As you are probably aware, the tornado that damaged Logan County properties from Cashion to Guthrie and parts in-between has now been assessed by the national weather service as an EF-4 category tornado.
This storm damaged the property of a large number of Logan County properties and will have an impact on affected property owners for a long time to come.
If your property was damaged, please do not hesitate to contact my office if I provide any assistance. One of the most important parts of my job is to ensure that constituents receive the benefit of fair due process as they interact with government entities. This certainly applies when recovering from a storm.
I am also always happy to assist in matching those who need help with available resources. In the upcoming weeks and months, please view my office as a resource.
If your property value has been damaged by the storm, it is important to notify the county as soon as possible.
The storm occurred just days before the county assessor's office will be taking final request for adjustments on next year’s taxes. Logan County Assessor Tisha Hampton is requesting that her office be notified of storm damage which has an impact on the value of any damaged properties.
Assessor Hampton has manged to obtain an extension of the normal deadline for reporting storm damage. This means she can reflect the impact of the damage by lowering next year’s property taxes on the affected properties if her office is notified by June 10.
My office may be contact by phone at 405-557-7350 and by email at Jason.Murphey@okhouse.gov. The assessor’s office may be reached at 405-282-3509.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
One More Week!
Legislative leaders negotiated a budget agreement with the Governor last week and came to terms with proposals for redistricting the House and Senate. With these issues addressed, legislators have been encouraged to move their bills through the conference committee process with the expectation that the group could adjourn for the year as soon as this week.
The House officially approved the redistricting plan I wrote about in last week’s update. The plan experienced little opposition and was adopted by a vote of 93-3. It now heads to the Senate for approval.
The Senate has also announced their redistricting plan. The Senate plan will reduce the number of Senate districts which crisscross House District 31. Four of these districts currently divide up Logan County. Logan County will now be placed into Senate District 20. The new Senator for Logan County will be Senator David Myers from Ponca City. This district will also cover all of Noble, Pawnee, and part of Kingfisher Counties. Logan County accounts for over 50% of the population of the new district.
The change will also affect the Edmond legislative delegation; a third Senator, Senator Rob Johnson, will join the group as the Senator for the west side of Edmond. The Senate will vote on their plan this week, and that vote will be followed by House consideration of the plan.
There are a number of state government modernization issues that are still working their way through the conference committee process. It will be my responsibility this week to ensure that these issues don’t get lost in the process and will hopefully be approved and sent to the Governor.
The outstanding modernization issues include the proposal to consolidate five state government agencies, establish a business-friendly licensing one-stop shop, consolidate the state’s information technology infrastructure, create a series of taxpayer transparency review processes, consolidate the state’s payroll processing infrastructure systems, and enact the Governor's proposal to the save significant taxpayer dollars through the use of an electronic payments system for the state’s vendors.
There are many millions of taxpayer dollars of savings at stake with these bills. I hope to have good news to report next week.
This will also be the last week that the House District 31 constituent survey is available. If you have not had a chance to take the survey and you live in House District 31, please visit housedistrict31.com and let me know what you think about some of the issues the Legislature has considered this year.
The House officially approved the redistricting plan I wrote about in last week’s update. The plan experienced little opposition and was adopted by a vote of 93-3. It now heads to the Senate for approval.
The Senate has also announced their redistricting plan. The Senate plan will reduce the number of Senate districts which crisscross House District 31. Four of these districts currently divide up Logan County. Logan County will now be placed into Senate District 20. The new Senator for Logan County will be Senator David Myers from Ponca City. This district will also cover all of Noble, Pawnee, and part of Kingfisher Counties. Logan County accounts for over 50% of the population of the new district.
The change will also affect the Edmond legislative delegation; a third Senator, Senator Rob Johnson, will join the group as the Senator for the west side of Edmond. The Senate will vote on their plan this week, and that vote will be followed by House consideration of the plan.
There are a number of state government modernization issues that are still working their way through the conference committee process. It will be my responsibility this week to ensure that these issues don’t get lost in the process and will hopefully be approved and sent to the Governor.
The outstanding modernization issues include the proposal to consolidate five state government agencies, establish a business-friendly licensing one-stop shop, consolidate the state’s information technology infrastructure, create a series of taxpayer transparency review processes, consolidate the state’s payroll processing infrastructure systems, and enact the Governor's proposal to the save significant taxpayer dollars through the use of an electronic payments system for the state’s vendors.
There are many millions of taxpayer dollars of savings at stake with these bills. I hope to have good news to report next week.
This will also be the last week that the House District 31 constituent survey is available. If you have not had a chance to take the survey and you live in House District 31, please visit housedistrict31.com and let me know what you think about some of the issues the Legislature has considered this year.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Redistricting Plan to be Considered this Week
This week the House will take action on a redistricting proposal. Every 10 years, lawmakers are required to adjust House district boundaries to ensure each district contains an equally balanced population.
Changes to local political boundaries have been expected for some time since the 2010 census data demonstrated that House District 31 was the 10th largest district in the state, contained more unincorporated residents than any other district, and consisted primarily of the state’s fourth fastest growing county. The district must be reduced in size by approximately 7,000 residents.
The redistricting plan will transfer all parts of House District 31 that are located north of the Cimarron River and one Guthrie precinct to House District 38. This includes Cimarron City, Crescent, Lovell, Marshall, Mulhall and Orlando. Guthrie precinct 305, the polling location at Guthrie Christian Church at 17th and Logan, will also become a part of House District 38.
House District 38 is a rural district consisting of a several counties and a significant number of small towns. It would become one of the largest districts in terms of area; it would stretch north from Warner Street in Guthrie until reaching the Kansas state line.
House District 31 will also lose the land between Indian Meridian and Pottawattomie Road, as well as some territory west of Indian Meridian Road in the Langston Lake area. This transfer will include the town of Meridian. House District 32 will pick up this area and the town of Langston and will now consist principally of Lincoln and eastern Logan counties.
House District 33 will lose Langston to House District 32 but will continue to include Coyle and several miles of rural Logan County land located north of County Road 75.
Four Representatives will now represent Logan County. In addition to myself, those Representatives are Rep. Danny Morgan in House District 32, Rep. Lee Denney in House District 33 and Rep. Dale Dewitt in House District 38.
The Oklahoma County portion of House District 31 will also experience changes. Several miles of northern Oklahoma County will be exchanged between House District 31 and House District 39. House District 39, represented by Rep. Marian Cooksey, will take four square miles between Kelly and Bryant from Waterloo to Coffee Creek. House District 31 will pick up four square miles between Western and May from Waterloo to Coffee Creek and 12 square miles between May and Rockwell from Waterloo to Covell.
These transfers include the east side of Oak Tree, Belmont Farms, Twin Bridges and Caliburn neighborhoods that will become a part of House District 39, and a significant portion of the Deer Creek area that will be transferred into House District 31.
If the plan is approved, it is certainly going to be sad to lose all of those in the transferred areas whom I have enjoyed getting to know and have been honored to represent. I will still be available to assist these residents with their issues of concern and will assist in the transition process to the new State Representatives.
I do look forward to serving on behalf of those from Deer Creek and will enjoy getting to know and represent them. This area is rapidly growing and in conjunction with the other rapidly growing areas of House District 3,1 there is every reason to expect that it will once again become one of the largest districts in the state.
The maps of these changes are online and you may review them at the http://www.HD31.org/105 web address.
Changes to local political boundaries have been expected for some time since the 2010 census data demonstrated that House District 31 was the 10th largest district in the state, contained more unincorporated residents than any other district, and consisted primarily of the state’s fourth fastest growing county. The district must be reduced in size by approximately 7,000 residents.
The redistricting plan will transfer all parts of House District 31 that are located north of the Cimarron River and one Guthrie precinct to House District 38. This includes Cimarron City, Crescent, Lovell, Marshall, Mulhall and Orlando. Guthrie precinct 305, the polling location at Guthrie Christian Church at 17th and Logan, will also become a part of House District 38.
House District 38 is a rural district consisting of a several counties and a significant number of small towns. It would become one of the largest districts in terms of area; it would stretch north from Warner Street in Guthrie until reaching the Kansas state line.
House District 31 will also lose the land between Indian Meridian and Pottawattomie Road, as well as some territory west of Indian Meridian Road in the Langston Lake area. This transfer will include the town of Meridian. House District 32 will pick up this area and the town of Langston and will now consist principally of Lincoln and eastern Logan counties.
House District 33 will lose Langston to House District 32 but will continue to include Coyle and several miles of rural Logan County land located north of County Road 75.
Four Representatives will now represent Logan County. In addition to myself, those Representatives are Rep. Danny Morgan in House District 32, Rep. Lee Denney in House District 33 and Rep. Dale Dewitt in House District 38.
The Oklahoma County portion of House District 31 will also experience changes. Several miles of northern Oklahoma County will be exchanged between House District 31 and House District 39. House District 39, represented by Rep. Marian Cooksey, will take four square miles between Kelly and Bryant from Waterloo to Coffee Creek. House District 31 will pick up four square miles between Western and May from Waterloo to Coffee Creek and 12 square miles between May and Rockwell from Waterloo to Covell.
These transfers include the east side of Oak Tree, Belmont Farms, Twin Bridges and Caliburn neighborhoods that will become a part of House District 39, and a significant portion of the Deer Creek area that will be transferred into House District 31.
If the plan is approved, it is certainly going to be sad to lose all of those in the transferred areas whom I have enjoyed getting to know and have been honored to represent. I will still be available to assist these residents with their issues of concern and will assist in the transition process to the new State Representatives.
I do look forward to serving on behalf of those from Deer Creek and will enjoy getting to know and represent them. This area is rapidly growing and in conjunction with the other rapidly growing areas of House District 3,1 there is every reason to expect that it will once again become one of the largest districts in the state.
The maps of these changes are online and you may review them at the http://www.HD31.org/105 web address.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
More Encouraging News
It was an incredible experience to participate in a historic occurrence in the State House of Representatives last Wednesday.
In the past, one of the foremost abuses of legislative power would often occur at the end of each legislative session. During this time, legislators would insert amendments into bills through what is known as a conference committee amendment.
The amendments could completely change the bills and include any number of items favoring special interests. The reason this was so dangerous is because amendments were not approved by a committee which met in the purview of the public, but were instead approved by legislators who simply signed their names to the amendments. These new bills would then be posted for consideration by the House and Senate where in some cases they could be considered minutes after posting.
You may recall how I have described in the past how challenging it has been to try to read these bills as they were posted to the calender, knowing that minutes later the bill could be brought up for a vote. If it was this hard for a legislator to keep up with what was being proposed, you can only imagine how impossible it was for a citizen to ever know what laws were being proposed.
By the time the public found out about these laws, it was too late and the changes were already on the way to the Governor. Imagine how it would feel if you were in an industry which experienced a huge fee increase from the government without ever having the opportunity to call your legislator and tell them how you felt.
This year, all of that seems to have changed.
During the last legislative interim, incoming House Speaker Kris Steel formed a committee to recommend changes to the rules of the House. The committee recommended requiring the creation of standing conference committees to vote on bills in public and recommended that all bills be on the House agenda for a set amount of time before becoming eligible for consideration.
These recommendations were accepted by the House, and the conference committees have been formed. Between now and the end of session these committees will meet and it is my hope that not a single house bill will be exempted from a public hearing prior to being considered by the House.
I will serve as the Vice-Chair for the conference committee on Government Modernization and Rules. The committee will consider bills which originated from the House Administrative Rules, Rules and Government Modernization Committees. On Wednesday, our conference committee was the first to meet under the new rules.
This reform will be far reaching and I believe it will have a chilling effect on the ability of special interests to move their legislation during the last days of session.
This legislative reform continues a progression of significant reforms which have continually opened up the legislative process over the past few years. The pace of reform has not been to my personal satisfaction, but there is no arguing that changes have taken place in a responsible and process-changing manner.
In the past, one of the foremost abuses of legislative power would often occur at the end of each legislative session. During this time, legislators would insert amendments into bills through what is known as a conference committee amendment.
The amendments could completely change the bills and include any number of items favoring special interests. The reason this was so dangerous is because amendments were not approved by a committee which met in the purview of the public, but were instead approved by legislators who simply signed their names to the amendments. These new bills would then be posted for consideration by the House and Senate where in some cases they could be considered minutes after posting.
You may recall how I have described in the past how challenging it has been to try to read these bills as they were posted to the calender, knowing that minutes later the bill could be brought up for a vote. If it was this hard for a legislator to keep up with what was being proposed, you can only imagine how impossible it was for a citizen to ever know what laws were being proposed.
By the time the public found out about these laws, it was too late and the changes were already on the way to the Governor. Imagine how it would feel if you were in an industry which experienced a huge fee increase from the government without ever having the opportunity to call your legislator and tell them how you felt.
This year, all of that seems to have changed.
During the last legislative interim, incoming House Speaker Kris Steel formed a committee to recommend changes to the rules of the House. The committee recommended requiring the creation of standing conference committees to vote on bills in public and recommended that all bills be on the House agenda for a set amount of time before becoming eligible for consideration.
These recommendations were accepted by the House, and the conference committees have been formed. Between now and the end of session these committees will meet and it is my hope that not a single house bill will be exempted from a public hearing prior to being considered by the House.
I will serve as the Vice-Chair for the conference committee on Government Modernization and Rules. The committee will consider bills which originated from the House Administrative Rules, Rules and Government Modernization Committees. On Wednesday, our conference committee was the first to meet under the new rules.
This reform will be far reaching and I believe it will have a chilling effect on the ability of special interests to move their legislation during the last days of session.
This legislative reform continues a progression of significant reforms which have continually opened up the legislative process over the past few years. The pace of reform has not been to my personal satisfaction, but there is no arguing that changes have taken place in a responsible and process-changing manner.
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