provisions of the primary PPO plan (state-run self-insurance program known as HealthChoice) will be handed down to state, school and county employees.

Over the past two years, it appears HealthChoice has kept rates from significant increases by subsidizing them with investment income derived as part of a increasing amount of reserve funding. However, during this time, because of this subsidy, and possibly because of investment income reversals as part of the downturn in the economy, the plan's reserve fund appears to have dropped from the 170 million dollar level down to about the 100 million dollar level.

These changes led me to predict earlier this year that the HealthChoice board would probably stop subsidizing the rate premiums which would result in a large rate increase for the upcoming year.

Because rates were artificially kept lower in the past couple of years, much of the impact of three years of health care cost inflation will be felt this year.

The HealthChoice board appears to have made the decision to split the cost of the increase among the employees by raising their co-payments and the employers by raising the cost of the premiums.

Fortunately, House and Senate leadership, working with Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland, foresaw this issue and passed legislation impaneling a five-person study group to look at various solutions to the problem. As a member of that group, I believe it is essential for us to develop legislation to keep costs to employees and employers as low as possible.

There are some innovative and creative concepts that have been pioneered in the private enterprise system that I feel we should attempt to incorporate. One of the most exciting is an incentive plan developed by the Safeway Corporation that aims to drive down costs by incentivizing wellness and prevention by rewarding those who stay fit by lowering their insurance costs (which I believe many who are experiencing an increase in co-pays would be happy to take advantage of in order to lower their co-pay).

Another important reform must be to put a benchmark in place so that the entire system can be evaluated on a regular basis and a cost comparison can be conducted to make sure the lowest cost is being passed down. A key component of this ongoing benchmark should be to require the state-run plan to participate in a process designed to compare it to the plans being offered in the private sector. As is often the case, the private sector is much more incentivized to produce a quality product than a government entity.

I hope we can find a solution to reverse the costs increases of this year and I think it is our job as Legislators to make sure these types of increases are avoided in the future.

3rd Modernization study to start Thursday at 2:30. Up this time: Purchasing Reform and Transperancy.

Learning from the Failures of other States

If you spend much time watching business or news networks such as CNBC or FOX, you may have noticed a commercial promoting Michigan as a good location for business owners to conduct business. For the past several years, Michigan's political leaders have offered $3.3 billion in tax credits through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and spent another $1.6 billion in outlays to create and retain jobs. The subsidies include tax breaks for film production, funding for new industrial plants, and millions for the nationwide TV ads starring celebrities talking about business and tourism to Michigan.

Upon seeing the ad, and aside from thinking about how wasteful it is for state government to spend money on television commercials, I seriously question how the politicians in Michigan can so aggressively insult the intelligence of American business owners.

Even though I live miles from Michigan, I know all too well that the state has one of the most business unfriendly tax climates, and I would never consider locating a business in that hostile business environment. In 2007 alone, Michigan raised business taxes by $1.4 billion. It does not matter how much money they want to spend on first class television commercials. it is hard for them to cover up the truth.

A recent article in the Wall Street demonstrated just this point. The article stated that Michigan's program is "one of the largest experiments in smokestack chasing in American history, but one thing it hasn't done is create jobs."

The article also pointed to a study by Economist Michael Hicks, a business school professor at Ball State, in which he calculated the rate of return on the corporate tax credits. He found that for every $1 million in tax credits awarded, there were 95 manufacturing jobs lost in the counties where the companies were located, and there was no gain in personal income in those counties. Fortunately, these massive failures in Michigan may mean good news for states like Oklahoma.

For years, state level politicians across the nation, including Oklahoma, have engaged in a foolish arms race by spending millions of state dollars in a recruiting war for offering tax incentives for new businesses. These incentives punish business owners who are already here by giving their new competition an unfair advantage and opens the door to corruption and massive amounts of waste.

High profile failures like Michigan will make it easier for those of us who oppose these schemes to win the critical votes when the next tax giveaway is presented in the Legislature (it seems like some sort of new scheme is concocted or expanded on each year).

By saying no to these types of schemes, perhaps we can focus the attention of Oklahoma's leaders on the polices that will result in true economic development while treating those who currently have businesses in Oklahoma in an even handed manner. What really should be implemented is across-the-board tax reduction for everyone.

Payroll, Human Resources Streamlining Discussed at House Interim Study

Several state agencies testified at an interim study today about their ongoing efforts to streamline and consolidate payroll and human relations services, which has not only saved the state money, but has also improved services.

Rep. Jason Murphey, chairman of the House Government Modernization Committee, said the goal of the study is to look at agencies currently sharing similar services and see how those concepts may be spread to other agencies.

“The idea is to look at ways state agencies have realized savings in the past and map out a way to expand those savings to other agencies that are performing similar functions,” said Murphey, R-Guthrie. “The opportunity for savings is huge as services are centralized to a single entity that can be more efficient and effective, all at a lower cost. The private sector has been doing this for years; our state government needs to catch up.”

The Office of Personnel Management testified at the hearing that they provide payroll support services and other human resources functions to more than 40 state agencies, many of which are small and have no need to have a separate payroll or human resources departments.

The Office of State Finance also runs a centralized payroll for several state agencies and proposed an expansion of that program to additional agencies at the meeting.

It is estimated that there are about 114 state employees trained to process payrolls, with about 68 full time employees dedicated to payroll functions across state agencies. Centralization of payroll services could save as much as $2.6 million in salary and benefits alone—even more if Higher Education is included— an Office of State Finance official noted. Additionally, a centralized payroll system would allow each agency to focus on their main mission instead of technical processes like payroll.

A Tourism Department official said the agency has saved an estimated $40,000 per year by working with the Office of State Finance on centralizing the agency’s payroll.

House Speaker Chris Benge said the on-going effort to modernize state movement will continue next session.

“Especially in the midst of an ongoing global recession, we must be more diligent than ever to ensure taxpayer dollars are spent as efficiently as possible,” said Benge, R-Tulsa. “This study will help us will take a look at the innovative steps many agencies are already taking to modernize government and the possibility of expanding those efforts across government.”

Interim Study Looks at Ways to Streamline State Permits and Licensing

Interim Study Looks at Ways to Streamline State Permits and Licensing

Streamlining the thousands of licenses and permits issued by various state agencies is critical to modernizing state government, House members were told at an interim study today.

Various agencies testified at the study about efforts they have taken to make permits and licenses more convenient to obtain, especially by making them available online.

“Often, Oklahomans who need a series of permits or licenses must encounter a long line of bureaucracy, including multiple trips to several locations,” said Rep. Jason Murphey, chairman of the House Government Modernization Committee. “Technology has advanced to a point where these licenses and permits should be made available online and they should be easy to obtain without mounds of paperwork and unnecessary use of staff resources.”

Health Commissioner Terry Cline said it is the goal of the Health Department to have all of their license applications online by July. The department maintains licenses for 108,000 individuals and over 35,000 businesses in Oklahoma, many of which have multiple certification requirements.

An official with the Insurance Department said the agency was able to reduce or reallocate its workforce by 35 percent following implementation of online licensing in 2007. The transition not only saved the department money, but improved customer service and accessibility.

Before electronic processing of licensing was available at the department, there was as much as a five week processing time for new and renewal resident applications. The department also received about 66,000 calls in a year with an average hold time in excess of 10 minutes.

Currently, because of online capabilities, a new or renewal license application can be processed in as little as two hours. Phone calls were reduced by about 20,000 after online capabilities were added. The need for storage space was also reduced as records are now stored electronically.

“These efforts are not just about saving the state money, which is obviously one of the goals, but also improving services to our citizens,” said House Speaker Chris Benge, R-Tulsa. “We have worked hard to make Oklahoma a business-friendly state, and streamlining licenses and permits will be just another step toward that goal, which will help attract jobs to our state.”

Local Road and Bridge Construction Report

One of the my tasks last week was to accumulate my biannual list of upcoming area road projects as a component of my 2009 Constituent Report. This report provides an update for local residents to know when road projects are scheduled in their area. The report also serves as a tool for allowing the people to know that their local officials are working hard to properly fund the roads in their area.

I enjoying providing this update because I feel that the roads issue is one of the two issues (the other being public safety) that are at the core of what government should be focused on and I believe that elected leaders have the responsibility to be especially transparent about their performance (or lack thereof) on this issue.

If you are fortunate enough to live in the Oklahoma County District 3 part of my district, odds are that you live on a paved road. Each year, Oklahoma County Commissioner Ray Vaughn spends about $5-7 million in a capital improvement program to upgrade roads and keep them in good shape. This program saves money in the long run because the improved roads require less ongoing maintenance. In my time in office I can only remember one contact from an Oklahoma County constituent concerned about county roads.

If you live in the Logan County part of my district, you may live on a dirt, gravel, or poorly paved road that has many potholes and requires much maintenance. Logan County Commissioners have no capital improvement budget for improving roads, and their allotted funding is used up just by trying to maintain the roads in their current condition. This leads to a "spinning wheels" effect as countless dollars are spent trying to maintain roads that do not have enough funding to be improved. One of the few ways for them to actually pave roads is to push the paperwork that secures state and federal funding when possible.

This will be the second time in my term of office that I have performed this reporting task and I noticed how much longer this year's list is than in 2007 when I assembled the list for the first time. When you receive your copy, you will notice that many of the road and bridge improvements will occur as a result of a series of state and federal funding programs.

I have become a strong critic of this system because we are now forced to elect our County Commissioners not on their ability to maintain roads, but on their ability to push paperwork in order to jump through a bunch of bureaucratic hoops. This is a costly system. It would make much more sense for local tax dollars to stay in local government instead of being sucked up by state and federal government and returned to local government only after the bureaucracy has soaked up a bunch of the money and imposed a series of costly restrictions on how the money can be spent. This is a massive waste of our taxpayer dollars.

This year's list contains about 72 million dollars of funding that local or state officials have secured, including several million dollars which Logan County District 2 officials just recently secured, for paving 15 miles of Forrest Hills, Midwest and Luther Roads. I have been impressed by the hard work these indiviudals have shown in getting the funding. The report is available at HouseDistrict31.com under the Reports menu option.

Making sure everything is good to go for Tuesday's Modernization Committee Interim Study on shared Human Resource and Licensing services.

Free Market Solutions for High Speed Internet

During the time I have served as State Representative, my office has handled a number of constituent requests. One of the issues I am most often asked to check into is why a certain area does not have access to broadband Internet and when it might become available. Usually the constituent who has an interest in this issue lives in a rural part of the district and is understandably frustrated that they cannot get online quickly.

I am always happy to assist by serving as a go-between with the utility providers to make sure the company knows that there are prospective customers desiring service, and I support expansion as broadband providers work to boost their capacity and bring this service to new areas. This technology is usually a key factor in developers locating new neighborhoods and it has a direct impact on the ability of the area to support new growth. Most people are going to be very hesitant to re-locate to an area where there is limited high speed access.

However, I am not a supporter of some of the possible suggested approaches of having the government subsidize this service by raising phone taxes in order to pay for it. I feel that when government thwarts the free market process, there can be significantly negative ramifications.

No doubt by now you have noticed that all of the taxes placed on your phone or Internet bill under line items have complicated sounding names but give little way to tell what they are really used for (I hope to write in more detail about these charges in another update). There are already too many of these taxes and I do not feel that people should be asked to pay for any new ones.

I think that a recent development in Logan County demonstrates the mistaken nature of this type of government intervention. One of the largest telecom providers recently expanded their 3G wireless network into Logan County so that now their customers do not have to deal with high speed wireless that cuts off at the county line. These types of fast wireless networks are quickly evolving into a state where one day they may very well make traditional land line access completely unnecessary.

Not only will the next generation of 4G wireless networks allow for the bypassing of traditional phone regulatory roadblocks (which could lead to advancements such a free international calling), but they could be the backbone of an infrastructure that will support low cost solutions to issues such as emergency interoperable communications and possibly save taxpayers millions of dollars.

This expansion is just a simple reminder that while politicians consider such issues as the government subsidized expansion of broadband, the free market is providing options that will quickly provide the solutions to problems the government has just started to address.

Local Officials Standing Up to the Legislature

I believe the best form of government is one in which a citizen board sits in oversight of a government entity without having the direct authority to determine who receives money from the government by way of targeting funds directly to the recipient. When elected officials have the direct authority to determine who receives government largesse, the potential for corruption dramatically increases.

I feel that the designers of Oklahoma's government ingrained this important concept deep into the foundations of our government by setting up a system by which the Legislature can determine policy and budget matters but should have no control over where the money is spent. This important safeguard is supposed to help keep Oklahoma legislators from becoming powerful political bosses who can use their authority to reward the privileged few at the cost of the taxpayers.

Legislators should certainly have the ability to expend funds in order to secure the proper support for the responsibilities of the Legislature such as hiring staff etc. They should not however be able to direct appropriated funds once those funds have been appropriated to the various agencies.

Oklahoma legislators have historically been experts at getting around these restrictions. They have found ways to "pass-through" money to certain entities where it is subsequently directed to the recipients of the legislators' choice. This allows for the possibility of corruption. In a recent federal criminal case, it has been demonstrated how legislators have used this system for their own direct financial benefit.

Unfortunately, this system of inappropriate pass-thoroughs is still alive and well. However, the recent effort of some courageous local officials could send a strong message to the Legislature and win a big victory for the taxpayers.

This year, one of the agencies chosen to pass through funding was the Department of Commerce. The Department of Commerce was ordered to send money to a group known as ACOG (Association of Central Oklahoma Governments) who in turn was directed to pass through about $16 million to third-party entities. Membership of ACOG includes representatives from central Oklahoma local governments. When it came time for the ACOG board to approve the pass-through funding, some of these courageous local officials (including Logan County Commissioner Mark Sharpton) successfully managed to stave off a vote and delay action on approving the funding which means the funding will not be passed through until at least the next meeting of the board. This may be the first time (at least that I am aware of) that a local government entity has stood up to the Legislature and attempted to not play the same old game that has caused Oklahoma taxpayers so much grief.

It is unbelievable, that even during a down financial year, the Legislature would continue to try to spend money in this way. However, if more local officials would show this same courage, it would make the Legislature think twice about using these methods to direct funds.

Am starting to think the taxpayers could save a lot of money if state employees would work from home.

Attending judicial training at Payne County Courthouse.

Creating an Inventory of State Assets

It is my belief that Oklahomans expect their elected officials and government leaders to manage their resources in the same efficient manner that a privately owned business would manage its affairs.

Can you imagine a private business entity that went about its business in such a disorganized manner that it was unable to give you a centralized inventory of its real property assets? It would not take long before that business was out of business if they did not have a basic organization structure that could account for this most important of internal control tools.

This is exactly the state of affairs in which Oklahoma state government has found itself. While many state agencies keep their own separate inventories of properties owned, there has not been a centralized location in which state leaders could review the status of the state's assets.

Without this basic tool in place, it is almost impossible to know how much property is owned by state government that is no longer serving its needed purposes and should therefore be returned to the private marketplace. It is also much more difficult to have internal controls to ensure that state property is not susceptible to corruption.

In 2004, the newly appointed director of Oklahoma's Department of Central Services (DCS) commissioned an effort to begin the painstaking process of documenting the location of thousands of acres of state-owned land. This procedure involved DCS officials going to the individual agencies and sometimes county government officials such as assessors or county clerks to try and find out what exactly the state owned. Five years later the study has yet to be completed.

As this inventory has continued to accumulate, it provides an important tool that state leaders can now use to analyze what has happened over the years as state government has taken over this land.

The Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Representative Ken Miller, has asked House Staff to study this growing list in an attempt to explore how the state should be most accountable to the taxpayers now that we are starting to understand exactly what the state owns. You may also soon have an opportunity to help in this process. The Director of DCS has indicated that the list will be available in the future on the state's web portal for everyone to see.

It is my personal belief that state government should relinquish all state assets that are not necessary to perform its core functions. This would allow the private marketplace to use the assets for their intended purposes. And it is about time that the very basic step of providing a centralized inventory of state-owned properties was completed.

Just finished meeting with the director of the Boll Weevil Commission. If you want to know about Boll Weevils now is the time to ask me.

Just presented citation to Crescent firefighter at the Crescent fire dept. That's my last appointment today!

Meeting with Capitol Improvement Authority about modernization issues.

Meeting with the Office of Personnel Management about Human Resource consolidation Interim Study.

Just finished Crescent chamber of commerce meeting.

With Jarod at his first football practice of the year.

Crescent and Guthrie School Districts Applying Best Practices

One of my recent tasks has been to participate in discussions with state agency officials and other groups who have an interest in upcoming government modernization efforts. These discussions focus on issues such as using technology to streamline and reduce the cost of government operations and in doing so to increase the opportunities for more aggressive government transparency. As part of the interview, I am very attuned to finding best-practice examples from government entities that can be expanded and applied universally. What may have saved money in one area can sometimes be implemented in others.

It is always an enjoyable turn of events when, as part of the search for these best-practice case-in-point examples, the discussion focuses on local government groups back home who are doing a good job.

Recently, in talking to the State Superintendent of Education about school districts who are using technology in an innovative manner, we discussed the example being put forth by the Crescent school system and their implementation of the server-based curriculum known as Acellus.

Acellus allows Crescent High School students to complete their math curriculum via the internet. Acellus provides high-quality video lectures to students, identifies specific areas of student difficulty, provides an alternative learning path which can be customized to each student’s learning experience and captures student data so that the overall effectiveness of the course can be assessed. The program frees up teachers to spend one-on-one time with students requiring special attention.

In essence, the program adds much needed flexibility to the public education experience. No longer are students forced to work at a generalized pace that either leaves them frustrated at being held back or too far behind to ever catch up. This removes the one-size-fits all approach which has been one of the more challenging flaws of the government-run education system that has played havoc with students' ability to learn. Can you imagine being a teacher who has to teach to a classroom of over 20 different students, each of which has his/her own unique strengths and weaknesses? Technology is allowing forward-thinking school districts such as Crescent to remove some of these barriers and allows us to point to their achievement as a best-practice that others can follow.

A second exciting revelation came about last week in a meeting with the group Oklahomans For Responsible Government (OFRG). OFRG has been working on a massive, state-wide study of each school district's transparency on the web policies and will be presenting that study at a meeting of the Government Modernization Committee later this year. They are checking for ten items that each school district should have available on their web site in order to better enable the people to hold the district accountable.

Their findings have not been encouraging. They have found that school districts are not using technology to allow for significantly greater transparency. However, OFRG informed me that out of the more than 530 school districts they are analyzing, that the highest ranking district to date, with 9 out of 10 benchmarks met, is the Guthrie school system.

I appreciate the commitment of these two organizations to using technology to provide a higher quality of service and to aid in the very important concept of transparency to the people.

Attending organizational meeting for our four town hall meetings.

Doing background work for study on consolidation of state human resource functions. Please send me your ideas.

Trying to respond to a lot of feedback from this week's update. http://ping.fm/n80dd

Dealing With The Federal Bureaucracy

Last week, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn made a point of exposing the horrendous misuse of our gas tax dollars. Each time you buy gas, you pay about 18 cents per gallon which is remitted to the federal government. This money is supposed to be used to build and repair roads. Coburn explained that a third of this money is being used for items such as scenic beautification, bike paths, pedestrian walkways, transportation museums and environmental concerns.

Coburn's testimony matches with what our local officials experience on a regular basis. You can only imagine how frustrating it is for local leaders who are fighting a desperate battle to repair roads to see how money is siphoned off for these superfluous purposes -- while the roads go unfunded.

Not only are our federal tax dollars inappropriately spent, but the funds that are allowed to come back to state and local government for paving roads do so with horrible, bureaucratic, one-size-fits-all controls that handicap local leaders.

An example of this is the upcoming re-pavement of Broadway Road. Logan County received funding for the road in part because it experiences an extremely heavy traffic count (6000 per day) which is wearing away the road surface. However, federal red tape won't let the county use this money to pave the road where the heaviest traffic is located.

A federal rule requires that a road this busy cannot be paved with federal funds unless it is widened and shoulder space is added. The amount of funding does not come close to allowing these types of improvements to occur. This means the road will be repaved farther to the north where the widening is not necessary and the need for re-paving is not nearly as strong.

Because of this federal rule, well-meaning though it may be, the worst part of the road cannot be fixed while the part of the road that is not so needy will receive a very nice repaving job. This means the county must scramble to find a way to fix the heavily traveled part of the road with other funding sources.

Recently, county officials from the central Oklahoma region were called into a training session where they were coached on the rules they should abide by because they receive federal funds (money they took from us through the federal gas tax). An example of one of these rules is a Title VI rule requiring local governments to produce materials in multiple languages. You can only image how infuriating it is for county officials who want to make improvements such as paving roads to be told that instead of doing this, they have to spend money producing their documents in foreign languages.

Another point of contention between federal and county government is the fact that county government is required to produce an environmental impact study for events as simple as the placement of a road sign. What kind of world do we live in when taxpayers have to pay for an environmental study just to put up a sign?

In my view, Oklahoma would be far better off by refusing to participate in this ridiculous system and stop remitting gas tax money to the federal government. Those funds would be used much more efficiently if they were simply sent directly to ODOT and the local governments without the federal filter allowing the federal government to dictate their agenda.

Started interviews last week with agencies to get their input on gov modernization. Up on Monday - ODOT.

HD31 - 2009 New Registrations over the last year - example from Antler Ridge in SLC - 29 Repubs - 1 Dem - 9 Ind

Road Funding Relief May Be On The Way

Last summer as I went door to door visiting with District 31 constituents, I tried to put a special emphasis on making contact with those who were new to the area. I wanted to be sure to welcome them to the district and give them the opportunity to update their voter registrations to reflect their new residence.

And in the past year, more than 3300 district residents have filed new local voter registrations as the area continues to grow and expand.

In talking to these new residents, one of the issues that becomes very apparent is their desire for quality county roads and their dismay at the fact that even though they are paying so much in property taxes each year, none of that money seems to be used to improve their roads. I have always explained to them that that even though their property taxes continue to grow year after year, this money does not get sent to the roads fund and cannot be used to pave roads. It is clear to me that they feel this is wrong. They believe that at least a portion of the massive new amounts of money that are pouring into the local school and county governments should be used for roads.

Last summer, after yet another round of these discussion with the residents of my district, I communicated these concerns to Logan County Commissioner Mark Sharpton and he launched an effort to put a policy in place that would return half of all new property tax revenues going to county government to the roads fund. Unfortunately, at that time, the County Commission did not support Sharpton's effort and we have had to go another year without property tax monies being used for roads. However, the Commission recently revisited the proposal and it was approved unanimously and now simply awaits confirmation by the County Excise Board at which point in time the policy should go into effect.

Because most property tax revenue is placed in the school system and this new policy will not affect those funds, the initial amount of new growth money gong to roads will not be substantial, however, if this policy is continued over time, the compounded revenues should result in a very significant amount of road funding in just a few years if the county continues to grow. This means that future new residents of Logan County may not notice the drop in road quality when they cross the county line.

This is an important common-sense reform and all three Logan County Commissioners should be acknowledged for their commitment to the concept.

I would certainly hope that the area school systems would also look at this type of a program to avoid future debt efforts. A large amount of new growth money is now flowing into the area school districts whose territory includes this growth. If, instead of spending the new growth money, the school systems would budget a portion of it for capital needs, it may be possible for the districts to meet the infrastructure demands of this growth with reserve funds instead of having to ask for new bond issuances. This form of wise financial management would result in the avoidance of unnecessary banking fees and debt interests and it would keep property taxes lower.

I very much appreciate the feedback and insight of the people in bringing attention to this issue. Please continue to provide me with your ideas for reform.

10th Amendment Center published my update http://ping.fm/gJPbA

Oklahoman article - I should have put a sign up a long time ago http://ping.fm/y8BAd

Preparing to Advocate an Aggressive States' Rights Agenda

Last November, I wrote an update entitled, "Preparing for an Expansion of Government." In that update, I referenced how that over time, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, both parties have used the expansion of federal government as a tool to accomplish their various agendas and in doing so violated the important concept of states' rights. I also wrote about the possible upcoming expansion in the size and scope of the federal government due to the recent consolidation of liberal control over both the presidency and Congress.

Since that time, I have been contacted by a number of worried constituents who are desperate to know what can be done. They have contacted their U.S. Senators and Congressman but are terrified because with vote after vote, the U.S. Congress seems to be moving towards implementing a frightening new socialist agenda. They want their Oklahoma lawmakers to do whatever we can to stop this agenda.

I believe these types of calls and e-mails are also being placed and sent to other Oklahoma Representatives and I predict that next year there will be a significant number of 10th amendment/states' rights legislative initiatives filed by Oklahoma legislators.

Several Representatives are considering filing a bill tailored after a measure that was signed into law in Montana earlier this year that seeks to keep the federal government from regulating the production and sale of firearms. Traditionally, the federal government has regulated this industry through the "Interstate Commerce Clause" in the constitution. However, the Montana law seeks to provide a means by which the producers and users of the firearms can clearly document that the product in question was made in Montana and is thus not subject to federal regulation.

This type of creative concept can likely be expanded into other areas of policy ranging from health care to energy. For instance, Indiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wyoming have all considered proposals to take preemptive action against the pending federal mandates tied to the ongoing socialization of health care efforts by Congress. The Arizona Legislature has passed a resolution that will allow the people of Arizona to vote on amending the state constitution to codify that no resident would be required to participate in any public health care option.

As more and more of the important votes are being lost at the federal level, the fight will move to the state level and the question before our legislative leadership and the Governor will be about whether or not they will allow important states' rights legislation to go forward.

It is vital that we move forward quickly with this legislation before the federal judiciary is stocked with liberal appointees who will rule against states' rights and try to strike down these laws.

I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Legislature to advance a strong platform of states' rights legislation in the upcoming session.

T-World is doing article on Rep. @derby74 legislation on states' rights. I think there will be a lot that legislation next year.

Oklahomans for Responsible Government announce lawmaker of the year award! http://ping.fm/AMbQl

Saving Money - Streamlining Government Services

A few days ago, the Speaker of the House announced his approval of a list of interim studies that will be conducted during the next few months. These studies will potentially form the basis for future legislation and give legislators a chance to examine new ideas without being under the constraints of the normal series of legislative deadlines.

One of the studies commissioned during the 2007 interim started the House modernization of government processes effort that evolved into the cost-saving modernization legislation that was approved this past year.

This year, in conjunction with the Vice-Chairman of the Government Modernization Committee, Rep. David Derby from Owasso, we have asked for and received approval for a series of six studies that I hope will result in the next round of modernization legislation.

One of the studies will focus on the possible consideration of consolidating state government human resource functions into one entity, as opposed to being spread out among all of the different state agencies. This particular reform could result in taxpayer savings very similar to the successful consolidation of the state's IT systems that the legislature approved this year.

A second study will consider the possible consolidation of state government licensing and permitting functions into a small number of state government entities, instead of being spread out among a number of individual bureaucracies. This reform would not only result in taxpayer savings, but would potentially create a much more user-friendly experience for those who are currently forced to get professional licenses and permits from a series of separate bureaucracies.

Putting to use new technology to enable better purchasing processes and transparency in government is the subject matter of a study which will allow us to follow up on past purchasing reforms and look at how we can make government spending become completely transparent and accessible to everyone. I believe that every penny of expended taxpayer dollars should be subject to the immediate review of the people.

The subject matter of one of the studies is ensuring the application of technology to provide additional public access to legislative proceedings, which is a very important issue. There has been significant progress along these lines in the past and I hope there will be more in the very near future. It has been my goal to see the day when televised content of legislative proceedings can be provided to everyone.

Another study will explore the potential savings and enhanced interactivity between government and the public through the employment of open source and social media technologies. I believe we can find examples of other government entities that have successfully employed some of these strategies.

If you have a personal story, specific insight or expertise concerning the any of the interim study subject matters, please be sure to contact me. With your help, some of the ideas from these studies will result in a new round of money-saving legislation.

In talking to Microsoft it looks like they will be able to attend and make a presentation at the open source interim study.

OPEA podcast from last week is online at http://ping.fm/fBcro

Local State Rep. Receives 100% Conservative Score

State Representative Jason Murphey (R-Guthrie) has learned that he will receive a rating of 100% from Oklahoma's longest running conservative publication for his work during the 2009 legislative session.

The 100% rating was given to Murphey and one other Oklahoma Representative by The Oklahoma Constitution Newspaper. Each year since 1979, The Oklahoma Constitution has graded Oklahoma legislators and published a Conservative Index by which the constituents of the legislator can gauge how conservative or liberal their legislator votes.

Each year bills nominated for use on the Conservative Index are submitted to the Oklahoma Conservative PAC (OCPAC). The membership of OCPAC takes input from both lawmakers and citizens and uses that input to vote on the top ten issues by which the lawmakers are graded.

The ten issues and the rankings of the lawmakers are published in the Conservative Index. The index grades lawmakers on both their session score and their cumulative lifetime score in order to keep track of the voting habits of lawmakers during their entire time in office.

Murphey was graded on 10 issues including his votes against issuing more government debt and against liberalizing Oklahoma's unemployment benefits to accept federal stimulus money. Murphey was given points for his votes for declaring English to be Oklahoma's official language and for overturning a Gubernatorial veto on a key right-to-life issue.

"When I campaigned for office I ran on a platform of representing conservative values. I believe this ranking shows that I am keeping my word,"Murphey said.

Murphey remains the only Oklahoma Legislator to maintain a lifetime score of 100% having scored a 100% on the index in both 2007 and 2008.

2009 Town Hall Meetings

I will be hosting a series of Town Hall Meetings across House District 31 this week.

During the last mid-term interim, I conducted a series of these meetings in order to provide updates about both state and local government events and to provide an opportunity for questions and answers so my constituents could be better informed about issues of importance to them.

The meetings were attended by several hundred people and provided another opportunity to see how people felt about the issues at hand. This feedback has allowed me to advocate for issues such as road funding and property tax reform knowing that I was representing the desires of the people. I am also very appreciative to a number of other elected officials who took the time to attend those meetings as guest speakers.

Earlier this year I requested feedback via my legislative survey about where to hold this year's meetings and based on that feedback, there will be four Town Hall Meetings which will all start at 7:00 p.m.

The first meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 25, in the North Oklahoma/Southwest Logan county area at the Waterloo Road Baptist Church. Speakers at the meeting will be State Senator Clark Jolly, State Senator Randy Brogdon and Logan County Commissioner Mark Sharpton.

I have been privileged to work with both of these State Senators over the past few years and we have co-sponsored several issues together. Senator Jolly represents much of North Oklahoma County and South Logan County and is the expert in the Senate on technology issues. It was Jolly who successfully presented HB 1170 which will mandate the savings of over 30 million dollars to taxpayers each year by eliminating unnecessary technology costs. Jolly also carried the Human Services transparency bill that was requested by a Logan County group.

Senator Brogdon served as the Senate author for the modernization bill I have written about and the pay-as-you-go roads bill that was requested by a member of a Logan County roads district. Brogdon is running for Governor next year and this will be a fantastic chance for you to meet someone that you will be considering on the 2010 Gubernatorial ballot.

Commissioner Sharpton will update local residents about the progress being made on area road projects, including the upcoming paving projects on Pennsylvania Avenue and Broadway Road.

A Guthrie area meeting will be held September 29 at Community Church, 512 E. Seward Rd. The invited guest speaker is new State Senator Jim Halligan. Senator Halligan represents much of eastern Logan County and the east side of Guthrie.

A southeast Logan County meeting will take place October 27 at Woodcrest Fire Station. The invited guest is new County Commissioner Mike Pearson. The forum will give Commissioner Pearson the opportunity to talk about some of the upcoming projects in southeast Logan County, such as the funding secured for Midwest and Luther Roads and the paving project on Pine and Camp Roads.

The north Logan County meeting will be December 1 at the Crescent Community Center, the guest speaker being State Senator Patrick Anderson who represents much of north and west Logan County and County Commissioner Monty Piercy will be present to take any questions deal with local road issues.

Much like last time, we will prepare comprehensive handouts at the meetings which will provide information about everything from the modernization issues to the long-term road paving schedules. If you cannot, attend please be sure to contact me to request a copy of this handout. You may e-mail me at jason.murphey@okhouse.gov or call my office at 557-7350. I look forward to seeing you at one of these meetings.

Just finished being the guest at the OPEA podcast.

Journal Record story on our consolidation study http://ping.fm/Dcx7X

Secretive Tax Credit Program to Come Under Legislative Review

If you have read my articles in the past, you know that I am a strong opponent of special perks and that I oppose efforts to build special loopholes into the tax code for a privileged few. I am happy to be able to report that one of the most secretive of these programs is about to receive some legislative review.

This type welfare takes place when the Legislature passes laws which financially benefit certain interests by creating a complicated scheme that enriches the proponents of the plan. Usually, advocates of these efforts carefully craft their arguments, claiming that if the Legislature provides them with special incentives, a massive amount of economic development will occur. This argument puts pressure on other legislators to support the incentive, since they do not want to be seen as voting against economic development.

Their legislation is created in a manner much like this:

a) Those who want to benefit from big government hire a powerful lobbying firm which has built strong relations with legislators by spending time with them, investing in their campaigns and providing them with personal gifts like free meals or entertainment;

b) Those lobbyists help draft the plan into law and utilize their relationships with powerful legislators to sponsor the legislation;

c) This legislation may be introduced late in the legislative session when few legislators understand what is being proposed and have very little time to understand the legislation's impact.

The people who are hurt the most by these schemes are Oklahoma small businesses owners who cannot afford to hire powerful lobbyists to build a special loophole in the law. These business still have to pay a high tax rate without benefitting from the special perks. Instead of paying for the creation of special loopholes, the state government should focus on reducing taxes across the board for Oklahoma individuals and businesses. It is this policy that will result in true economic development and will make it harder to the powerful to use the tax code as a way to achieve personal enrichment.

One of the most dangerous of the special perks is that of the state's transferable tax credit program. The reason this program is so dangerous is because it is very difficult to see who is claiming the millions of dollars to these credits which can then be sold to and claimed by a third party. These credits can be claimed and filtered through a number of LLC's which make it rather difficult to know who is benefiting and if these credits are really creating jobs, as their proponents would claim.

This year, Rep. David Dank and Senator Randy Brogdon, both outspoken critic of transferable tax credits, have won approval for a task force to conduct a study of the credits. The study should occur over the next few months and hopefully will be a starting point to allow people the opportunity to know who is using this program to benefit at the cost of the rest of the taxpayers. I think it is a great credit to Oklahoma's legislative leaders for allowing this important study to go forward.

I continue to believe that a strong majority of Oklahomans prefer small government and low taxation for all, as opposed to heavy taxation with loopholes for the privileged.

Interim studies announced. 5 modernization studies were approved including open source technology.

Do you have examples of government entities using open source technology? Please send them to me!

Reducing Some of the Waste in Government Spending

During the last two weeks, I have written about two unfortunate aspects of this year's session. First, property tax reform was not allowed to take place and second, stimulus dollars thwarted an excellent opportunity to significantly shrink the size of state government.

That does not change the fact that there is a lot of good news resulting from this year's legislative work.

Early in the year, legislative leadership in the House and Senate committed to reforming and streamlining government functions in order to eliminate obvious inefficiencies and save taxpayer dollars through the application of new technologies.

Because of their commitment, many of the streamlining concepts were successfully presented and signed into law in the form of House Bill 1032 (Omnibus Modernization) and House Bill 1170 (IT Streamlining).

There were a number of very good concepts in these bills, namely: enhancing transparency (which I plan to write about very soon), attempting to stop agencies from passing on unfair fee increases, and reorganizing purchasing and IT infrastructure in order to save money.

These bills have the potential to save millions of taxpayer dollars that would have otherwise been unnecessarily wasted. The only reason they were successful was because legislative leadership, working in partnership with the Governor, stuck to their guns and ensured passage despite some legislative and agency level opposition.

In doing so, legislative leaders were able to trim off some of the obvious waste of taxpayer dollars.

In my view, this was the logical starting place for shrinking the size of government. If we had not been successful in reducing the obvious inefficiencies, it would have been impossible to take on those reforms which will be more comprehensive and difficult to achieve.

Many of the ideas originated from a study on government modernization commissioned by former Speaker Lance Cargill and current House Appropriations Chairman Ken Miller in 2007. It has taken two legislative years to win approval of the reform observed during that study.

During the legislative interim, I will be asking the Speaker of the House to allow the House committee which I chair to hold several interim studies so that we can study the suggestions to be incorporated in a new round of money-saving legislation.

In the meantime, I would very much appreciate your suggestions and observations on saving taxpayer dollars and reducing some of the waste in government. Your observations are vital to having the necessary information to confront and eliminate that waste.

They r, Stem cell override, Hissom, OESC Stimuli, energy tax cred, DNA, 10th amend, 834, foreign judgments, official English, Tulsa bond

Just found out which bills appear to be on the 09 conservative index list.

Announcements of this year's interim studies should be made next week. Hopefully this will be the first step for Government Modernization 2.0.

The Stimulus Nightmare

Earlier this year, I wrote about this year's state budget shortfall and explained how I thought the shortfall would provide an excellent opportunity for state government to get smaller. I felt that the shortfall would force state government to cut the most wasteful and inappropriate functions.

Many of the residents of my house district can articulate their belief that government is wasteful with our tax dollars. I agree with them and see a budget shortfall as the perfect tool to make politicians and bureaucrats cut some of this waste.

For example, during one budget committee meeting hearing this year, a state agency testified that by rearranging some office space and giving up a conference room, they were able to realize $40,000 savings per year in rent fees. The way I see it, budget shortfalls which rid state government of $40,000 conference rooms are a huge blessing.

During the next economic upturn when state revenues will once again increase, it was my hope that conservative legislative leaders would return the increased revenue back to the people in the form of tax reduction instead of using the money to once again grow government. The result of the downturn which forced spending reductions, coupled with tax relief during the upturn, would be a smaller, more efficient state government. I am convinced that over the next few years, this simple strategy would be effective in returning government to a much more limited role.

Earlier in the legislative year, it appeared that this was about to occur. As the economic shortfall worsened and state government revenues dropped, state leaders were under the gun and facing tremendous pressure to take the necessary steps to start reducing state government spending.

Then everything changed as the federal stimulus money started becoming available. Because of this funding, not only did state government not get smaller this year, it will actually spend slightly more money.

It is hard to tell how many strings are going to be attached to the stimulus funding. For instance, in order for Oklahoma to accept stimulus money for one state agency, the state had to loosen its unemployment funding eligibility criteria, even though Oklahoma's eligibility guidelines are already extremely liberal. Once a program like this is expanded, it will be very difficult to shrink it back down to the appropriate size.

This is why I maintained a policy this year of voting against budget bills where it was apparent that stimulus money was being received. Not only has the stimulus greatly harmed the future of our nation, it has also made it much more difficult to eliminate waste in state governments all across our country.