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.