GUTHRIE —
Last Thursday was the deadline for House committees to approve bills. Any bills not approved by committee before or on that day must wait a year for any additional action.
As you might imagine, this made the final Government Modernization Committee meeting last Thursday the most interesting and eventful GovMod meeting of the year.
On that day, the committee approved nearly 20 initiatives, including three that I very much enjoyed working with over the past few weeks.
Did you know that when a government refuses to follow the law and provide open records to the public, that the denied applicant has little recourse other than to file a lawsuit? And then, to add insult to injury, the government entity can use the services of a taxpayer-funded lawyer to fight any effort to make them follow the law, perpetrating the ultimate insult to the victim whose own taxpayer dollars are being used against him. The average citizen simply does not have the resources to take on a government entity that has access to a bottomless pit of other people’s money.
The failure of Oklahoma statutes to provide an administrative appeals process for the aggrieved person has caused our state to receive low grades in a key transparency index. On Thursday, our committee approved House Bill 1450, which would allow citizens the right to appeal such a refusal without hiring an attorney or going to court.
My viewpoint on this area was forever shaped when Logan County Commissioner Mark Sharpton put in an open records request at a local government entity whose legally recognized beneficiary was the county government. Sharpton’s request sought access to clearly open records, but that didn’t stop the government entity from refusing to provide them. As I recall, that entity spent thousands of taxpayer dollars on a high-priced attorney to fight the clear rendering of the law. If a government entity would do this to another government official who was only trying to hold them accountable, you can only imagine how easily they would do the same to the average citizen who held no elective office.
I also enjoyed the opportunity to present House Bill 1910 to our committee on behalf of House Speaker T.W. Shannon. Shannon’s proposal has been mentioned in my past articles and would continue the process of identifying and privatizing underutilized government-owned properties and using that money to meet deferred maintenance needs of other assets, such as the Capitol building. This proposal is designed to allow state government to avoid the costly practice of issuing debt. Shannon has shown tremendous courage in consistently standing up to the many powerful forces who have an unhealthy and strange fascination with issuing debt.
I have been privileged to author legislation to enact Gov. Fallin’s Executive Branch Reorganization Plan. Her plan would eliminate a significant number of unnecessary government boards and commissions and consolidate various boards and agencies. Guidance for the proposal has been provided by the governor’s cabinet secretaries who have done an amazing job identifying much needed eliminations and consolidations. The cost savings from these proposals is expected to amount to several hundred thousand dollars each year. If we are successful, the official publication that tracks the number of state agencies, boards and commissions (the ABC book), will become significantly smaller.
Winning approval for these proposals hasn’t been easy. We were opposed on all these transparency and cost-saving reforms by an outspoken member of the minority party who aggressively protested each proposal. Toward the end of the meeting, as we won approval for these and other proposals, in an outburst of frustration he dropped a large number of papers on the committee table and later left the room without cleaning up his mess.
After everyone had left, I stayed behind and helped a House employee pick up the papers. As I reflected on the fact that so much paper had been wasted, I took satisfaction in the realization that the reduced size of future ABC books would more than make up for that particularly wasteful display.
REP. JASON MURPHEY, R-Guthrie, represents House District 31, which encompasses all of Logan County and a portion of northern Edmond. He may be reached via email at jason.murphey@okhouse.gov, on Facebook at facebook.com/JasonMurphey and Twitter.com/JWMurphey.
Opinion
Retiring a bunch of the ABCs
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Witnesses missing; Behenna case could be heard at Supreme Court
The film “Breaker Morant” was nominated for an Oscar for the best screenplay in 1980. It told the story of Harry “Breaker” Morant, an Australian who served in the British Army and was court-martialed for alleged war crimes during the Boer War in Southern Africa in the early years of the last century.
That conflict pitted the British Army against the descendants of the Dutch settlers who had migrated to what is now South Africa in the 17th and 18th centuries. The majority of them were farmers and in their language of Afrikaans were known as “Boers.” -
Don’t leave Oklahoma!
May is graduation season. As I have done every year as lieutenant governor, I have given multiple commencement speeches. Advice flows freely during this time and it usually runs the gamut. What to do, what not to do, how to do ‘x’, be sure not to do ‘y.’ Too often commencement speakers speak in big generalities. So general, the message is frequently lost or forgotten.
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Last-minute funding proposals not in state’s best interest
All indications point to this being the last week of this year’s legislative session. The Legislature will go home a week early. This is good news for Oklahomans as not only will there be cost savings but all Oklahomans should breathe a sigh of relief when the Legislature stops making new laws a week ahead of schedule.
As usual, the Legislature will take a number of important votes during the last week. Some will be forced due to attempts to introduce and pass far-reaching, new policies that should have been introduced much earlier in the year. -
BY THE NUMBERS: Oklahoma still needs to invest in its economy
After six months of stagnation, the Oklahoma economy finally appears to be expanding again albeit still weakly. Unfortunately, our leaders aren’t making the investments we need to give our economic prospects a boost.
Last week the Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services reported that in April state General Revenue fund collections were 5.2 percent above the estimate and 14.7 percent higher than last year’s collections. Under normal circumstances, such a report would indicate that the Oklahoma economy was very strong. But this isn’t a normal circumstance, and April isn’t a normal month. -
Americans deserve the truth on Benghazi
Lately, the media has been consumed by the controversies surrounding the White House. Among these controversies is the horrific terrorist attack on the United States’ diplomatic compound in Benghazi that took place Sept. 11, 2012. As more people come forward with additional information regarding the attack on the consulate, many Americans, including myself, are still asking for the truth.
The Obama Administration and the State Department have been less than forthcoming with key information on Benghazi and recent information points toward a major cover-up. -
Seizure of AP phone records insult to independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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HEY HINK: Some people just are not cut out for command
Recent headlines cause me to remember an incident that occurred on an army base some years ago. Warning here: I’m taking some liberties with names and details, but the basic outline of events is accurate.
A certain company commander, let’s call him Captain Duntz, had command of a motor pool on a large army base in the continental U.S. -
We’ve become our own worst enemies
The past couple months have been marked by a seeming unprecedented number of man-made tragedies, as distinct from those caused by violent outbursts of the natural world, such as earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis.
You don’t want to dwell too long on the negative, but we do have to take notice of horrific human events and we owe it to ourselves to respond to them in some way. We don’t always agree on those responses, however, and that usually exacerbates the problem. -
Let’s reimburse higher ed for remediation costs
The good news: Oklahoma schools are teaching phonics. The bad news: It’s in college.
Students at Tulsa Community College, for example, can take a college English course called “Spelling and Phonics,” which “helps students master basic spelling literacy, principles of phonics and decoding skills.”
This sort of higher education brings to mind former Boston University president John Silber’s quip: “Higher than what?” -
AGAINST THE GRAIN: Department of Commerce highlights Main Street successes
The 24th annual Oklahoma Main Street Awards Banquet was at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum last week. Oklahoma Department of Commerce Secretary Dave Lopez addressed the gathering, and spoke of how the Commerce Department works with Main Street organizations throughout the state that are working to improve their downtown areas. Lopez pointed out that the partnership between his department and those local organizations has brought new life to those communities and that the attendees would see some of that revitalization in a video presentation. Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin also addressed the gathering, and said the Main Street program has resulted in more than $1 billion in investments in the state and more than 1 million volunteer hours in its 24 years of operation.
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Witnesses missing; Behenna case could be heard at Supreme Court
