The Weblog For State Representative Jason Murphey

Exposing Lobbyist Influence

2012-02-13T07:36:00.000-08:00

Oklahoma labor Commission Mark Costello recently provided Oklahomans with a service by exposing lobbyist influence.

You may be aware that Costello campaigned for office and won election on a platform of not accepting political contributions from lobbyists. This means that as a statewide elected official Costello is turning down thousands of lobbyist-directed dollars that would no-doubt be flowing into his re-election account had he not taken this pledge.

Costello has now started to expose and champion the case for why politicians should reject this funding.

To make his case he has pointed to a group that has historically contributed heavily to Democrats but has subsequently shifted gears and now contributes predomintly to Republicans. Why the change? With every statewide elected position and the Legislature in Republican hands those who are seeking influence now appear to be buying that influence from Republicans.

Here is what Costello said in an email to Republican party officials.

“In 2010, when Republicans held a majority in both chambers, the public employees’ PAC contributed $102,750 to Republican candidates. This compares to only $57,750 donated to Democrat candidates in the same year.

Until we became a majority in the legislature, the public employees’ PAC was a long-time political enemy of Republicans; in 2004 the OPEA contributed $86,143 to Democrats in an effort to prevent Republicans from gaining a majority of House seats while contributing $2,500 to a handful of Republicans – a 34 to 1 ratio for Democrats. We won – they lost.”

I find it remarkable when politicians attempt to assert that lobbyist contributions do not matter. Whenever a politician makes this point, in my view, he is either extremely naive or very dishonest. Costello has provided a service to the people of Oklahoma in that he has quantified this influence by documenting the shift in contributions from Democrats to Republicans. This is an obvious effort to buy influence with Republicans because of the change in power.

Working inside of the legislative environment for the past five years has allowed me to see this influence first hand. We know that we have to factor in for lobbyist opposition whenever we try to downsize the size of government. Even the most basic and important of modernization reforms will come under fire from those lobbyists who are attempting to preserve the status-quo and the benefits that their employer receives from inefficient, big-spending state government.

Since this last legislative week was the first week of the legislative session much of the work was in committees. Lobbyists aggressively work to influence the bills in the committee process because this is the vital first step to passing or defeating a bill. These lobbyists will fill committee meetings, feed questions to the members of the committee who are carrying water for them and will put great pressure on the other members to vote their way. They are professional relationship manipulation experts, and expert strategists and they know the pressure points to push to get a key lawmaker’s vote. Their attempts to kill a good bill appear to be rather like a game to them. A team of lobbyist can point to a dead bill much like a trophy and use it as a warning to other legislators who might try to upset their deal. Anyone who believes those big campaign contributions don’t factor into the voting consideration of some of the legislators is very much out of touch.

Costello is right to call on lawmakers to refuse these lobbyist-direct political contributions. Lawmakers who do not have to worry about these campaign contributions are freed up to vote on bills on the merits without undue special interests influence. I can personally testify that not taking gifts or contributions from lobbyists was one of the best decisions I could have made because it has absolutely liberated me from having to take the lobbyists influence into account when casting my vote.

Eliminating the Income Tax Enables Property Tax Reform

2011-12-24T13:35:00.000-08:00

Last week I wrote about the recently released plan from the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs and former Reagan economic advisor Arthur Laffer (the author of the Laffer Curve). The plan shows the positive economic impact that Oklahoma would experience if the state’s progressive income tax were to be phased out over the next ten years.

The plan opines that by phasing out the tax in steps the state could incorporate the benefits of the resulting positive economic impact into the state budget and thus not have to resort to increasing any other tax to make up for the loss of revenue.

This point is especially important. I have found that the number one reason some fear the elimination of the income tax is due to their even stronger dislike of the property tax. Senior citizens especially dislike the property tax because it threatens to force them out of the home they have worked all their lives to pay off.

This fear can usually be traced to the fact that Texas has high property tax rates. Whenever someone mentions the fact that Texas has no state income tax, the comment is invariably followed by someone else describing Texas’ less-than-friendly property tax policy.

I have always been a big believer in omnibus property tax reform. In the past, I have written about how this could be accomplished through the implementation of parental choice and education reform. I intend to write more about this in the future.

I also believe that another component of property tax reform and reducing property tax rates can be accomplished by eliminating the state income tax.

In Oklahoma, state government does not have a statewide property tax. The property tax is collected at the county level where it is mostly distributed to schools and career techs, with a small percent going to county government. Local governments also sometimes use the property tax to fund the creation of real property capital assets such as new buildings.

So how does the elimination of the income tax assist with property tax reform?

According to the OCPA study, the elimination of the state income tax would result in significant amounts increased economic activity. This activity would increase the income of Oklahomans by nearly 50 billion dollars. When this money is spent, sales tax collections would increase local government revenue by 3.5 billion dollars. With the increased sales tax collections, fewer local governments would need to ask for property tax increases to build their real property assets.

In fact, it may be possible for policy makers to capture some of this increased revenue by creating a property tax rebate fund and channeling some of the new growth income into the fund. The fund could be used to rebate property tax income to counties and schools as a result of new decreased property tax rates.

A rising tide lifts all boats. When the government has the courage to use tax reform to allow its citizens to keep their money, that money will be used to provide jobs and economic activity. This expands the tax base and makes even more tax reform possible.

Eliminating the income tax should be viewed as an important step in the effort to reduce property tax rates.

State Government Needs A Performance Audit

2011-12-11T20:34:00.000-08:00

One of the most important components of this year’s House government modernization effort will involve acting on a request from State Auditor Gary Jones.

Jones has requested the Legislature to take action and allow his office to establish a performance audits division that could conduct a series of performance audits of state government entities during each year.

The proposal would allow the people of Oklahoma to vote next November to place this proposal into the Oklahoma Constitution.

It is important for the proposal to be approved as a constitutional amendment to ensure the performance audits remain free from political interference (legislators can not amend the Constitution). Thorough performance audits may make many politicians very uncomfortable as they will tend to shine the light of day on the failure of state government to perform efficiently. I also suspect they will reveal a large number of state government processes that are highly vulnerable to corruption.

Currently, the Auditor can conduct these audits at the request of the Governor, the Legislature, or the head of an agency. As you might image, it is highly unlikely agency officials from a poorly performing agency would ever request the Auditor to audit their agency.

Earlier this year, Governor Fallin authorized a performance audit of the state-owned Grand River Dam Authority. That audit was released last week and brought to light a number of concerning details questioning the method by which millions of dollars were being spent. Specifically, the audit found a volatile environment exists within the GRDA thus increasing exposure to fraud, waste and abuse. If you are inclined to peruse audit documents, the entire document can be read at hd31.org/185.

The Auditor’s proposal would not only give the Auditor the authority to audit an agency but would also provide the funding mechanism to conduct the audits. This would enable the Auditor’s office to conduct a series of performance audits each year instead of just the occasional audit at the request of a public official. It would also give them a dependable revenue stream for conducting several audits at one time.

These audits would serve as the inspiration for legislation that I believe would result in significant savings to the taxpayers. The direct savings would no doubt be many times higher than the cost of the audit. The indirect savings would also be significant as I believe state officials would modify their agency’s procedures to eliminate inefficiencies due to the fact that they could be audited at any time. I have no doubt, that the implementation of these audits and ensuing legislation will prove transformative to state government.

This bill will be filed soon and I hope and believe it will be approved by the Legislature and subsequently the voters.

Open Government Laws Should Apply To Legislature

2011-12-05T09:57:00.000-08:00

Last year, I filed Legislation that would apply Oklahoma’s open meetings and records laws to the Legislature. As you are probably aware, these are the important laws designed to ensure that transparency follows the taxpayer dollar. Whenever the government spends your money, these laws are supposed to provide you with access to the documents and meetings affecting the decision to spend your money. Over the years, these transparency laws have evolved to become an important part of the ethics that govern the actions of government.

However, when the Oklahoma Legislature passed Oklahoma’s open records and meeting laws, they also exempted the Legislature from those laws. In other words, the laws that apply to Oklahoma governments don’t apply to the most important part of Oklahoma government.

I know it is only a matter of time before this law is applied to the Legislature as well. The hypocrisy of the unequal application is too apparent to be defended by even the most determined advocates of the status quo.

This summer, House Speaker Kris Steele approved an interim study of this proposal, and assigned the study to the Government Modernization Committee. The committee heard testimony of the law’s successful application in other states. I appreciated the fact that the Speaker allowed this study to take place. Speaker Steele has made it clear that he desires to continue opening up the legislative process and values the discussion about the law’s potential passage. I believe the time is right to continue advancing the measure, and I look forward to spending time developing and advocating the proposal during the upcoming session.

In the upcoming weeks I plan to write more about this bill and also intend to describe the next generation of government modernization legalization as it is introduced.

One of the most important modernization initiatives will not occur through the implementation of a single bill, but will take place during the appropriations and budget process.

You may recall my description of the millions of dollars set to be saved because of the state’s Information Technology consolidation effort. This is the year when those savings should be realized through the appropriations process. It will be vital for our appropriations officials to understand the many nuances of the consolidation so that agencies truly realize the savings.

The recent appointment of Edmond Senator Clark Jolley to Chair the Senate A&B Committee greatly enhances the chances of the successful realization of the savings. Jolly has been the Senator author of nearly every piece of government modernization, including the multi-million dollar savings from the consolidation of inefficient IT processes. Because of Jolley's knowledge of best practices and due to his role as A&B Chairman, he is in the perfect position to realize the savings on behalf of taxpayers.

I don’t doubt that some agencies will try to get an exemption from the reform by opposing the realization of the savings. Holding the line and realizing the savings will be an important component of the effort to shrink the size of government.

What is Next?

2011-11-20T20:43:00.000-08:00

In my last update I described the conclusion of this year’s interim study process that occurred one week ago on Thursday. I wrote about the hearings that demonstrated the increasingly rapid application of our government reform proposals and the millions of dollars of savings that are starting to be realized.

Last week, my focus shifted to organizing the next generation of legislation designed to implement new government reduction, efficiency and transparency policies.

Throughout the year I attempt to conscientiously record reforms taking place in other states and couple that with input and ideas received from constituents, other legislators, and state employees who are in the system. As the previously adopted reforms continue to be applied, I also make note of the needs for revisiting those policies in order to maximize their cost savings and effectiveness and ensure that they continue to be viable.

As the first legislative deadlines for the next session are approaching, it is my job to review this list and distill these ideas and suggestions into a manageable dialog that can eventually be expressed as statutory policy changes. I review the practicality of each idea, the potential savings or increased transparency that will be accomplished by the idea, and the political viability of winning support for the idea in the current political environment.

I then organize these ideas into their respective policy areas, assign them to hypothetical bills, and arrange them in a manner I can present to officials in House and Senate leadership and the Governor’s office. It is my belief that these officials will make some of these ideas a part of their respective agendas for the next session. Government modernization proposals have been heavily supported by legislative leadership and the Governor during the past year and I enjoy the opportunity to provide them a compendium of the next set of great ideas for reform.

This process constitutes the first stage in developing the government modernization agenda of bills for the next legislative year. The second stage of this process constitutes finding House and Senate authors for the ideas that find acceptance with legislative leadership and the Governor. Sometimes, because the idea came from a legislator, the legislative author will naturally be the person who thought of the reform proposal.

Having a standing Government Modernization Committee has been a fantastic tool for finding those legislators who enjoy this area of policy and want to advance these ideas. There are several legislators who serve on the committee who are very dedicated to investing time and effort to reduce the size of government and increase transparency.

This means that there is a team of legislators who are ready to advocate for reform. It also means that a new mindset of reform has been created among committee members and members of the legislature. Because this mindset has started to become institutionalized, legislators are more likely to think of and share new ideas for reform.

In other words, the House government modernization effort is much like a snowball rolling downhill, and this year’s list of proposed legislation is by far the largest list that I have seen since modernization efforts started. In the upcoming months, I look forward to writing about this long list containing the next generation of reforms.

A Rewarding Day

2011-11-14T08:33:00.000-08:00

I consider last Thursday to have been the most exciting and rewarding days that I have experienced as a legislator.

On that day, I enjoyed the opportunity to chair hearings during which state government officials described the millions of dollars of savings that are now taking place and the efficiencies that are being instituted. This is occurring because of the passage of the legislation reform mentioned in previous updates.

Oklahoma’s Chief Information Officer explained that he has just started to effect the consolidation of state agency IT functions. In these agencies, the number of IT personnel has been reduced by 20 percent, computer server costs have been cut by 50 percent and in those few agencies alone, the state will save 170 million dollars over the next seven years.

The Communications Director for the Department of Education described how the consolidation has transformed his agency’s IT functions. The consolidation will save the department 3.5 million dollars over the next few years and is allowing them to provide better service to state taxpayers. Despite the significant reduction of costs, there have not been drop offs in service levels.

Probably one of the most exciting aspects of the presentation was the demonstration of the web-based performance metrics for the consolidated IT operation. Taxpayers can view the performance of IT employees, and agency officials can not only view these metrics but can drill down to the performance of a single individuals within the IT organization (see hd31.org/179 for an example). This allows for a tremendous amount of accountability and transparency and is a system that should be quickly duplicated within all of state government (this could be a major part of next year’s modernization legislation).

The Director of the Office of State Finance testified that he has already identified four million dollars of savings due to this year’s agency consolidation plan. This was really exciting to hear. Just 11 months ago, we presented this consolidation plan in the same type of House hearing. To see a plan go from development to implementation and then result in significant savings in this short of time is a vary rare experience in state government where reform normally occurs very slowly. And, nearly a quarter of this savings is just from the reduction of unnecessary administrative overhead and reducing the amount of space leased by the agencies.

Perhaps one of the most interesting components of the Director’s testimony was his description of an interaction he had with an employee from one of the consolidated agencies. The employee said that they had not been assigned enough work under the old system and expressed the desire to take on additional responsibilities.

The was a meaningful story for me. In debating against the consolidation legislation on the House floor, the political opposition attacked the proposal on the grounds that the bill would result in fewer government jobs -- which it will! I responded by explaining my belief that state employees are not asking for unnecessary or ghost jobs. They don’t want work just for the sake of work. They want to provide value to the taxpayers and they take pride in their work. They are not asking for a handout or an unnecessary job.

I believe these consolidations will empower state employees to provide taxpayers with better, more efficient services at a lower price. And it was most rewarding to see that reform is no longer moving at a snail’s pace, but is now being rapidly implemented.

Also, you may remember my accounting in a previous update of how a number of state agencies had not complied with the reporting requirements of the IT consolidation law. I wrote that I intended to enter the names of those agencies into the record of this hearing. Since that article, with the help of the Governor’s office, each and every state agency now appears to have come into compliance.

Putting An End to Lobbyist Gift Giving

2011-11-06T19:56:00.000-08:00

Twice each year the media publishes a list of personal gifts received by legislators from registered lobbyists. The reason this list is published each six months is due to the fact that lobbyists are required to report their gift giving up until the end of June and until the end of December.

Usually, the June report is the report that demonstrates most of the gift giving and this is because the Legislature is in session during most of the January through June reporting period. Invariably, over the years, the media reported thousands of dollars of gift giving that had occurred during this time frame.

This year’s post-session report included what may on the surface appear to be an anomaly. Several legislators were listed as not receiving any gifts from lobbyists during this year’s legislative session. It might be understandable for several legislators to not accept gifts during the non-session report because many of the legislators are back in their district and not so exposed to lobbyists, but it is certainly unusual for several legislators to refuse gifts for the entire year.

In the few years that I have served in the Legislature, I believe I have observed a change in the general sentiment regarding lobbyist gift giving. When I first arrived, there were legislators who took pride in accepting a large number of gifts. Now, things are changing. The idea that it is absolutely inappropriate for lobbyists to give personal gifts to legislators has gained traction. Several legislators have taken the pledge to not accept any gifts from lobbyists. These legislators are honoring their pledge.

The change is in part because of new ethics rules that were put in place a few years ago that greatly cut the amount of gifts that lobbyists can give. In my view, the Oklahoma Ethics Commission did the citizens of Oklahoma a great service when they instituted this new policy.

I also think this change is due in part to term limits. The number of legislators who served during the time when lobbyists could legally give much more expensive gifts has dwindled. No longer is the Legislature dominated by powerful personalities who view the acceptance of gifts as their right. The new freshmen legislators have never seen the old level of gift giving and do not seem to expect as many expenditures on their behalf.

I still believe the Ethics Commission should post the official lists of legislators who wish to be on the record as refusing lobbyist gifts and political contributions. To this day, I must return unsolicited gifts and political contributions, despite the fact that I have had a policy of refusing these gifts for the last five years. An official list would not only provide an officially recognized method for turning down gifts and contributions, but would also allow the citizens of Oklahoma to insist that their Representatives and Senators take the no-gift pledge and opt in to the official list.

Of course, the Legislature could and should do the right thing and put a complete prohibition on lobbyist gift giving. With the changes I have witnessed over the last five-years, I believe that history is clearly on the side of reform and the enactment of this important policy is only a matter of time. I think there will be a time in the not so distant future when even legislators will look back with disbelief on the time when lobbyists gave thousands of dollars of personal gifts to legislators.

City and County Realizing Savings for Taxpayers

2011-10-31T08:33:00.000-07:00

If you have read very many of these updates in the past, you are familiar with the savings to taxpayers due to the modernization of state government processes. However, it is important to note that the commitment of the Legislature and Governor to make state government processes more efficient does not just result in savings in state government. Because of these reforms, the taxpayers are realizing a savings at the local level of government as well.

For example, one of the most important focuses of the efforts to streamline government processes has been the effort to reform the state central purchasing policies. Past legislation has made it possible for state purchasing officials to focus on managing contracts on behalf of the taxpayers and it has given them the ability to renegotiate contracts when taxpayers are no longer getting the best possible service.

Once these contracts are managed, purchasing officials are supposed to analyze the usage of the contract and leverage the buying power of the state to buy in bulk and continue to drive down costs.

Taxpayer savings under this new system is approximately $20M over the life of the managed contracts. It’s important to note that not all of this savings is from state government, however. City and county governments are also eligible to participate in contracts and receive the same pricing structure as state agencies. Sometimes vendors will just provide the product or service to the local government entity at the state contract rate. At other times, local governments will opt in to a state contract.

For instance, Logan County District 2 recently needed to replace three trucks. By using the state’s vehicle contract, District 2 saved approximately $20,000 on the purchase price. To put this in perspective, the $20,000 saved represents approximately one-ninth of the cost of the very important two mile Midwest Road repaving project that is set to commence shortly. Midwest Road is probably the worst road in Logan County and local residents have waited many years for this project.

The City of Guthrie recently opted into the state’s purchase card contract. This contract should allow the city to streamline their purchasing procedures and earn a rebate on each purchase made.

The City of Guthrie has also entered into a managed document service contract with the company that pioneered the state mandatory document service contract model and saved the state thousands of dollars. If the City of Guthrie replicates the state model, I would expect the savings to be considerable.

By taking advantage of or emulating state reforms, local officials are serving their taxpayers well by preventing the needless waste of tax dollars through inefficient processes.

This Year's Modernization Interim Studies

2011-10-24T07:31:00.000-07:00

The Government Modernization Committee will conduct a series of interim studies next month.These studies are designed to bring attention to the implementation of past modernization reforms and begin the process of developing the next round of modernization legislation.

On November 8, our committee will take up a request for a study from Republican Speaker-designate T.W. Shannon. Shannon will ask the committee to consider a system for returning excess state-owned property to the private sector. You may recall my past articles about the importance of inventorying and liquidating unneeded state assets. Shannon’s proposal would do this by documenting the assets that are not being used by state government, selling those assets, and placing the proceeds into an endowment fund that could be used to maintain existing state assets, such as the crumbling exterior of the Oklahoma Capitol, and other state buildings.

Also on November 8, the Government Modernization Committee will receive an update about the savings that taxpayers continue to realize from our purchasing system reforms. The committee will consider the implementation of additional purchasing best practices and analyze the ability of central purchasing officials to renegotiate contracts containing spend items that no longer offer a savings when compared to items commonly found at major retailers. The study will certainly highlight the recent reforms implemented in this year’s House Bill 1086 that require state agency purchasing officials to report their observation of state mandatory contract commodities that are more expensive than traditional market prices.

Also on that same day, at the request of Representative Ann Coody, our committee will review the impact of state auditing procedures on local government.

On November 10, I will ask the committee to analyze the impact of recent legislative changes that required House conference committees to meet in public for the first time in many years. I believe the impact of these rules will be far reaching and that these reforms should be highlighted. I will also ask the committee to consider the proposal to apply Oklahoma’s open meetings and open records laws to the Legislature. This is an important reform that should have happened a long time ago and the time is right for the Legislature to follow the same laws that apply to Oklahoma’s other governing entities.

The committee will receive an update from state central services officials on ongoing agency and process consolidation efforts. We will receive an update about the consolidate of state agencies that is currently occurring because of this year’s legislation and the consolidation of the state’s technology information infrastructure. And per my earlier article, I will ask Oklahoma state Chief Information Officer Alex Pettit to provide the committee with a list of state agencies that have refused to comply with the IT consolidation law.

Also on November 10, Representative Lewis Moore from Edmond will ask the committee to analyze the method by which state agencies must purchase workers compensation insurance coverage and explore opportunities for lowering the cost of the coverage.

Each of these studies will take place at the State Capitol in room 432A. The meetings will begin at 9 a.m.

The Positive Impact of the New Legislators

2011-10-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

The Legislature has greatly benefited this year from the influx of a large number of freshmen members elected during the 2010 election cycle. Because they are a product of this important election cycle, they know firsthand how important it is for Oklahoma’s policy makers to cut government spending.

Here is one example:

For years, various attempts have been made in the Legislature to bring some common sense to the way the state allocated benefits to state employees. Believe it or not, with very limited exceptions, state policy mandated that state employees receive a rich health benefit allowance even if the state employee had health coverage with another source. It made absolutely no sense that the taxpayers were forced to pay for a duplicative benefit that was not even needed.

Attempts to allow otherwise covered state employees to opt out of health coverage met with opposition and were always defeated. Advocates of the status quo argued that the removal of these employee from the state’s self insurance PPO would risk prejudicing the makeup of the universe of participants, and they didn’t want to set a trend of allowing certain employees to opt out.

Of course this resulted in an absolute absurdity because taxpayers were forced to spend thousands of dollars providing coverage for those who didn’t even need it.

Legislation to fix this problem was assigned to the Government Modernization Committee where we would always support it and send it on to the rest of the Legislature. But it never made it through the entire Legislature, and eventually died every time.

So this year, when freshmen Representative Dustin Roberts and Senator Josh Brecheen sponsored House Bill 1062, a limited version of the opt out legislation, it looked like all the other past failed attempts. I doubt that many believed the legislation would be successful because after all, similar approaches had always been defeated.

This did not deter the freshmen legislators from not only continuing to advance the proposal, but expanding it to include all state employees. Because of their hard work, the law was approved by the Legislature and signed into law by the Governor.

Now, for the first time, as state employees are signing up for their benefits for next year, they can opt out of the system. Each employee who chooses to opt out saves the taxpayers thousands of dollars.

I believe this success is partially due to the fact that freshmen legislators did not know they were attempting a task that veteran legislators had already failed to accomplish. Their intent was to right an obvious wrong and save the taxpayers money. They did not care about the politics of the issue or the difficulty of the task.

In my view, the legislative freshmen serve as a good example of the importance of term limits and the value that newcomers bring to the legislative environment.

More About the 2011 Modernization Reforms

2011-10-10T07:38:00.000-07:00

I wanted to write just one more article describing some of the reform in this year’s successful Government Modernization legislation. These reforms put into place a comprehensive framework to increase the transparency of state government process, lower the cost of government to the taxpayer, and significantly enhance the ability of the citizen to access government documents and records.

Reducing the need for small business owners to interact with the bureaucracy. Oklahoma business owners must navigate through a series of state bureaucracies to obtain licenses and permits. House Bill 1601 builds on Oklahoma’s existing business one-stop web portal to offer the state’s licensing and permitting from one convenient online location. This means that small business owners should spend less time in line at multiple bureaucracies, and more time building their business and strengthening Oklahoma’s economy.

Placing state documents and reports in a single online location. Countless reports and studies are relegated to state archives, never to be seen again. You may remember from my update two weeks ago that I wrote about the effort to centralize access to state government forms. This reform is similar in that it places reports and studies online where they can be indexed and searched by keyword or term. The transparency impact should be significant. For instance, the 2005/2006 IBM study that was key to reforming the state's purchasing system, had received little attention prior to being discovered by a House interim study in 2007. It appears that prior to the House study, the document had already been shelved and was mostly ignored by the bureaucracy. These types of oversights should occur less frequently when the studies are integrated inside the one-stop documents.ok.gov portal where everyone can see them.

Integrating school district spending data with OpenBooks. During the 2010 legislative session, Oklahoma's local school district transparency data was mandated for online placement. However, the data was placed online through the Department of Education’s site and not co-located with other state spending data. House Bill 1086 co-locates the common education spending data with the state spending data through the OpenBooks web site.

Bringing transparency to state revolving funds. The state maintains a series of revolving funds that are not subject to limitation by fiscal year. The public and state policy officials have limited easy access to the status of these funds. House Bill 1086 mandates the ongoing publication of the fund balances through the data.ok.gov web portal. As with all data.ok.gov data feeds, this data is to be published in a standardized format.

Allowing the public to see the current condition of state Information Technology projects. State officials have the ability to engage in costly IT related projects with little oversight from the public, the press or policy leaders. House Bill 1086 creates a project management platform that is publicly accessible. Project updates must be publicly posted, allowing the public and policy leaders to quickly ascertain when a project experiences a cost or time overrun, or a deterioration in the projected value of project deliverables.

Ending the practice of incentivizing state travel. State employees have been incentivized to travel on the state’s dime because frequent flyer miles awarded for taxpayer-funded travel could be retained for personal use by the employee. The continued use of state travel expenditures during the economic downturn has been especially disturbing. House Bill 1086 develops a policy similar to policies implemented in other states that stops this practice.

Consolidating payroll services. Past testimony before the Government Modernization Committee has described how state government could save about $2 million each year through the consolidation of the state’s payroll system. House Bill 1086 consolidates the state’s payroll processing system into a single offering.

Over the past three weeks I have been able to talk about many of this year’s government modernization reforms. To see a more detailed listing, visit hd31.org/151.

Consolidating State Agencies

2011-10-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

Last week I wrote about the large number of modernization initiatives that were approved this year by members of the Government Modernization Committee, the Legislature and Governor. In that article I described a small sampling of these initiatives. These efforts were designed to result in cost savings and greater transparency. In this week’s update I have described House Bill 2140 and House Bill 1304. These two modernizations bills are designed to transform Oklahoma state governance and result in millions of dollars of savings to the taxpayer.

Until passage of House Bill 2140, Oklahoma’s central service functions such as procurement, human resources and financial services were divided into seven different agencies. In some cases, these bureaucracies offered competing shared services services. State employees were forced to navigate a gauntlet of central service bureaucracies to obtain services for their agency. HB 2140 consolidated five of these agencies into one and created a central services one-stop shop for state employees. A multi-million dollar savings mandate was attached to the legislation.

This consolidation should allow the state to focus its policy efforts and yield considerable additional savings to the taxpayer. Here is one example of an absurdity created by the fact that so many agencies overlap on policy. State employee benefits policy has historically been divided between two separate state agencies. This year, one of these state agencies subsidized the state employees’ PPO health care premium costs by using income from that agency’s investments. This means that the employees’ cost for their PPO health plan premium did not increase.

A second state agency awarded HMO contracts that reflected an increase in premium. Because the state employee benefit allowance is tied to a formula that accounts for the price of the HMO plans, the employees' benefit allowance is set to increase.

This means the cost of purchasing health insurance will stay the same for many of the employees who use the PPO plan. This is at time when their benefit allowance is increasing. Many employees already have 100% of their benefits paid for, so the excess allowance will be taken in the form of direct monetary compensation. In other words, state agencies must now pay their employees thousands of dollars in benefit allowance that is not needed to purchase benefits. This is a pay increase without a vote of the Legislature or approval of the employees’ agency-level employers.

House Bill 2104 consolidated both of these agencies, and should put an end to these types of absurd outcomes.

House Bill 1304 consolidates much of Oklahoma state government’s information technology processes. Currently, millions of dollars of information technology spending is segregated across countless state agencies. Information technology is not coordinated, strategized or planned on an enterprise-wide basis. A 2011 study found that Oklahoma spends over $40 million more than comparable organizations in IT spend each year. HB 1304 cuts through the bureaucracies and views information technology activities from the perspective of a single entity. Once completely implemented, the legislation is designed to save about $80 million each year.

The Department of Education volunteered for inclusion in the IT consolidation even before the law takes full effect. This one state agency alone is estimated to experience an approximate savings of $600,000 per year because of the consolidation.

This article has just began to scratch the surface of the impact that these bills will have on state policy in the years to come. If properly implemented, the savings and efficiency will be considerable.

A Really Annoying Excuse - How State Agencies Are Fighting Reform

2011-09-12T08:43:00.000-07:00

In recent weeks, I have started to hear some of the most aggravating logic coming from state bureaucracies.

This year the Legislature and the Governor approved an aggressive series of far-reaching legislative initiatives designed to streamline government processes and eliminate some of the most costly and obviously wasteful practices that have existed in state government for many years.

As these laws start to take effect, state bureaucracies are trotting out their arguments for why they do not want to comply.

For example, it appears that over 50 agencies have yet to comply with an important initial phase of the state’s information technology consolidation effort.

One of the reasons given by agencies for attempting to opt out of this law is the allegation that the reforms will actually cost the agencies money because they will not be able to receive as much federal money. In other words, modernizing and streamlining services is not acceptable because the money used to maintain these inefficient services is also used to match federal money.

These state agencies are trapped in a bubble where they believe one of their primary missions is to leverage the “free” federal money in every way possible even if it means spending the state money inefficiently.

I don’t think wasting taxpayer money is ever acceptable. It does not matter if the money comes from state taxes and fees or the federal government’s money printing presses. In one way or another, the taxpayers are going to pay the price for inefficiency and massive spending.

Even if no state money were involved, we shouldn’t allow inefficient state government processes to waste federal money.

In fact, our goal should be to modernize, streamline and cut the scope of state government processes and services to the point that we can liberate ourselves from many of the countless federal mandates that accompany the federal funding.

In my view, the highest levels of state bureaucracies are all too often habituated by bureaucrats who desperately desire to preserve the big government status quo. They fear and oppose efforts that will take away their control over big government processes. They oppose new efficient strategies because they do not want to give up their ability to control the millions of dollars of state and federal taxpayer dollars -- and they will fight to preserve that control even when it means defending the most wasteful of practices. For them, it seems it isn’t about doing the right thing, it is about keeping the power that comes with all that money.

On November 10, I will chair a hearing of the Government Modernization Committee that will examine the ongoing state agency and process consolidation process. The Speaker of the House has requested our committee to create a report based on these hearings this year. It is my intent to enter into the record the list of agencies that are opposing the efficiencies and that may be in violation of the law.

It is my hope that by that time, these agencies will realize that Oklahoma’s policy makers are serious about following through with these reforms so the bureaucrats will not be allowed to maintain the big spending status quo.

Cutting Logan County Taxes

2011-09-05T08:52:00.000-07:00

It is my belief that Logan County’s high sales tax rate has been a deterrent to retail-based economic growth. In 2005, the county made the unfortunate decision to increase taxes to the maximum amount allowed by state law. This placed Logan County businesses at a significant disadvantage when compared to their counterparts in other metro area communities that have a much lower sales tax rate.

For years, the valid perception has existed that Logan County residents will save money if they go out of the county to make big purchases. The financial impact of this perception is difficult to quantify, but I believe it has been substantial. Although, I certainly do not begrudge the communities that have offered Logan County residents a better deal by charging much less in sales tax.

Over the next few years, much of this is set to change. As soon as November, the county portion of the Logan County sales tax is set to fall by 43%. This will decrease the sales tax in Guthrie to 8.5% and the sales tax in south Logan County to just 5.5%.

Because of this decrease, by next year, the Guthrie sales tax may be just a quarter cent higher than the Edmond sales tax and just over a tenth of a cent higher than the Oklahoma City sales tax rate.

Over the next few years, as tax for the new Logan County jail is no longer needed, the Guthrie rate could fall to 7.75% and the south Logan County rate to 4.75%. This means that for the first time in many years, the Guthrie tax rate should be lower than the tax in both Edmond and Oklahoma City, and one of the lowest in the metro area. The south Logan County rate will be one of the lowest in the entire state.

I believe that recent actions by county leaders to cut sales taxes will have very beneficial long term results. I feel that one of Edmond’s keys to success was the commitment to keep lower sales tax rates when compared to surrounding communities. Now, as the growth continues to the north, Logan County officials should copy the Edmond low-tax model.

The low tax rate should serve as a strong motivator for additional retail growth in South Logan County. Over the last few years, retail businesses have already started to invest in south Logan County. These additional buying opportunities, coupled with one of the lowest sales tax rates in the state, should incentivize this growth even more. South Logan County residents will be hard pressed to justify paying in excess of an 8% sales tax in one of the surrounding communities when they can stay close to home and pay 4.75%. In fact, those who live in north Edmond will likely find it easier to avoid the traffic and cut costs when making quick purchases by driving north to south Logan County.

These impending changes will transform the area from Seward Road, south to Waterloo, into a very low tax zone, and perhaps in the future will give officials in surrounding communities a good reason to avoid raising their own taxes.

Logan County officials must maintain their current policy of tax-reduction. Lowering taxes has not been an easy task to accomplish, but implementing a low-tax policy is the right thing to do for local merchants who have invested so much into the community. Logan County’s past policy of high taxation has unfairly punished these individuals. It is also the right thing to do for the local residents who have worked hard for their income, and who will spend the savings with much more wisdom than the government ever could.

Murphey Receives a 100% Conservative Rating

2011-08-23T08:01:00.000-07:00

Murphey Receives a 100% Conservative Rating

State Representative Jason Murphey (R-Guthrie) has received a rating of 100% from Oklahoma's longest running conservative publication for his work during the 2011 legislative session.

The 100% rating was given to Murphey 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 group contains 200+ members. The membership takes input from both lawmakers and citizens and uses that input to debate and then vote on the top 10 issues by which the lawmakers are graded. This process takes place over two weeks time. During the process, OCPAC members are not told how the legislators voted in order to not bias the vote.

The 10 issues and the rankings of the lawmakers are subsequently 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 credited for his vote against issuing millions of dollars of additional government debt and for being one of just seven Representatives to vote against a new fee increase on Oklahoma taxpayers. Murphey was also given points for his votes for tort reform, a key right-to-life issue, property tax reform and second amendment rights.

"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 was the only Oklahoma lawmaker to score a 100% this year and remains the only Oklahoma Legislator to maintain a lifetime score of 100% having scored a 100% on the index in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and now 2011.

Staying Focused

2011-08-21T20:43:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, I wrote about my decision to help bring attention to the need for a federal balanced budget amendment. I enjoyed the opportunity to document the significant amount of support in the Oklahoma Legislature for ratifying the amendment if Congress would just give us the opportunity to do so.

I also mentioned my hesitance to take on new tasks. Over the past few years I have become very focused on finding inefficient government processes and helping write and pass the legislation to transform those processes. It is my belief that this effort could result in massive tax reduction for Oklahoma taxpayers. I think it is immoral for state government to take your money and waste it in unbelievably inefficient and dysfunctional processes.

I firmly believe that these reforms could allow Oklahoma to completely eliminate its state income tax. This is one of the most important reforms that could happen because studies have shown that the absence of an income tax has been a key factor in incentivizing economic growth.

As you might imagine, this work has taken time. One of my biggest challenges has been to stay focused and not take on too many major efforts. This isn’t easy because there are so many areas in state government that need reform. At any moment, I am likely to take on a new major reform effort.

For instance, I am tempted to focus on welfare reform each time I observe someone using an access card (your money) to purchase junk food while using their own money to purchase cigarettes.

Each time higher education institutions raise tuition on students yet again, while their own budgets skyrocket upwards, even during an economic downturn, I feel the temptation to invest my energy in reforming the higher education system. I think the actions of higher education over the past few years have proven that the Legislature should have never turned over the right to raise tuition to higher education. Technology should be driving down the cost of education. The increases do a great disservice to Oklahoma students.

I am tempted to focus my efforts on human services reform whenever I see reports of DHS placing a child in a dangerous environment or see them remove a child from a safe environment. I have a series of ideas for human services reform that I plan to write about in the future.

Of course, common education reform represents one of the greatest areas of need for reform. There are far too many school districts, way too much red tape, and limited freedom of parental choice. The Legislature's refusal to act more proactively over the years on education reform has trapped thousands of students in failing school systems. I have a great distaste for the actions of politicians who grandstand on the education issue while constantly blocking attempts to enact reform.

And, then there is the antiquated system for addressing the state’s road needs. From an antiquated funding formula to a bureaucracy-heavy, top-down approach to paving local roads, too much money is soaked up in costly bureaucratic processes that are feeding a government bureaucracy and taking money away from paving roads. I could commit a great deal of focus on this issue.

These are just a few of the efforts, each of which one could spend their entire time in the Legislature seeking to accomplish. At this time, I am determined to stay focused on the effort to reduce the size of state government. However, I am also subject to taking on one or several of these efforts -- and others I haven't mentioned yet. And of course, I am always prepared to vote in support of my colleagues in the House and Senate who are working to accomplish these and other reforms. I also very much appreciate your continued feedback and suggestions. My views on the need for these reforms have been heavily influenced by the input I have received.

2011 Local Redistricting Observations

2011-08-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

Hi!

I have attached my update for this week. Thank you and have a great day.

Jason

2011 Local Redistricting Observations

As you are probably aware, this is the year when state and local government divisions redraw the boundary lines defining the area from which their public officials are elected.

This important process is designed to ensure that each district contains the same number of people. It results from a Supreme Court decision in the 1960s that established the principle that one group of people should not be disadvantaged due to the fact that there are more people living inside of their particular district thus diluting their voting power.

Every 10 years, government units equalize each district’s population using the data from the recently concluded census.

As you might imagine this has been a challenging process in our area because of the rapidly growing local population. Making matters more challenging is the fact that the growth has been heavily concentrated, meaning that over the last 10 years large population inequities have developed between the various districts. Statistically, areas of North Oklahoma County and South Logan County have been under-represented in government over the past years and the districts that cover those areas have to give up a significant amount of their population.

This growth has had a huge impact on House District 31. As a result of redistricting, the House District has lost approximately half of its geographic area. All areas north of the Cimarron River and east of Indian Meridian Road will be transferred to other districts. And, with a very small exception, the entirety of a large north and westside Guthrie precinct (voting at Guthrie Christian Church) will also transfer away from House District 31.

House District 31 actually expands in the south and picks up 16 square miles of the Deer Creek area.

Oklahoma County Commission District Three will also change to reflect local growth trends. This district includes much of the North Oklahoma County area and contained 44,000 more residents than it did in the year 2000. This tremendous amount of growth meant that the district had to give up much of the Luther area.

In Logan County, Logan County Districts One and Two have also grown because of the influx of population into south Logan County. Both of these districts had to give up territory in the Guthrie area. This gives Guthrie a much stronger voice in Logan County District Three within which about two-thirds of the town’s population now lives. For the first time in many years, Logan County District One has almost completely been removed from the Guthrie area with just small portions on the south and west sides of town remaining in the district.

Logan County District Two becomes much more representative of south Logan County as the district gave up 2,000 residents in the Guthrie and Langston areas and picked up 2,000 south Logan County residents from District One. To see if your neighbored was affected by the Logan County redistricting action you may review the new map at http://hd31.org/146.

As an observer of Logan County government, it was refreshing to see the contrast in this year’s county redistricting progress when compared to the last redistricting. In 2001, the County Commission initially redistricted the county in violation of the one-man, one-vote concept. They attempted to cram nearly 2,500 more residents into Logan County District One than Logan County District Three. This resulted in a staggering 13.96 deviation from the mean population distribution and far exceeded the amount allowed by law. In short, the Commission appeared to simply ignore the law and flagrantly violated the one-man, one-vote principle.

That was one of my first experiences observing what I believed to be the local good-old-boy system and served as an inspiration to work for the reform of area government.

Today, things are much different. The 2011 redistricting plan equalizes the population between districts and allows for county residents to be equally represented in local government.

All Bills Should Receive a Vote

2011-07-31T22:59:00.000-07:00

This year, Representative Charles Key presented the Oklahoma House of Representatives with a proposed rule change to require that all bills must receive a hearing from the House committee to which they were assigned.

The proposal posits that by virtue of his election, a State Representative should have the right to ask for an on-the-record vote by Oklahoma’s policy makers for or against an idea.

I have observed at all levels of government that those who do not want to be on the record with a controversial vote will try to control the agenda and deprive one of their own members from the right to place an item before the group for consideration. Filtering agenda items through a chairman or mayor is probably the most common method used by those who wish to have exclusive control over the agenda.

I have always felt that it should be a fundamental right of an elected official to place an item before a board and at the very least receive an on-the-record vote.

At some point in the past, the Legislature put in place the system by which the chairman of a committee was granted the discretion over which bills would be heard and which bills would not receive consideration.

There are rarely used provisions of the rules that allow the members of a committee to bypass the chairman, but excising these provisions are so controversial that they are almost never attempted.

This vests a tremendous amount of authority in the handful of a few chairmen and essentially creates two classes of legislators. As you might imagine, the special interests and lobbyists heavily invest in a chairman’s re-election committees, almost guaranteeing the chairman’s re-election. Of course, this also makes the chairman very responsive to the special interests. This warps the policy-making process and in my view, provides an unhealthy advantage to the special interest.

I am certainly the first to admit that many bad pieces of legislation quickly disappear without consideration because of this system. This is probably the most convincing argument used by the proponents of the status quo. But I am a big believer in the fact that even if it costs him his next election, it is the job of the legislator to man up and vote “No” on bad legislation.

I supported the Key proposal. While his effort was not successful this year, I believe that the groundwork has been laid for continual reforms in this area. Over the past seven years, the House has experienced a series of process and transparency reforms and I am optimistic that they will continue in a responsible yet consistent manner. In my view, the time is not far off when each bill will receive a hearing.

Next week, I will write about how I reconcile my belief that each bill should be heard with my responsibilities as a committee chairman in a system where committee chairmen are expected to kill bad legislation.

All Bills Should Receive a Vote

2011-07-31T22:58:00.000-07:00

Supporting the Balanced Budget Amendment

2011-07-24T19:41:00.000-07:00

Last month, a grassroots group known as Pass the Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) sought support from legislators across the nation to bring attention to the need for a balanced budget amendment to the United States constitution. Since three-fourths of the states must ratify any constitutional amendment, it is important for state legislators to support the proposal.

This is not a new concept. In 1982, President Ronald Regean called on Congress to approve a balanced budget amendment.

Reagan stated, “This amendment will, of course, have to be ratified by three-fourths of the States. But I'm confident that the grassroots support for a balanced budget amendment is out there and will carry the day against the special interests. Most Americans understand the need for a balanced budget, and most Americans have seen how difficult it is for the Congress to withstand the pressures for more spending. This amendment will force government to stay within the limit of its revenues. Government will have to do what each of us does with our own family budgets -- spend no more than we can afford. Only a constitutional amendment will do the job. We've tried the carrot and it failed. With the stick of a balanced budget amendment, we can stop government squandering, overtaxing ways, and save our economy.”

Congress never heeded Reagan’s call. At that time, the national debt was under 2 trillion dollars. Now, the debt is set to surpass 14 trillion dollars, and charts show the debt is rapidly increasing in a frightening hockey stick curve.

I believe that when Congress refused to heed Reagan’s call, they may have passed the point of no return. However, some in Congress have viewed the recent debate over raising the national debt limit as another opportunity to introduce the balanced budget amendment.

I felt this issue was of such importance that I volunteered to circulate a letter documenting the commitment of Oklahoma legislators to ratify the amendment.

I am happy to report that there is a tremendous amount of support for the proposal in our legislature. Getting legislators to sign a policy letter during a legislative interim is not an easy task. However, the sentiment for the issue was so strong, that 42 legislators immediately signed on. I don’t think I ever recall a time when so many legislators signed onto a policy letter.

After the letter was mailed, a significant number of additional legislators expressed a desire to also sign the letter. We will have to send another letter. In total, it appears that a bi-partisan majority of the Oklahoma House of Representatives will have signed on.

There is little doubt that if given the opportunity, Oklahoma will become one of the first states to ratify the balanced budget amendment.

State Officials Making a Difference

2011-07-18T07:35:00.000-07:00

During the past three weeks I have used this medium to describe the role Oklahoma’s newly elected officials have played in working toward smaller state government.

I initially envisioned that I would write about this in just one article. However, I have observed so many different attempts by these officials to eliminate wasteful spending, that one article has grown into four.

I enjoyed the opportunity to work with new Labor Commissioner Mark Costello this year. I spent a significant amount of time this year working with Labor Department officials as part of our state agency consolidation processes. Costello has made of point of declaring his opposition to “sacred cows” in state government and has been a strong advocate for reducing the size of government through agency consolidation. I look forward to working with Costello in the future to consolidate unnecessary overhead in state government. Without a doubt, Costello has emerged as one of the state’s leading advocate for government reform.

I am also extremely appreciative of the fact that new Oklahoma Lieutenant Governor Todd Lamb is drawing attention to the state’s need for asset management. You may recall in the past that I have described how state assets such as buildings have not even been included in a centralized inventory. Can you image what would happen to a privately owned business that could not even tell you what buildings it owned? A cursory compendium of state assets has recently been curated, and this document should provide us a start in attempting to get a handle on this huge problem.

The Lieutenant Governor’s leadership on this issue will be crucial in finding the millions of dollars of state assets that should be removed from the hands of the government and returned to the free market where they belong.

This fall, the Government Modernization committee will conduct a study led by State Representative TW Shannon to analyze the need for a much more aggressive state asset management solution.

Finally, a most dramatic transformation has occurred in the state Department of Education. You may recall from a previous article how at the end of 2010, the department refused to follow state law that required an assessment of their information technology assets. This was an important study that was necessary to determine the possible money savings from the implementation of an enterprise-wide IT consolidation plan. It was incredible that a state bureaucracy just ignored the law.

Once new Superintendent of Education Janet Barresi took office, all of this changed. The Department of Education transformed into a leader in following the IT consolidation law and actually became the first large state agency to consolidate under the state’s IT consolidation plan. The savings is expected to run as high as $600,000 each year. At a time when too many state agencies are still fighting the IT consolidation, it is very exciting to see this type of transformation occur inside a state bureaucracy. $600,000 is a lot of money and the taxpayers have been well served by this decision.

I believe these actions reflect the fact that many of Oklahoma’s newly elected officials have a real desire to reduce government spending. I am confident that most of them will remain true to this goal and that Oklahoma will be well served in the upcoming years.

Modernizing the State Treasurer's Office

2011-07-04T08:03:00.000-07:00

This year I enjoyed the opportunity to work with several of Oklahoma's new statewide elected officials in their efforts to modernize state government. I served as the House author for modernization legislation on behalf of State Treasurer Ken Miller, State Auditor Gary Jones, Attorney General Scott Pruitt and State Superintendent Janet Barresi.

When State Treasurer Ken Miller took office, he commissioned his staff with the responsibility of finding inefficiencies and drafting proposed updates of state law when necessary to address those inefficiencies.

Miller’s modernization proposal was sponsored in the form of Senate Bill 571. The bill was authored by Senator Clark Jolley in the Senate and I carried the bill in the House.

Senate Bill 571 targeted several areas. The bill updated procedures for the liquidation of properties deposited into the state’s unclaimed property fund. In the past, state officials had to engage in antiquated and duplicative procedures that added unnecessary cost and had to eventually be paid by those who owned the property. Miller’s bill streamlined those unnecessary process procedures so that the unnecessary cost was not passed on to property owners.

Miller also noted that the state had thousands of dollars remaining in an old account that had been used to pay claims from a 2004-era tax refund program. The fund had not experienced a claim for several years but the funds were tied down awaiting claims that were obviously never going to be filed. SB 571 closed down this unnecessary fund.

SB 571 also put an end to redundant reporting processes that interfered with each other because they used the same data but had to be filed at two different times. SB 571 synchronized the filing process so that the reports could be filed using the same data sets.

These provisions of SB 571 probably won’t receive any attention from the media. Very few citizens realized any of these issues even existed. But that bill will save taxpayer money and resources that otherwise would have been wasted. I especially appreciate Treasurer Miller’s commitment to doing the right thing and modernizing government process even when no one was paying attention. I believe that speaks to his good intent and am happy to have been able to assist Miller and Senator Jolley in doing the right thing for state taxpayers.

Next week I intend to write about some of the other modernization initiatives requested by other state officials.

The Year of the Reprimand

2011-06-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

The Oklahoma Constitution contains a clause that says that for any speech or debate in the Legislature, legislators shall not be questioned in any other place. In other words, the speech of Representatives while considering legislation is sacrosanct. The clause mirrors a provision in the US Constitution and places a priority on the ability of legislators without fear of retribution to expose any wrong, debate any idea, and express any point of view, regardless of how unpopular or controversial the viewpoint.

For the past five years as I have served in the Legislature, I have observed plenty of political grandstanding, less-than-accurate demonization of the opposition, and significant amounts of hyperbole. I have also witnessed countless dilatory and unnecessary procedure motions which are designed to throw a monkey wrench into the process. This mostly serves to force the other Representatives into a time crunch to such an extent that they have to dispense with normal debate procedures, and thus the dilatory parliamentary process does little more than take away the opportunity for the debate and counteracts the stated end goal of those who engage in those tactics.

But all of that is part of the process. It is the prerogative of any Representative to be an obnoxious jerk if that is what he thinks he must do to make his point. He will be judged by those he represents and unless he is subject to impeachment, it has not been the place of other Representatives to stand in judgement of his actions.

At least not until this year.

This year we have inexplicably been asked not once, not twice, but three times to vote for a “motion to reprimand” our fellow Representatives. Unbelievably, the last of these motions was made to reprimand a Representative specifically for comments made in debating for passage of a bill.

I have voted against the motion to reprimand each and every time. I know it is not my place to judge an elected Representative from another district and I never want my vote to reprimand another Representative to be used as a political tool against them in their next election. The voters of that district should be the ones who stand in judgement of their Representative’s actions.

These demoralizing motions have greatly reduced the dignity of the House and have created an atmosphere where the House floor feels a bit like a grade school playground. This playground is roamed by a few bullies who are natural political grandstanders and have no problem inflicting pain and humiliation to a colleague in order to advance their own warped vision of a successful political career. The newly discovered “motion to reprimand” could be their perfect tool for inflicting this pain to anyone who dares cause them trouble or who does not fit their view of being politically correct. And make no mistake, it will be deployed in the next campaign season to try to defeat the victims of the reprimands.

I believe this alarming and inappropriate new trend will have a stifling effect on the ability of Representatives to debate issues openly, and I think it is contrary to the spirit of the important Constitutional provision I previously referenced. Every comment and debate, both on and off the House floor, must now be carefully couched to ensure that it cannot be used by the opposition to engage in the latest political correctness witch hunt followed by the now dreaded “motion to reprimand."

I believe these unfortunate actions will cause many to think back on this year as the year when politicians played a series of unprecedented petty games which demeaned the reputation of the House. This is unfortunate because there have been a number of significant policy accomplishments this year.

I certainly hope this was a temporary trend, that Oklahoma legislators will stop the foolishness, and that the year of the reprimand will be never again be repeated.

Health Care Lawsuit and Business Activity Taxes

2011-06-12T20:30:00.000-07:00

Over the past few days I have received questions regarding a couple of issues. I know that if several people have asked questions about these matters, it’s possible that a number of other constituents are wondering the same thing.

As constituents watch news sources about the Florida legal action against the federal health care proposal they may notice that Oklahoma is not listed as one of the 26 states that filed the action. They want to know why Oklahoma has not taken action.

It is true that Oklahoma has not joined the Florida lawsuit against the proposal. However, Oklahoma has filed its own separate action. There is an important reason why Oklahoma's suit should be kept separate from the Florida’s suit.

Last year, the Legislature approved an initiative to allow the voters to place a provision in the Oklahoma Constitution. This initiative was approved by voters in last November’s election. It placed a clause in the Constitution to keep Oklahomans from being forced to purchase health insurance. Oklahoma is one of just three states to have adopted a similar Constitutional provision.

This provision gives Oklahoma additional standing in seeking to stop the federal mandate. As such, Oklahoma has a stronger case by filing suit on its own merit instead of joining the Florida lawsuit. Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt filed the action January 21, 2011 in the federal district court for eastern Oklahoma. You can view the filing by visiting hd31.org/125.

I have also received questions about Oklahoma’s Business Activity Tax (BAT). The BAT is a $25 assessment on Oklahoma businesses. It is offset by either a $25 tax credit or a $25 credit against the certification or registration fees paid to the Secretary of State. This is a nuisance for business owners and the Tax Commission who must fill out the paperwork and administer the tax. You are likely understandably curious about why the an offsetting tax like this is on the books.

The BAT is a response to a 2009 Supreme Court ruling that stated Oklahoma must tax businesses for business activity items such as intangible property. They stated that items exempted from taxation, even intangible ones, must be specifically exempted in the Constitution. You can only image how complicated this would become when business owners had to report and be taxed on intangible items such as trademarks, software, patents, licenses, contracts, customer lists, and even goodwill. This could have been a huge tax increase for business owners.

The BAT appears to meet the mandate of the court without requiring the massive new amounts of taxation and will sunset at the end of 2012. This will give the Legislature the ability to send a question to the voters in the 2012 election to amend the Constitution and make it clear that intangible business activity items are not taxed.

If you have questions about these or other issues, please do not hesitate to contact me. I enjoy the opportunity to provide insight as to why things happen as they do. Your questions let me know what I need to address in these articles.

Modernization Efforts Approved

2011-06-06T08:34:00.000-07:00

Three weeks ago I wrote an article in which I described how most our 2011 modernization initiatives were still pending in the legislative process. With only one week left in the session, it was our challenge to win approval for all these initiatives.

I am happy to report that during the last week of session, each of these proposals were approved by the Legislature and all the legislation has been signed by Governor Fallin over the last few days.

The proposals aggressively consolidate a significant number of state government processes and several state agencies. These changes are transformative and if implemented correctly, will result in millions of dollars of yearly savings to the taxpayer.

Additionally, there are a myriad of smaller accompanying proposals designed to utilize technology to provide transparency and process efficiencies that will continue to transform Oklahoma state governance structure into a more open and efficient model.

It is my goal to write about a number of these initiatives in the upcoming weeks. In the past, I provided House District 31 constituents with an end-of-the-year update of modernization efforts over the course of a few updates. However, this year the reforms are so comprehensive and wide ranging, I could write a book describing the changes and the impact I believe they will have.

These changes came about because of the dedicated effort of a number of individuals.

Our House Speaker Kris Steele and our House leadership made a 100% commitment to modernizing state government. They stood by that commitment through the entire session and I cannot recall a single modernization proposal that was stopped by leadership. The members of our House Government Modernization Committee stood by, and sponsored or co-sponsored the modernization efforts and helped elevate the importance of the issues with our House colleagues.

The reforms would never have happened without the work and support of Senate President Pro-Temp Brian Bingman, Senators Clark Jolley, Anthony Sykes and Josh Breechen. These four senators sponsored almost all of the legislative modernization proposals and did a great job vetting the issues with and winning the support of the Senate.

Governor Mary Fallin made all the difference by calling for reforms from the very beginning of session. After her call for change, some of these proposals met with significant resistance; however, the Governor never backed down from her proposals but worked through the opposition. In my view this leadership was very much the reason for why we were able to maintain the necessary support for these far-reaching reforms in the face of opposition.

At some point in the future I also intend to write about the support and input regarding modernization and streamlining of services that we have received from nearly all of the other statewide elected officials.

It has been such a privilege to work with those who are committed to reducing the burden of government on Oklahoma taxpayers while taking to heart the taxpayers’ trust to guard their money.

Reporting Storm Damage

2011-05-29T15:43:00.001-07:00

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.

One More Week!

2011-05-16T08:40:00.000-07:00

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.

Redistricting Plan to be Considered this Week

2011-05-09T07:29:00.000-07:00

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.

More Encouraging News

2011-05-01T19:14:00.000-07:00

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.

Property Tax Reform Finally Approved

2011-04-24T14:33:00.000-07:00

The Legislature took action last week to approve an issue about which I have written many times during my four years as State Representative.

Time and again I have heard from House District 31 constituents about their desire to slow the rate by which property tax assessments increase each year. Every year since I have been in the Legislature, this proposal has partially worked its way through the legislative process, only to meet a road block and become derailed.

This fact obviously does nothing to help the sense of desperation in the requests for reform from Oklahoma property owners who feel helpless and unable to respond to the increases that in some cases threaten to force families to sell their family homes. In many cases, these home owners have seen 5% increases each year for a number of years as property tax bills struggle to catch up with property tax assessments.

A senior citizen constituent visited my office once and 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 the next several years. 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.

Now, you will finally have a chance to take action and let your voice be heard on this issue. By a vote of 77-16, the House of Representatives has approved House Joint Resolution 1002. HJR 1002 will allow the people of Oklahoma to vote on changing the Oklahoma Constitution to lower the state’s property tax increase cap from 5% to 3%.

This becomes one of the first state questions which the Legislature has approved to be placed on the 2012 general election ballot.

The adoption of this important reform makes this the best year for tax reform since I started in the Legislature in 2007. Earlier this year it was learned that a statutory trigger previously approved by the Legislature will be enacted and will lower the state income tax to 5.25% starting on January 1st of next year. With the property tax cap likely being reduced and the income tax also getting smaller, I believe this is the most encouraging year for Oklahoma taxpayer in the last 5 years.

You can watch the House discussion of the property tax reform proposal by visiting hd31.org/89 online.

Murphey Update: Redistricting 2011

2011-04-16T21:14:00.000-07:00

Not that I am counting or anything, but there are now just six weeks left in this year’s legislative session.

During this time, the legislature must complete its normal set of responsibilities, in addition to developing congressional and legislative redistricting plans. This will be a unique experience for many of us. Legislative redistricting only takes place once every ten years, and since legislators can only serve 12 years due to term limits, this will be the only legislative redistricting process we will ever take part in.

It has been interesting to watch the process as it has evolved throughout the season. Early on, the careful observer could note that lawmakers were on the House floor carrying maps and consulting with the colleagues with whom they shared district borders. The process allowed representatives to draw their own draft redistricting maps and we worked with each other to suggest possible redistricting changes which balanced out the populations in our districts.

Following the creation of these first drafts, the Redistricting Committee Chairmen went to work to build their own proposals which re-shaped the current boundaries and the drafts compiled by the legislators. This is a politically charged process, because one of the foremost ways to make a legislator unhappy is to upset the composition of his/her district.

The population shifts in Oklahoma during the last ten years are almost certain to mean several of our districts will be significantly affected, and this impact will be heavily felt in the area which I represent. As rural Oklahoma fails to keep pace with the state’s population growth, the rural districts must expand in size.

For instance, the district located in the Oklahoma Panhandle must get larger. When it expands to the east and south, it will create a domino effect by pushing other legislative districts to the east. These districts may also already need to pick up new people due to population losses. The domino effect will not stop until it reaches areas like ours which have grown in size. Thus, some of the most dramatic redistricting changes could occur in our area because House District 31 sits directly on the boundary between rural and urban Oklahoma.

I believe it is important for those of us in growth areas to understand the challenge which is facing our rural colleagues and to work with them to facilitate the orderly expansion of their districts in a way that allows their districts to stay as compact as possible. The first map of these proposed changes could be made available as early as this week.

A similar map of proposed congressional district changes has already been made public and can be viewed online at www.hd31.org/83. Unlike the legislative map, the current congressional map does not contain any changes to area congressional representation and has already received the unanimous support of the House Redistricting Committee.

I will continue to provide updates about the redistricting process as it nears its conclusion in the next few weeks.

The State Government Transparency Proposals

2011-04-11T05:51:00.000-07:00

In last week’s update I wrote about a series of what I believe to be innovative transparency and accessibility enhancing reforms which are part of House Bill 1086 that I authored with state Senator Clark Jolley.

In addition to the reforms that I wrote about in last week’s update, the bill also proposes to make state governance processes open to the public.

For instance, all too often, governments embark on expensive information technology projects only to meet with delayed deadlines and implementation, cost overruns, and deliverables which do not meet the envisioned result. House Bill 1086 creates the projects.ok.gov web presence through which the public can monitor the progress of these projects. This will allow the public and policy makers to note when projects start to fall behind schedule or cost more than initially projected.

One of the challenges facing state purchasing offices is communicating with potential vendors who are interested on bidding for government business. All too often, unfortunately, a prospective vendor is uncertain about the details in the state’s request for proposal, and purchasing officials understandably do not wish to privately communicate with one particular vendor for fear of being seen prejudicing the bidding process. If the bidder’s concerns are not addressed in a pre-bid conference, he/she may price the uncertainty into the cost of the bid, thus costing state taxpayers more money. House Bill 1086 establishes a public Wiki platform through which this communication could occur in a public discourse at any time, and therefore mitigate this liability.

The bill also allows state agency-level purchasing officers to use a public Wiki platform to report items which are on a mandated state purchasing schedule and which can be found for less money off the shelf at area businesses. This will have the effect of helping centralized purchasing personnel manage state spend contracts to ensure the state’s purchasing power is properly leveraged. It will also bring transparency to the failure of centralized purchasing officers to address these situations when they arise.

While not part of the reforms in House Bill 1086, House Bill 1601 and Senate Bill 772 (authored by Representative Aaron Stiles and Senator Clark Jolley) also use technology to assist the taxpayers with accessing state government by establishing the state’s business licensing one-stop location. This is a result of a request from Governor Mary Fallin and the policy in these bills is designed to enable business owners get their licenses and permits in one convenient location. Previous state government modernization reforms placed state license and permitting processes online. These bills are now seeking to enable users to access real-time processing and a one-stop location for all of their licensing and permitting needs. This will enable business owners to spend less time dealing with the government and more time growing their businesses and creating jobs.

House Bill 1086 and Senate Bill 772 were approved by a Senate committee last week and now go before the full Senate for consideration. We will consider Senate Bill 772 in the Government Modernization Committee later this week.

HB 1086 - The 2011 Government 2.0 Proposal

2011-04-03T20:45:00.000-07:00

During last year’s legislative session, I served as the House author for Senate Bill 1759 which was sponsored in the Senate by state Senator Anthony Sykes. Our goal was to codify what may be the first in the nation’s Government 2.0 legislation to be approved at the state level.

The bill established the data.ok.gov web portal. This site is the framework through which all kinds of government data will be pushed out to the public so they can hold government accountable. This includes government expenditures, the state payroll, tax credit transparency, and data which is commonly requested through open records requests. You can currently view these data feeds and much more at this website.

This year, I am sponsoring House Bill 1086 with state Senator Clark Jolley. This bill is designed to build on the Government 2.0 framework and make state government processes easier to review and access.

The bill will establish a web presence at the documents.ok.gov web address where citizens will be able to review and search government documents. Every year, state agencies, committees and task forces are required to publish publications containing various reports and performance data. They also generate reports showing how taxpayer savings could be realized through the implementation of reforms. These publications are initially circulated among state officials before invariably being sent to the state archives where they sit on library shelves until they are relevant for little more than historical reference. If the elected officials do not respond to these reports, they are at risk of being completely overlooked by the public and the media under this less-than transparent system.

House Bill 1086 mandates that these reports be placed online in a searchable format. This will allow members of the public to search through these reports by keyword. This was an idea initially requested by the group Oklahomans for Responsible Government (OFRG) during the last legislative interim.

Another convenience offered by HB 1086 is a web portal through which citizens can access government forms. There are likely hundreds of forms produced by government agencies, and you have probably experienced the frustration of needing to submit a form, only to embark on the major chore of looking through a labyrinth of agency web pages seeking a specific form. Forms.ok.gov would serve as a one-stop location where the public can search for a form by form number or keyword and find the document they need. This is especially important for business owners who need to focus on their business instead of trying to figure out how to navigate through complicated bureaucratic processes.

The bill also establishes a portal through which citizens can view geo-data on an overlay of the map of their choice. This resource is currently online and you can view it at hd31.org/74. The current site includes an incredible amount of useful information in one location. For example, political boundaries such as state, county, school and fire districts are denoted so that citizens can quickly learn in which political jurisdiction a property is located. The bill will make the portal the official one-stop shop for state geo-data and enable the state’s geographic information office to push state agency geo-data to the public through this site which will be made available at the maps.ok.gov web address.

The bill also allows the development of state employee performance metrics for publication on the data.ok.gov site -- the publication of public school expenditures, state revolving fund balances, and detailed state expenditure data are all included.

A number of other transparency components are included in this legislation which I plan to write about in future updates.

The bill has been approved by the House of Representatives, a Senate committee and awaits additional consideration in the Senate.

Making Progress

2011-03-27T17:41:00.000-07:00

Last week presented Oklahoma lawmakers with the second major legislative deadline of this year’s legislative session.

It is at this point that I can start to get a feeling for how well the efforts to reduce the size of government are proceeding. I believe this year’s state government modernization agenda is much more aggressive then ever before with several major multi-million dollar cost saving efforts still proceeding through the legislative system.

This progress is in no small part due to the commitment of legislative leadership and the strong effort by Governor Mary Fallin.

I knew that a special emphasis would be placed on government reform this year when I noticed that Governor Fallin placed a large “Government Modernization” heading and a series of money-saving proposals at the very start of her proposed state budget narrative. I cannot ever recall a time when proposed budgets even contained a narrative titled “Government Modernization”.

Since that time, Governor Fallin’s policy team has been very engaged in helping to develop and advocate for aggressive systematic reforms.

In the past, legislators spent large amounts of time working on reforms only to have to keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best when that proposal was sent to the Governor's office. Many times the Governor supported reform legislation but at other times legislation which would have made a substantial effort towards reforming and reducing the size of state government was vetoed. We just never knew for sure what would happen once our proposals were sent downstairs to the Governor's office.

Now, however, not only is the new Governor involved in helping propose and shape reform policy, she is also providing aggressive advocacy for the proposals -- and is not afraid to write editorials or issue press releases that bring attention to our efforts to save money and streamline state government.

As a result, legislative efforts are still alive which create a one-stop shop for business owners to secure their licenses and permits, require an unprecedented level of transparency for government spend initiatives, and consolidate ten state government agencies which will result in millions of dollars of savings.

Another still viable proposal would establish a state employee health insurance plan containing an emphasis on health savings accounts designed to contain health insurance costs to state agencies, and empower state employees with control over their health care spending. Proposals to eliminate inefficient state agency information technology processes have been repeatedly highlighted by the Governor as her budget seeks to take advantage of 140 million dollars of savings from more efficient technology process in state government.

Also still being considered are multiple proposals which would consolidate inefficient state agency financial services operations.

Keeping this large number of proposals moving forward throughout the session has been due to the commitment from the Governor and House and Senate legislative leaders. As the Chair of the House Government Modernization Committee, it has been a huge honor for me to observe this commitment up close and as a taxpayer, I have a tremendous appreciation for the commitment of these individuals to save some of the millions of taxpayer dollars which are wasted each year due to these inefficiencies.

HD 31 Constituent Survey Update

2011-03-21T07:19:00.000-07:00

During the upcoming weeks I will be issuing a survey to House District 31 constituents. The survey serves as a forum for those who live in the district to offer their input about some of the more high-profile issues being considered during the current legislative session. I have benefited from this input in the past and look forward to the feedback from this year’s survey.

I will distribute a link to a web-based version of the survey in a future article. Those who do not have web access should contact my office at 557-7350 to request a mailed copy.

Following is a list of the bills from last year’s survey and an update regarding the disposition of each proposal.

House Bill 2310 was designed to consolidate state administrative service offerings after a study demonstrated that Oklahoma state government employs a much larger number of employees in its agency level financial services divisions than comparable peer groups. The bill was approved by the Legislature but vetoed by the Governor. I have since re-introduced this proposal and it has already been approved by the House. 314 out of 347 House District 31 survey respondents favored this proposal.

In its original form, HJR 1002 would have allowed voters to drop the cap from 5% to 2% on the amount that property tax could be increased each year. The legislation was not approved. A similar proposal is advancing through the legislative process this year. 326 out of 347 respondents favored passage of the proposal.

HJR 1054 gave voters the opportunity to vote on an amendment to the Oklahoma Constitution allowing citizens to opt out of provisions of the federal health care mandate. The bill was approved by both the Legislature and the voters. Because of this constitutional amendment, Attorney General Scott Pruitt was able to file a unique legal action against the federal government which is independent of the Florida legal action. 302 out of 347 House District 31 survey respondents favored the proposal.

HR 1065 requested a trial court to hold hearings to consider the impeachment of a Pittsburg County Judge. It was not approved. 258 respondents favored the proposal.

SB 1685 would have exempted from federal regulation firearms manufactured in Oklahoma. It was approved by the Legislature but vetoed by the Governor. 264 survey respondents favored the proposal.

I served as the House author of SB 1759 which mandated that citizens have access to a database of federal stimulus spending in Oklahoma. The bill was approved and signed by the Governor. Visit recovery.ok.gov to access the stimulus transparency website. 332 of the 347 respondents favored the proposal.

Last year’s survey also asked respondents for their position on several issue questions. 85 percent of survey respondents stated they would prefer to see a smaller state government with fewer services.

81 percent of survey takers stated they would support a 10% reduction in the number of state government employment positions.

86 percent of participants want to opt out of the federal health care plan, with 79 percent favoring an opt out even if it meant federal funds were withheld from the state.

Survey takers were divided on how to best address the I-35 off-ramp traffic issues in south Logan County and north Oklahoma County with a slight majority favoring a new off-ramp at Sorghum Mill Road.

I certainly appreciate your input. Please do not hesitate to send your suggestions for this year’s survey to Jason.Murphey@OKHouse.gov.

State Rep. Calls for Legislative Pay Decrease, Makes Donation To Pro-Life Organization

2011-03-18T11:19:00.000-07:00

GUTHRIE - State Rep. Jason Murphey continued his mid-March tradition of presenting a yearly donation of $8,241.92 from his legislative salary to officials from Crossroads, An Open Door For Life Choices, Inc., located in Guthrie. Crossroads provides faith-based, pro-life counseling and support services to expectant mothers.

Murphey said that Oklahoma legislators are some of the highest paid part-time legislators in the nation, making more than double the regional average. He is using the donation to demonstrate that legislators in Oklahoma should not be paid so much more than other legislators in the region and to illustrate the importance of pro-life services such as Crossroads.

“In order to reform government, we must cut out wasteful state government spending. I hope most would agree that it is not a good principle to pay legislators more than double the regional average,” said Murphey, R-Guthrie.

Crossroads is a Christian-based non-profit organization focused on supporting the values of the sanctity of human life, pre-marital abstinence, and marital fidelity.

The services provided included limited pregnancy related medical services, options education, client advocacy, support for prenatal care, parenting education, post-abortion peer counseling, and abstinence education.

Crossroads offers abortion-vulnerable women a scan to confirm viable pregnancies. Statistics show that 89 percent of abortion-minded women choose life for their unborn babies after seeing them through ultrasound and receiving truthful information about their options.

The amount donated reflects the difference in legislative pay and the per capita pay in Oklahoma at the time Murphey was elected. During his 2006 campaign for office, Murphey pledged to continue making the yearly pledge until legislative salaries are adjusted. Murphey sponsors legislation to accomplish this goal during each term of the Legislature.

Better Access to Legislative Documents

2011-03-14T07:43:00.000-07:00

There have been significant advances this year in the amount of transparency afforded to Oklahoma citizens through the Legislature’s web presence.

In the past, keeping track of legislation online was difficult because users of the Oklahoma House of Representatives website were required to navigate to several different web pages, depending on the status of the bills they were attempting to monitor.

You can only imagine how frustrating it was for the visitor to decipher between the introduced, committee substitute, amended, enrolled, conference committee substitute and engrossed versions of the same bill and then visit separate pages to read each of those versions.

Also, it was not pleasant for legislators who might have media reports of and advocacy calls for or against legislation that had already addressed the concern simply because someone was looking at the wrong version of the bill.

Commencing with the most recent session of the Legislature, the web portals for the House and Senate have been updated to provide access to a one-stop overview of each piece of legislation. Not only can visitors review the most recent version of a bill or resolution online, they can also now access the document summarizing the bill, the complete timeline of legislative action on a bill, previous versions and a breakdown of legislative votes on any given bill.

I have found myself using the public web portal just as often, if not more than, the internal legislative site. I think it is a very good sign when it is as convenient for legislators to use the resources provided to the public than to use the internal tools.

The modernization of the legislative process and easy access to web-based documents is also transforming the way legislators conduct business. Most legislators are no longer dependant on reviewing stacks of paper bills. Even the use of computers for this purpose is now in decline. In fact, this is the first year when I can easily work from the floor of the House using just my smart phone without the need to use a computer at all. Several legislators are now using iPads as the primary method to follow legislation during House Floor action.

I would encourage everyone to take a few minutes to visit the Oklahoma House of Representatives’ web site. By clicking on the “legislation” link and the “basic bill search” sublink, you will be able to test the functionality which I have described in this article.

I suggest that you enter HB 2156 (using the following format: HB2156, with no spaces) as a possible bill to review. This is legislation I will present to the House this week. The bill will continue the progression of internal legislative reforms by allowing the House, Senate, Governor and Secretary of State to participate in an electronic-based chain of custody for legislative documentation. It would allow legislation transmitted between these four entities to also occur by electronic mechanism without the need for paper. This should mean that a bill can be written, amended, voted on, sent to the opposite legislative House, voted on again, sent to the Governor and filed with the Secretary of State without ever being placed on paper.

These process efficiencies can be traced back to 2007 when House Speaker Lance Cargill placed an emphasis on modernizing internal House processes with a strong focus on reducing paper dependency. Since that time the House has saved thousands of dollars because of these reforms and I enjoy the opportunity to participate in the expansion of these money-saving efforts.

Cost-Cutting Measure Approved by House

2011-03-11T09:18:00.000-08:00

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma House of Representatives has approved legislation designed to transform inefficient state agency financial services systems.
House Bill 2107, by state Rep. Jason Murphey, (R-Guthrie), state Rep. Josh Cockroft, (R-Tecumseh) and state Sen. Anthony Sykes (R-Moore), was proposed following a report by the Hackett Group, which demonstrated massive inefficiencies in the way state agencies conducts financial services.
The report compared Oklahoma agencies’ financial services processes to that of other public and private sector peer organizations of like complexity. The report demonstrated the inefficiencies by stating that it costs Oklahoma taxpayers $20.05 to process one accounts payable invoice while comparable peer groups pay $3.58 for each similar service.
“It is incredible and unacceptable that Oklahoma taxpayers are paying nearly six times the cost of what comparable groups are spending for that same process,” Murphey declared. “This legislation is designed to fix that!”
The study also stated that Oklahoma state government has a significantly higher number of full time employees employed to conduct these operations than peer organizations. Oklahoma processes 2,039 accounts payable occurrences for each employee while peer groups are able to account for 15,693 of these same processes with each employee.
“The legislation will require the most inefficient agencies to enter into a shared service agreement to modernize their financial services,” Sykes explained. “The proposal also incentivizes state agencies that become efficient to avoid the necessity of a shared services arrangement and allows them to preserve autonomy of operation.”
A 2010 version of the legislation was passed by the legislature but vetoed by the then-Governor Brad Henry.
The House approved House Bill 1207 by a vote of 91-3. The legislation now heads to the Senate for additional consideration.

Governor's Plan to Save 3.6 Million Approved

2011-03-06T18:45:00.000-08:00

Governor Mary Fallin’s proposal to modernize the state’s vendor payment system and save 3.6 million dollars per year has been approved by the House of Representatives’ Government Modernization Committee.

House Bill 1086 proposes to utilize electronic payments methods such as direct deposit to pay the state’s thousands of vendor invoices. The bill is sponsored by State Representatives Jason Murphey, R-Guthrie, Josh Cockroft, R-McLoud, and State Senator Clark Jolley, R-Edmond.

Fallin called on legislators to approve the reform during her state of the state address. Fallin proposed the change after the office of state finance indicated that the state could be spending up to $13.50 per vendor payment for each payment made using traditional paper conveyances such as payment warrants. This compares to electronic payments which cost the state approximately 5 cents per transfer.

Currently, approximately 230,000 checks are made with traditional paper payment conveyances. If House Bill 1086 is approved it will require nearly all vendor payments to be made by electronic payment with an estimated savings of 3.6 million dollars each year.

“This is an important reform,” Murphey explained. “This should have occurred several years ago and I appreciate the leadership of Governor Fallin and Treasurer Miller in introducing and supporting this innovative reform.”

In addition to the electronic payment proposal, House Bill 1086 represents an omnibus approach to using technology to enable taxpayer savings through efficiencies and spending transparencies. It includes Governor Fallin’s proposal for a shared state payroll system which is also estimated to save at least 2 million dollars each year, the placement of common eduction spending transactions on the data.ok.gov website and a one-stop shop for many state documents and annual reports to be located in a searchable format for easy purview by the taxpayers at the website documents.ok.gov.

The legislation was approved by a vote of 11-1 in the last committee vote to take place before the 2011 House committee House Bill consideration deadline and now goes to the full House for approval.

2011 Property Tax Reform Proposals

2011-03-06T17:48:00.000-08:00

Without a doubt, the issue about which I receive the most passionate constituent feedback is the demand for property tax reform.

We have now reached the first deadline in the legislative session and I am happy to report that there are a series of property tax reforms proposals which have been approved in committee and are still viable for legislative approval during this session.

Last week, I was honored to present House Bill 1293 to the House Revenue and Tax Committee on behalf of the bill’s author State Representative David Derby who could not be present at the hearing.

House Bill 1293 significantly increases the income eligibility ceiling for those who can claim double-homestead exemption and indexes the income ceiling to the rate of inflation. The legislation also increases the upper income eligibility limit for those who are eligible to claim part of their property tax as a refund on their state income tax and indexes that limit to the rate of inflation.

I was excited to have the opportunity to present the bill before the Rev and Tax committee because I had just received a call from a constituent who will be experiencing a property tax increase because her income went up slightly making her ineligible for the double-homestead exemption. This income limit should have been indexed to inflation in the first place as the limit is prohibitive even to those on a small fixed income who can lose the exemption with just a minor cost of living increase that keeps up with inflation.

House Bill 1293 was approved by a unanimous vote of the Revenue and Taxation committee. Representative Derby also won approval for House Bill 1293 from the Appropriations and Budget Committee and it now goes to the House floor for consideration by the entire House of Representatives.

Two other property tax reform proposals, House Joint Resolution 1001 and House Joint Resolution 1003 have won approval from the House Rules Committee and are also now ready to be heard by the House.

House Joint Resolution 1001 would allow the people of Oklahoma to vote on changing the state Constitution to remove the income limits on the ability of those over the age of 65 to freeze their property taxes at their current levels. The proposal is designed to aid those who are on a fixed income and are at risk of being priced out of the houses which they have spent much of their lifetime working to pay off. This is an all to common dilemma faces by seniors who are already trying to cope with the increase in health care costs and inflation.

An especially unfair aspect of the current senior freeze limit is that fact it applies to gross and not net income. This punishes small businessmen and farmers who must count gross income which they may not have realized a very large profit margin on. For instance, a farmer who sells cattle would have to count the entire sell price of the cattle even if he took a loss on the sale.

House Joint Resolution 1002 is by far the most important property tax reform proposal of the three mentioned in this article. This resolution purports to ask the people of Oklahoma to change the state Constitution to limit the increase of billable property taxes to no more than 3% each year or the rate of inflation whichever is less. The means that even if the County Assessor increases the assessment of a property beyond 3% each year that not more than a 3% increase or the rate of inflation can be charged to the home owner.

In order to stay alive, all of these proposals will need to be approved by the House by the next legislative deadline which will occur in two weeks time.

Millions to Be Saved With Modernization Reform

2011-03-01T09:35:00.000-08:00

Millions to Be Saved With Modernization Reform

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma House of Representatives Government Modernization Committee has approved legislation to save millions of taxpayers dollars thought the implementation of information technology (IT) process reforms.
House Bill 1304, by state Rep. David Derby (R-Owasso) was approved by the committee by a 10-1 margin during a recent hearing.
The vote took place after Oklahoma Chief Information Officer Alex Pettit and the Capgemini consulting firm reported on the preliminary findings from their recent study of Oklahoma’s IT systems.
The report found that the state utilizes 76 separate redundant financial tracking systems despite the fact that the state has one enterprise-wide financial software that all agencies should be using. There are 22 unique time and attendance systems, 17 imaging systems, 48 reporting and analytics applications, 30,000 desktop computers of which 2,000 are not in use, 25 different desktop operating systems, 133 email systems, and 27 SQL Server and Oracle systems with 92 percent of the SQL Server programs not being supported.
The study also referenced a report by the Gartner Group, which indicates Oklahoma is spending $35.6 million more than the average IT spend of other state governments.
“This confirms our worst fears about the massive amounts of waste and inefficiency because the state has failed to develop a cohesive IT strategy. This chaos provides a dangerous environment in which our data is not secure and taxpayer dollars are being wasted,” said Derby.
House Bill 1304 includes several of the Capgemini report’s suggestions for addressing the IT shortcomings. The legislation was called for by Governor Mary Fallin in her State of the State address. Fallin is seeking to realize $140 million of savings in the state’s fiscal year 2012 budget from the incorporation of this reform.
Government Modernization Committee Chairman Jason Murphey (R-Guthrie) noted that the Governor’s proposal received an enthusiastic standing ovation from members of the Legislature.
“When the Governor called on the Legislature to approve the IT consolidation it was very well received by our colleagues,” he said.
The proposal now goes before the House for consideration. An overview of the Capgemini report is online at hd31.org/50.

Consolidating State Agencies

2011-02-28T08:58:00.000-08:00

This week presents the first deadline of the 2011 legislative session. The deadline provides the first definitive metric by which we can judge if this is going to be a successful session.

This has been by far the busiest I have ever been as a legislator. Much of my time is spent working on Government Modernization initiatives. Because the Government Modernization Committee is now in its third year of existence, there are a number of first-generation modernization projects which are requiring either follow-up legislation or re-submission due to a veto by the previous Governor. This means that the Modernization case load has been much more significant than in previous years. Also adding to the case load is the fact that Governor Mary Fallin has proposed a series of cost-saving reforms upon which we need to take action to implement.

Agency consolidation efforts have been my first focus. These efforts are represented by House Bill 2140 by House Speaker Kris Steele and House Bill 1541 which I am sponsoring.

House Bill 2140 will consolidate several of the state’s central service agencies into one administrative department, resulting in millions of dollars of savings each year. I have enjoyed the opportunity to work with Speaker Steele in developing his proposal and have a strong appreciation for his commitment to cutting costs.

House Bill 1541 contains several of the state agency consolidations as proposed by Governor Mary Fallin. Her consolidation proposals are designed to realize significant costs savings to Oklahoma taxpayers.

Both of these consolidation bill have now been approved in committee and await consideration by the full House.

The consolidation proposals have resulted in numerous contacts between my office and the various agencies and lobbyists. They all have a series of reasons for why they cannot be consolidated. Some of these entities wholeheartedly support agency consolidation with the singular exception of their agency which they vigorously assert is a unique anomaly to the problem of too much administrative overhead which we are desperately trying to rein in.

It has been my job to work through those objections and ensure that the consolidation proposals are feasible. This has resulted in hours of meetings during which I have endeavored to sort through all the usual excuses and red herring arguments and determine the facts. After all, it is my job to defend these proposals when they are under attack from those who wish to defend the status quo, and I don’t want to hurt the credibility of valid consolidation proposals by including proposals which don’t make sense.

Probably one of the most important reforms which our committee has worked on this year has been House Bill 1304 by Representative David Derby. Derby’s legislation is a follow-up proposal to the state’s IT consolidation plan (about which I have written several articles) and if incorporated, it would also save millions of dollars each year. The Governor’s budget counts on 140 million dollars of savings based on the approval of the legislation.

This week, the Government Modernization Committee will also consider a series of proposals by state Representative Lewis Moore from Edmond. Moore has been working hard on a follow-up to our legislation to reform the state employee health insurance program which was vetoed by the previous Governor. Moore’s legislation will place an emphasis on the implementation of a market-based Health Savings Account (HSA) proposal which is designed after a similar process in Indiana that has kept health insurance costs down.

We will also hear a proposal this week by state Representative TW Shannon which would start the process of selling unneeded state assets. You may recall past articles in which I described how state officials have finally compiled a list of state owned buildings. It is incredible that this list was not in existence until recently. Can you imagine what would happen to a private business that did not even keep a list of its assets?

I will ask the committee to approve legislation which would implement a proposal from the Governor to require the state to pay all state vendors by electronic transfer, resulting in several million dollars of savings. The bill will also contain a series of aggressive cost-saving and transparency proposals.

Due to the strong support of our colleagues in the Legislature, legislative leadership and the Governor, all of our Modernization bills are still alive. I intend to keep you updated about these initiatives as the session progresses.

Governor Mary Fallin Comments on House Committee Passage of Government Modernization Bills

2011-02-24T15:22:00.000-08:00

OKLAHOMA CITY – Governor Mary Fallin today praised the Oklahoma House Government Modernization Committee for the passage of several initiatives to streamline and modernize government operations.

“I’m pleased the Legislature is moving forward with several government modernization proposals. Streamlining government operations, consolidating agencies and sharing administrative costs are all important ways of addressing the state’s $500 million budget shortfall,” Fallin said. “Each one of these proposals – many of which I put forward in my executive budget - saves taxpayers money while allowing government to continue to pursue its core functions. I am hopeful the House will continue to move these measures forward.”

The House Government Modernization Committee approved HB 1304 by Rep. David Derby that consolidates information technology services of all state agencies under the direction of the Information Services Division of the Office of State Finance.

The committee also approved HB 1541 by Rep. Jason Murphey that consolidates several state entities, including the Human Rights Commission into the Attorney General’s office and the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, the Oklahoma Development Finance Authority, Oklahoma Industrial Finance Authority into the Department of Commerce.

HD31 Rural Population Largest in the State

2011-02-21T07:59:00.000-08:00

After last week’s article about the census, I received responses asking that I follow up and provide an update about the new census report.

The report stated that House District 31 now has 44,222 residents. This represents an increase of about 10,000 over the last ten years, and it means that House District 31 will be required to give up about 7,000 residents in the upcoming redistricting process in order to meet the necessary requirement of approximately 37,000 per legislative district.

As you are probably aware, an important principle of our representative system of governance is that one person should not have less voting power than a person in another district. The redistricting process is designed to correct the inequities that have occurred over time due to the explosive area growth. Those who live in House District 31 actually have less voting power than those who live in less populated districts.

House District 31 is current the tenth largest district in the state and the eighth fastest growing district.

However, House District 31 is the largest district in terms of unincorporated or rural population. With over 27,000 rural residents, just House District 31’s unincorporated population comes within 5,000 people of surpassing the size of Oklahoma's least populated house districts.

You can only imagine how much demand this places on county government services. In fact, in Logan County District 1 alone, there are approximately 14,000 unincorporated residents. There are nearly 50% more residents in the unincorporated area of this county commission district than there are in the entire city of Guthrie. Logan County District 2 also serves a high rural population with about 10,000 rural residents which is about the same size as Guthrie.

One of the biggest implications of this report is its impact on county-level redistricting. This presents county leaders with the challenge of meeting the requirement to re-district each county commission district so that the population is divided evenly -- while not creating a large disparity in the number of road miles each commissioner must maintain. There is a large disparity in population numbers between Logan County Districts 1 and 3. Logan County District 1 contains over 40% of the population and Logan County District 3 has 27%.

Logan County is one of the top 7 fastest growing counties in the State with over 41,848 residents.

The numbers also show an explosive growth trend in the Oklahoma County part of House District 31. There are now over 3,000 residents of the district who live within the city limits of Edmond, and nearly 1,000 residents live in unincorporated Oklahoma County.

The tremendous number of rural residents demonstrates what local officials have known for several years: the growth in House District 31 is mostly in unincorporated areas and the demands of this growth have been placed on county government.

Perhaps one of the most important lessons which can be taken away from this fact is that people do not need city government in order to receive basic services. In Logan and Oklahoma Counties, over 27,000 people are demonstrating that life is possible without the tax and regulation burdens provided by city governments. There are very few if any other areas in the state with this significant level of rural residents.

State Agency Consolidation Approved in Committee

2011-02-17T17:11:00.000-08:00

OKLAHOMA CITY – A significant consolidation of state government administrative overhead could be set to take place following today’s approval of House Bill 2140 by the House of Representatives Government Modernization Committee.
House Bill 2140 proposes to consolidate seven of Oklahoma’s central service state agencies into one agency.
“We are committed to right sizing state government,” stated House Speaker Kris Steele who serves as the author of the legislation. “Consolidating central services agencies is a great first step toward the goal of making state government more efficient and responsive to the needs of Oklahoma taxpayers.”
Steele authored the legislation after an interim study found that Oklahoma could realize millions of dollars of savings if Oklahoma followed best practices that are occurring in other states.
The legislation is patterned after the central services governance structures used in Montana, Indiana and Utah.
“This vote represents the first time in recent history that a significant consolidation of state agencies has been approved by a standing House committee,” said state Rep. Jason Murphey, R-Guthrie and chair of the Government Modernization Committee. “The consolidation of these seven state agencies will save the taxpayers millions of dollars every year.”
Murphey said the bill will also set the stage for future significant consolidations.
“This bill makes the case for consolidating state agencies based on similar mission and subject matter,” he said.
House Bill 2140 was approved by a vote of 11-2 and now heads to the full House for additional consideration.

Local Census Numbers to be Released this Week

2011-02-14T07:49:00.000-08:00

Last summer I wrote an article describing the upcoming re-districting process and some of the potential implications of the 2010 census report.

The implications are significant. The north Oklahoma and Logan county areas are exploding in residential growth and the 2010 census should reflect that growth.

Proceeding the 2010 census, Logan County officials were asked to update the census map to show the new residential locations which needed to be counted that were not on the Census Bureau's list of houses. The county took this task very seriously and reported hundreds of new home sites that were not listed in the previous census. This work demonstrated the growth and helped ensure that the new census properly reflects the explosive residential construction.

Impacts include increased local road funding, additional representation in state government and a much stronger demographic base which will serve to attract new business investment.

A Census Bureau report is scheduled to be released this week and will include Oklahoma and four other states. The Census Bureau will first provide the report to the Governor, Speaker of the House, Speaker Pro-Temp of the Senate and Representatives of the minority political party in the House and Senate. After the bureau receives confirmation that these officials are in possession of the data, it will be released to the public.

In last year’s article I stated that the growth in Logan County and north Oklahoma County will require House District 31 to get smaller. Following the 2000 census, Oklahoma House districts were required to include approximately 34,000 people. Because of the growth in the state over the last 10 years, the 2010 redistricting plan will require each House district be drawn to include 37,000 people.

I suspect that the current population of House District 31 now includes more than the 37,000 which will be required by the new re-districting plan. As you might imagine, I am anxious to see the new numbers.

Within the next four months, a legislative redistricting plan will reduce the size of the district. Parts of the current district will potentially be picked up by surrounding rural districts which will be forced to expand to include new residents to meet the 37,000 resident requirement.

I plan to send out the new census numbers for Logan County and House District 31 through my Twitter account @JWMurphey shortly after their release later this week.

Taxpayer Dollars Going to Planned Parenthood?

2011-02-06T11:57:00.000-08:00

This is the time of year when the previous year’s legislative initiatives have started to go into law and they are quickly becoming of significant effect.

For instance, in the next few weeks the first State Government 2.0 data feeds, sponsored by Senator Anthony Sykes and myself, are set to go online. These were approved in last year’s Senate Bill 1759. I look forward to providing you with the information about these feeds and their far-reaching implications in enhancing transparency.

Also recently placed online were the Open Books 2.0 state government spending transparency enhancements which were approved in House Bill 3422. This legislation was sponsored by current state Treasurer Ken Miller and state Senator Clark Jolley and requested by the grassroots group Oklahomans for Responsible Government (OFRG). The legislation will enhance your right to see how state government spends your money. State officials are now required to post every single spending transaction in a searchable and exportable format. These new features were placed online at the website openbooks.ok.gov within the past few weeks.

I will be the first to admit that the Open Books user interface is a bit clunky and I am not sure that all of the requirements of the legislation have been complied with. For instance, the exportable functionality is almost impossible to find and users must search for the recipients of government spending in all caps. This no doubt discourages usage and must be fixed. But it’s also fair to say that the product still empowers citizens as never before.

For example, last week the issue of whether or not taxpayers dollars should be going to a controversial organization like Planned Parenthood started to be debated in the national news.

It is of course little surprise to realize that federal taxpayer dollars are going to this organization. However, are state taxpayers also funding Planned Parenthood?

Using the Open Books system, with just a few clicks you can see that over $230,000 have been paid by the State Department of Health to Planned Parenthood during the current fiscal year. Without the transparency provided by Open Books, I doubt that very many people would ever know about this spending.

Readers may recall my past articles about the very bad policy of legislative earmarking. For instance, in 2007 I wrote about an earmark for an organization known only as A Pocket Full of Hope. In 2009, I wrote that legislative earmarks were starting to disappear as the state budget was forced to contract because of the economic downturn. However, even though the earmark is gone, according to Open Books, A Pocket Full of Hope is still on the public dole. This raises the disturbing possibility that legislators are still verbally directing agencies behind the scenes on how to spend money. How many other former earmarks are still taking place away from the purview of the public?

Once the user interface is more functional and its usage becomes more widespread, the Open Books platform will transform the way citizens hold government accountable. State government officials will become very cautious when they spend taxpayer dollars because they will understand that you will be reviewing their expenditures.

And now we also have a powerful new tool as legislators to do our job as policy makers to guard taxpayer dollars.

Murphey Appointed to Governor's Transition Team

2011-02-03T11:54:00.000-08:00

GUTHRIE - Local State Representative Jason Murphey has been appointed as a member of Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin’s Government Reform Transition Committee.

Murphey, who chairs the House of Representatives’ Government Modernization Committee has provided Fallin’s committee with updates and insights regarding recent and ongoing efforts to reform Oklahoma State Government.

“I have enjoyed the opportunity to assist the Governor in the effort to reform State Government. I have a strong appreciation for her desire to streamline state government services and save taxpayer dollars,” Murphey said.

Murphey says the Governor has expressed an interest in government reform from day one. “The Governor’s policy team has been involved in reform ideas from their start. They have been attending government reform policy meetings and they understand these issues,” he explained.

The Governor is expected to call for the adoption of state government reforms during next week’s state of the state address.

State Board of Education Members Should Resign

2011-01-31T12:42:00.000-08:00

State officials are preparing to conclude an extensive study of the state’s segmented and costly information technology systems. As part of this study, officials are required to review state technology assets and assemble a report which demonstrates how many millions of dollars will be saved if the state adopts an enterprise-wide IT plan.

This research has already exposed many duplicative processes that are absolutely wasting taxpayer dollars.The study is expected to be released in the next few weeks and will serve as a road map to legislation this year. Since the legislative session is just starting to get underway, this has obviously created a tight time line which was made even tighter when the Department of Education refused to cooperate with the study. In fact, the Department wouldn’t allow state officials to conduct the study even though it is mandated by law.

Fortunately, with the arrival of new State Superintendent Janet Barresi, the Department has finally started to comply with the law and allow this important work to be accomplished. Her arrival is a breath of much needed fresh air.

It was not at all a pleasant experience to listen to the audio from Janet Barresi’s first Department of Education board meeting and to hear how disrespectfully she was treated by the extremely partisan board appointees of the previous Governor. I have never heard a board chairman treated with such disrespect. As a legislative committee chairman, I know first hand that the board must respect the chairman’s authority if the meeting is going to run efficiently. From the start, not only was Barresi not afforded this respect, but her ability to run the meeting was obviously taken away from her with great malice.

Barresi is taking on one of the most difficult challenges that any Oklahoma office holder has ever encountered. Reforming the Oklahoma common education monster and the State Department of Education is a herculean task and Barresi must be able to appoint a team of professionals to assist her. The board obviously knows this and refused to confirm the appointment of three of Barresi’s assistants despite the fact that they are well qualified for their respective jobs. I know this first hand because I have directly worked with two of the three assistants.This includes the former Deputy Commissioner for Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland and the former press secretary for the House of Representatives. They are both well qualified.

The low point of the meeting occurred when a board member made a now well-publicized and extremely inappropriate and derogatory comment about another former co-worker of mine who recently left her job with us so she could assist Barresi at the Department. I was sorry to see her go as she is one of the nicest people you could ever meet and was set to be the lead Government Modernization staffer for the House during the upcoming session. It is unbelievable that this qualified professional is being treated in a most demeaning way simply because she chose to work for someone who wants to reform Oklahoma’s common education system. There should be no place in state government where it is acceptable to treat someone in this manner.

You may visit http://www.HD31.org/27 to listen to the audio recordings from the board meeting. You will be shocked to learn that the individuals who are behaving so badly have held unchecked power over common education in Oklahoma. This type of behavior would be deemed unacceptable if expressed by a student on any given school playground in Oklahoma.

The people of Oklahoma have spoken in support of Superintendent Barresi and education reform. It is obvious to me that the current board members are opposed to reform and intend to block Barresi at every turn. They do not represent the views of Oklahomans and they should immediately resign. If not, they risk being noted in history as the last desperate attempt to preserve an indefensible system of failure that has greatly harmed the future of so many Oklahoma students.

Should cities publish ordinances online?

2011-01-24T09:24:00.000-08:00

In last week’s update I described my plan to use social media as a delivery vehicle for videos of what I believe to be definitive debates in the House of Representatives. I decided to test this policy last week and sent the following message out on Twitter, Facebook and Google Chat:

“Should cities publish ordinances online? 2010 House debate: Video: http://hd31.org/23. Bill: http://hd31.org/25. Vote: http://hd31.org/24.”

Senate Bill 1863 proposed to require towns to place their city ordinances online for all to see.

One of the reasons elected officials are able to inappropriately govern their citizenry is because of their constant access to important governing documents. Whether it be the city code, zoning documents or budget documents, the possession of this data results in the governing having the knowledge of the details of the very complex governing process, while the governed have to figure out how to find copies of these documents. Some individuals may not know how to easily find and research these forms and must take the word of those in power without verification. The web changes all this. No longer is City Hall empowered to keep data at the expense of the populace -- the governing documents are placed online for all to see.

As a Guthrie City Councilman, one of my priorities was to secure passage of a resolution calling for the placement of the city code online. Today, Guthrie citizens can review these laws by visiting CityofGuthrie.com. Once landing on the site, visitors are one click away from pulling up the code (click on the “I Want To” link). In addition to enhancing transparency, this service provides assistance to city employees because they no longer have to respond to as many open records requests for city documents. In short, I believe this transparency provides a net cost savings to the taxpayer.

Because of this experience, I am well aware that placing ordinances online is not a complicated or expensive process. Senate Bill 1863 required a minimal commitment by city officials to simply post a link to the file provided by the company responsible for compiling the latest version of the city code.

Senate Bill 1863 came to the House after being unanimously approved in the Senate. There was little reason to think there would be any opposition to this legislation.

The bill was presented to the House by State Representative Scott Martin. As a former Norman City official, Martin knows first hand how easy it would be for cities to post the information and how important it is for city government to be transparent.

You can imagine our surprise when the bill came under heavy attack for allegedly placing an “undue burden” on city officials. The bill was defeated by a significant margin as defenders of the status quo resorted to some of the most remarkable arguments in an effort to keep cities from having to post their laws.

I believe this was one of the defining debates of the year in that it clearly distinguished those Representatives who truly understand and believe in the importance of using technology to provide transparency and empower the citizens.

But the good part is that you don’t have to take my word for any of this. Decide for yourself! In less than 140 characters, readers can watch the web cast of the debate, read the bill and see who voted for this important transparency proposal. These links give you the ability to make informed decisions on the issues.

I look forward to utilizing social media services to provide future updates like this one during the upcoming session.

I am on Facebook at facebook.com/JasonMurphey and Twitter.com/JWMurphey.

2011-01-17T09:34:00.001-08:00

Murphey Update: New Social Media Strategy for 2011 Session http://hd31.org/20

New Social Media Strategy for 2011 Session

2011-01-17T09:25:00.000-08:00

During the past few weeks I have been giving some thought about how to use social media to provide a higher level of service to House District 31 constituents.

The use of social media has provided me with the obvious benefit of being able to communicate with a number of constituents and hear ideas to which I would not otherwise be exposed. This has been a resource which has made the commitment to social media more than worth the time and effort.

In early October, I wrote an update about another benefit afforded by these services. In that article I described my view that Twitter provided a delivery mechanism for the real-time distribution of documents and items which are of interest but which would not otherwise receive general circulation.

For instance, the Government Modernization Committee recently held a hearing where we studied the possibility of consolidating state government agencies. Following that study, Twitter, Facebook and Google Docs provided the means to deliver access to the documents which were referenced as part of the study. Constituents did not just have to take my word for the material the committee considered, but could see for themselves the content we studied -- and they could then make up their own minds about the veracity of the content. One reader asked to view the 1995 Keating-era report (you can still see it at hd31.org/1).

During the next session I intend to use social media services to deliver additional services to constituents, including the opportunity to view the most interesting House floor proceedings.

Last year, video of House proceedings was made available on the internet. This was one of the most important transparency reforms made by House leaders, and the public can now see House debates for themselves. While the right of the citizens to see these proceedings is important, I certainly understand that few have the time to set aside to watch these proceedings for an extended period of time. Besides, most of the happenings are fairly routine and don’t provide the viewer much incentive to stay tuned.

The fact that few have the resources and time to filter through the routine and uninteresting in order to see the important items should not be a barrier to access. Defining debates do occur, and all citizens should observe those debates in their proper context.

Fortunately, each of these debates is indexed with its own unique link on the okhouse.gov website. This useful feature allows viewers to visit the specific debate in which they are interested without having to filter other content.

As I observe interesting debates this year, I plan to use Twitter and Facebook to distribute the links. I also plan to include these links in future articles when discussing the specific issues, so my email update recipients can see the debates for themselves. This way, they won’t have to take my word for what happened, but can view the debates and make up their own minds.

My challenge will be to select those debates which I feel will justify social media alerts. I don’t want to send out too many alerts and risk disincentivizing the viewer from clicking on the link. It will be my goal to send links only to those defining debates which you feel will justify your time and attention. I hope you will consider visiting some of these links and sending me your feedback throughout session.

I would also appreciate your suggestions about other ways I can use these services during the upcoming session. On Twitter I am @JWMurphey and you can also locate me at Facebook.com/JasonMurphey.

Agency Consolidation

2011-01-10T09:28:00.000-08:00

Last month, the Government Modernization Committee conducted an interim study to analyze the possible benefits of consolidating some of Oklahoma’s central service agencies. Central service agencies are the state agencies which provide services to other Oklahoma state agencies.

These agencies include:

The Department of Central Services (DCS) provides state agencies with purchasing assistance, fleet management, facilities management and printing services.

The Office of State Finance (OSF) accommodates the needs of agencies through the provisioning of shared financial, information technology and human resource services, including the hosting, development and support of the state’s enterprise software systems.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) provides agencies with shared human resource and financial services.

The Employees Benefits Council (EBC) manages Oklahoma’s state employee benefits on behalf of state agencies.

The Merit Protection Commission assists agencies and state employees with human resource issues.

The Oklahoma State Employee Education and Group Insurance Board (OSEEGIB) manages the state’s self-funded preferred provider organization insurance plan on behalf of state, education and local government employees.

The Archives and Records Commission and the Department of Libraries are responsible for the proper disposition of state agency records.

Consolidating some or all of these agencies would present state policy leaders with the opportunity to realize greater efficiency and cost savings through the streamlining of services.

Currently, state employees must access multiple bureaucracies in order to take advantage of a state shared service. For instance, when a state purchasing officer wishes to order a technology item, he/she must receive approval or assistance from both the Office of State Finance and the Department of Central Services. A consolidated central services agency would mean that procurement officers would only be required to deal with one other bureaucracy.

In some cases, it may be hard for a state agency director to decide which shared service to use. For instance, the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of State Finance provide almost identical shared financial services -- and agencies are then forced to choose which agency to use. This is not an easy task because there does not appear to be a set of performance metrics by which state agencies can gauge which of the central services agencies provides the most efficient shared service.

Clearly there is room for improvement when state employees are required to deal with multiple state bureaucracies in order to accomplish a single necessary task. We should all be able to agree that it is not a best governance practice for Oklahoma’s central service agencies to provide duplicative services to state agencies. Certainly this level of red tape slows down the ability of the state employee to quickly provide services to Oklahoma taxpayers.

A major benefit from consolidating shared services agencies would be the huge savings from the reduction of overhead and administrative costs. Our study detailed a possible savings of $10 M per year if the consolidation resulted in a reduction of just 20% of appropriated dollars.

It is my belief that this proposed plan for consolidation will receive serious consideration from the Oklahoma Legislature during the upcoming legislative session.

Making Needed Changes

2011-01-03T00:27:00.000-08:00

In last week’s article I wrote about the 1995 report which had been commissioned by then Governor Frank Keating. The Keating report was entitled, “A Government As Good As Our People,” and analyzed some of the challenges to holding Oklahoma state government accountable.

The report was produced by the Commission of Government Performance which was comprised of business and community leaders from across Oklahoma working with a team of 50 state employees.

As you will recall from last week’s article, I describe how the findings in the report appeared to be mostly ignored by Oklahoma lawmakers at the time.

The subject matter of last week’s article focused on those findings with the state’s governance structure and the need to downsize the number of agencies, boards and commissions (ABCs). I also wrote about the report’s suggestion that we empower the Governor and also the people of Oklahoma to hold unresponsive and inefficient agency leaders to account.

There were a number of other findings in the report which I found to be of interest.

For example, the 5.3 billion dollars of unfunded retirement system liabilities were an area of serious concern brought out by the authors of the report. The report advised Oklahoma policy makers to take immediate steps to address the unfunded liability problem. That advice simply was not heeded! In just the teachers’ retirement system alone, the state is liable for over 10 billion dollars of unfunded obligation today. I cannot begin to comprehend how the policy makers of 15 years ago could ignore these findings and not reform Oklahoma’s retirement systems.

Instead of taking action, Oklahoma politicians continued to raise retirement benefits without finding a way to make up for the unfunded liabilities.

Finding a remedy for these liabilities is a task we can accomplish by immediately transferring all pre-vested state and education employees who participate in the state’s two largest retirement funds into a defined-contribution retirement system. In order to meet the legacy unfunded liabilities handed down to us by generations of irresponsible politicians, we must sell non-essential state assets and properly fund our obligations to current retirees. This strategy will ensure that the liabilities are met and will get politicians out of the business of the retirement system.

Another recommendation of the report which I found interesting was the suggestion that Oklahoma should consolidate its state government IT operations under unified oversight and management.

This suggestion was also not heeded by legislators and for years, millions of dollars of uncoordinated spend went through Oklahoma’s many agency level IT departments.

Readers of past updates will recall the tremendous commitment for legislative leaders to finally accomplish this task during the 2009 legislative session. As a result, Oklahoma became one of the last states to design a state Chief Information Officer’s position with the power to conduct long term IT planning.

The impact of this reform could be felt as soon as this budget year as the state CIO prepares to release a report demonstrating millions of dollars of savings through a consolidated state IT operation.

Had the report’s suggestion been followed fifteen years ago, millions of dollars would have been saved because the state could have conducted a cohesive IT approach as new technologies evolved.

It is now our job as legislators to adopt more of these types of common sense reforms and stop playing the political games which have caused so much unnecessary cost to Oklahoma taxpayers.

Better Late Than Never

2010-12-27T09:40:00.000-08:00

Last month the House of Representative’s Government Modernization Committee conducted a study to examine cost savings and efficiencies which could occur as a result of consolidating state agencies. As part of that study, we heard testimony about the unusually high number of agencies, boards and commissions (ABCs) which are a component of Oklahoma state government.

One of the reports stated that as of 2007, Oklahoma had about 520 ABCs. The report referenced a 1995 study which was commissioned by Governor Frank Keating. The 1995 study stated that Oklahoma had over 360 ABCs at that time and indicated that this diversified approach to governance made it difficult to manage related functions, and impossible to hold someone accountable for minimal results.

The Keating report was produced by a Commission of Government Performance. The Commission was comprised of business and community leaders from across the state working with a team of 50 state employees.

The Commission pointed to Oklahoma’s weak gubernatorial powers as a reason for the inefficiency of state government processes. With power spread across so many different ABCs, Oklahoma’s Governor simply isn’t empowered to make state government more accountable. By proxy, this means that Oklahomans do not have a method to hold government accountable and make it more efficient.

The report stated that other studies going back as far as 1928 have found that Oklahoma government could be more effective if the chief executive officer were given more authority to change state government. The Keating report described the current situation as a situation where the chief executive officer could call a meeting and the managers of state did not have to attend. The report opined that this is no way to run such a large enterprise.

The Commission detailed that this fragmented organization process produces a clear lack of line of authority and an “unresponsive, duplicative and costly state government.”

Unfortunately, the Keating report was ignored by Oklahoma lawmakers. Today, instead of shrinking in size, Oklahoma government is much larger than before and the Governor does not appear to have been empowered to effect change.

Due to the budget downturn and the recent changes in many of the statewide elected office positions, I believe we will have an opportunity to incorporate some of the suggested reforms this year. We must finally start to reduce the number of Oklahoma agencies, boards and commissions and we should also empower the Governor with the ability to remove members of boards and commissions.

This will finally give Oklahomans the opportunity to start downsizing state government. If these changes are accepted, when we vote for the position of Governor in the future, we will be voting for a chief executive officer who will have the ability to require Oklahoma government to use our taxpayer dollars wiser and more efficiently.

The report’s suggestions should have been followed 15 years ago. I do believe in the “better late than never” adage, and feel we should incorporate these ideas for reform as soon as possible.

2010-12-19T15:06:00.001-08:00

Murphey Update - Open Record and Meeting Law for the Legislature http://bit.ly/h7pwfW

Open Record and Meeting Law for the Legislature

2010-12-19T14:55:00.000-08:00

This past week presented the first of a series of legislative deadlines which legislators met in order to propose and advance legislation for the upcoming session. Lawmakers were required to meet a December 10 deadline when they were required to submit the first request for registering possible legislation for the 2011 session.

Throughout the year I am asked to propose any number of ideas. These requests range from those proposed by constituents who contact my office regarding a needed change in the law which directly affects them to suggested changes in the law to allow for more efficiency and transparency in Oklahoma government.

I document these suggestions when I receive them and before the first submission deadline, I begin the process of reviewing this documentation. It is my task to select from the list of possible legislation so that it comes as close as possible to meeting the rules which limit the number of bills which a Representative is allowed to sponsor.

It is my practice to see that my legislative proposals include a balance of constituent ideas and aggressive attempts to enact significant reforms and government modernization proposals which I need to sponsor as Chair of the House Government Modernization, Accountability and Transparency Committee.

I feel this balance is important because it ensures that I represent the voice of my constituents, advance new ideas for reform, while also passing legislation which makes government more accountable. This strategy has allowed me to win approval for a series of reform minded legislation in the past few years while also introducing aggressive new reform concepts which I believe will be eventually approved by the Legislature.

One of the bills I intend to sponsor and which I believe will have a significant impact on making Oklahoma government more responsible to the citizens is a proposal to require that the Oklahoma Legislature comply with Oklahoma's open record and open meeting laws.

These two very important laws require Oklahoma governing bodies to conduct business according to a set of rules which are designed to ensure your right as a citizen to know that what happens in government is upheld. However, the Legislature is exempted from these laws. In my view this is wrong, and I believe the Legislature should abide by the same laws they ask other Oklahoma governing bodies to abide by.

This is not a ground-breaking proposal. Other state governments already require that their legislative bodies follow their respective state’s open record and open meeting laws.

One of the most important aspects of this law would be the cessation of legislative caucuses discussing issues behind closed doors. An important principle of open meeting laws is the concept which dictates that a majority of a governing body should never meet behind closed doors to discuss business. This concept helps keep policy makers from taking a public stand which is different from the position taken in private.

An open records law would also establish a clear set of criteria which would govern which legislative records should be kept private and which should be made public.

I know that passing this particular proposal will be a difficult challenge, but I am convinced that it is the right thing to do.

2010-12-13T11:08:00.001-08:00

Murphey Weekly Update - Getting Specific http://bit.ly/gy1Bf0

Getting Specific

2010-12-13T11:00:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite stories about Oklahoma history involves the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention which met in Guthrie and the development of the preamble to the Oklahoma Constitution.

You may recall that the preamble reads as follows: “Invoking the guidance of Almighty God, in order to secure and perpetuate the blessing of liberty; to secure just and rightful government; to promote our mutual welfare and happiness, we, the people of the State of Oklahoma, do ordain and establish this Constitution.”

The initial drafting of the preamble was assigned to a committee of the convention. That committee created a first draft which initially referred to God only as “the Supreme Ruler of the Universe."

The draft was met with opposition and the members of the committee were asked if their mothers had taught them to pray to “the Supreme Ruler of the Universe.”

The chair of the convention strongly insisted that the delegates could not leave “God” out of the constitution and the next day he introduced a substitute which included the words “Almighty God” -- which we use as our constitutional preamble to this day.

The founders of our state wanted very specifically to acknowledge the existence of God and our need for His guidance.

This specificity was also reflected in our nation’s Declaration of Independence when our founding fathers declared that our rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness come from our Creator and it is the responsibility of government to preserve these rights. By acknowledging God’s existence and attributing our unalienable rights to His providence, our founding fathers were memorializing an important definition of the true purpose of government which we acknowledge to this day.

I was reminded of this story after a recent meeting of Republican legislators where the attendees were asked to develop a document declaring the principles by which Republican House members will govern during the upcoming year.

Republican legislators had a choice to make. They could have expressed support for traditional values by making a generic statement to this effect. This approach would provide values voters with the comfort of a token gesture -- and is all too often the "safe" approach to take because it provides acknowledgment of important principles while not running the risk of offending those who are embarrassed by the faith-based principles with which Oklahoma has been so identified.

However, rather than providing this level of token support, Republican policy makers chose to amend their platform to include a much more specific statement which affirmed that we will support policies which defend Judeo-Christian values.

This action made the clear statement that we know this specific values framework is the basis for our legal system and we are not afraid of pointing to the importance of recognizing and preserving this values system.

This specificity was copied throughout the Republican Representatives’ policy document as the attendees took clear stands on a number of issues which are important to Oklahomans.

I certainly appreciated this, as all too often politicians are not courageous enough to take clear stands on the issues of today. Even if all voters do not agree on every one of these specific topics, I believe that citizens do appreciate when political leaders have the courage to take a clear stand and stop playing the tired political game of making token vague and general statements on issues of importance to Oklahomans.

2010-12-12T15:27:00.001-08:00

The Oklahoma Integrated Justice Information Systems Steering Committee agenda for Tuesday morning - http://bit.ly/gLo9ZE

2010-12-05T17:07:00.001-08:00

Here is a link to the consolidation of state central services study which was presented to gov mod on Friday. http://bit.ly/hWEAgE #oktcot

2010-12-05T16:58:00.001-08:00

One of the studies presented at this week's mod study was this one from 2007 about the power of OK's Governor. http://bit.ly/gmPGOS

2010-12-05T16:52:00.001-08:00

Murphey Update - Our Opportunity - http://bit.ly/eIqfWn

Our Opportunity

2010-12-05T16:47:00.000-08:00

This next legislative session will represent the first session during which Republicans will have control of both the legislative and executive branches of state government. As you might imagine this has raised the expectations of Oklahoma conservatives who desire the reform of state government.

In the past, even though Republicans controlled the Legislature, the Democrats remained in charge of the executive branch and that fact was used as a crutch that was baked into time-delaying processes utilized by Republican legislators who were less inclined to aggressively advocate for needed reforms.

For instance, reform legislation could be held up in committee with the argument that the governor would veto it and it would be wrong to make Republicans take a tough vote on it.

In a more complex example, Republican legislators were placed under heavy pressure to agree to fee and tax increases because the agreement had been negotiated with the Democrats in the executive branch. We were told that we risked a special legislative session if we did not vote for these increases and honor the agreement which had been negotiated. We were also told that a special session would risk exposing Republicans to defeat at the polls.

I never thought my vote should be influenced by the fact that our legislative leaders had negotiated a deal with the Democrats, or theoretical political ramifications, so I voted my conscience and did not play the political game. I figured that if enough of us voted according to the principles we campaigned on and actually defeated the government-expanding compromise agreement, the Democrats would be forced to deal with the political reality that Oklahoma's conservative populace demanded true reforms.

In my view, those compromises thwarted that day of reckoning, and to this day many of the needed institutional transforming reforms of state government have never taken place.

However, I do understand why so many of my Republican colleagues accepted this pragmatism and don’t hold it against them for buying into the status-quo arguments. After all, they were basically being told that we had to agree to hold our noses and vote for the status-quo so that Republicans could be elected to office and then we could reverse the fee increases and institute true reform. Well, that time is now! With a solid Republican majority in the Oklahoma House and Senate and a Republican in the governor’s office, there are no more excuses for not doing the right thing.

This is the time when we will see if the story that we were being told at that time was true.

It is my hope that we will be able to aggressively seek to bring reform to those state government processes into which generations of Democrat office holders have allowed so many inefficiencies and waste to accumulate.

I certainly intend to keep you informed as to whether or not this is the case as this year’s session gets underway.

2010-12-01T16:49:00.001-08:00

Murphey to Lead New Modernization Effort http://bit.ly/f6D2kK

2010-11-29T13:07:00.001-08:00

This study jumpstarted the Oklahoma House of Reps Modernization effort. Oklahoma Has Too Many State Agencies http://bit.ly/elcV6s

2010-11-27T11:39:00.001-08:00

Murphey Legislative Update: Are Traditional Values a Frivolous Distraction? http://bit.ly/hBVMd4

Are Traditional Values a Frivolous Distraction?

2010-11-27T11:21:00.000-08:00

In last week’s article I commented on the fact that this is the time of year when policy is already starting to be established for the upcoming session of the Oklahoma Legislature.

I noted that the important issue of property tax reform is set to be discussed as Representative David Dank has once again filed the property tax reform proposal. I also pointed to the encouraging sign that perhaps important legislative process reforms will be initiated following the convening of a task force by House Speaker-elect Kris Steele for that purpose.

I view these as positive first signs and I enjoy writing about them because it is has been my intent to use these articles to provide a special emphasis on positive news as a counter to all of the discouraging news we hear about in politics these days.

However, I feel an obligation to communicate all of the facts both good and bad and a Thanksgiving day news article about this year’s upcoming legislation destroyed some of this optimism and started a firestorm within the House Republican caucus. The article indicated that Steele and other Republican leaders want to place an emphasis on economic issues while reducing focus from frivolous distractions such as the defense of traditional values, immigration reform, second amendment issues, and presumably the related states’ rights legislation. Since when have Republicans considered traditional values issues to be frivolous?

Until now, this type of rhetoric has been used by the Democrats to demonize traditional values legislation and the courageous legislators who advanced it. To have this attitude now being seemingly being endorsed by our own Speaker of the House is devastating.

A follow-up article indicated that one of the issues on which Steele does want us to focus is his proposal to allow government entities to regulate smoking within privately owned businesses. Very few voters voted for the Republicans in order to empower Republicans to allow government to get bigger. It was a shock to realize that our leadership would seem to suggest that we should not focus on the issues which have defined our party but instead should consider allowing government regulation to expand.

Republicans were elected to head up both the legislative and executive branches of state government for first time in state history because the people of Oklahoma desperately want state government to stand up to the federal government. Oklahomans want us to assert our rights under the tenth amendment, stop the insanity being propagated in Washington DC, roll back mountains of government waste and inefficiencies which generations of Democrat office holders allowed to become institutions of state government and which are costing Oklahoma taxpayers so much money in waste, shrink the state tax code so that Oklahoma can compete with states who do not have an income tax for economic growth, defend against the assault on the traditional values which have made our nation great, and remove the government regulations which have built up over the years against our important freedoms such as our second amendment rights.

Along with Oklahomans, I maintain that these issues are not frivolous distractions. Rather, they are the core principles which resulted in Republicans being elected to office. It appears these principles are now under an all-out assault and in the next few months it will be our responsibility as officer holders to stand up and defend them despite efforts by our leadership to do otherwise.

This will be a fight to preserve honestly and integrity. Nearly every Republican campaigned for office on these principles (especially those who represent rural areas where traditional values are extremely important). It is shocking to think that once elected, Republican office holders would break their word and abandon the principles espoused in their campaign materials simply because the powerful special interests in Oklahoma City view them as embarrassing frivolous distractions.

Next week I will provide some insights as to why conservative office holders are especially frustrated by this turn of events.

2010-11-21T18:59:00.001-08:00

Murphey Update - Changes in Oklahoma Government - http://bit.ly/diIgnG

Changes in Oklahoma Government

2010-11-21T18:52:00.000-08:00

Last week the new members of the Oklahoma Legislature took their oath of office. This action officially commenced the term of the 53rd Legislature which will last for the next two years.

Unlike Congress, the Oklahoma legislature does not have much opportunity to conduct business as a lame duck legislature. The new legislators are taking office just two weeks after being elected.

This sets in motion a series of legislative deadlines as in the upcoming few weeks legislation will be filed, new leadership teams will be appointed, the committee structure will be reviewed and new committee chairmen and vice-chairman will assume their new roles.

Compounding this level of rapidly occurring change is the fact that not only will new leadership teams take office in both the House and Senate due to the term limits of the House Speaker and Senate Speaker Pro-Temp but almost all statewide officials will leave office and, as of January 10th, a new team of statewide elected officials will start their terms.

These new officials are now seeking to establish their team of employees. This has created a talent vacuum as many of the individuals who will influence the shaping and implementation of policy are are now being retained by the new state officials and legislative leaders.

The newly elected officials are now making some of the most important decisions that they will ever make because the quality of their service will be extremely dependent on the work of the people whom they choose to operate their offices.

This presents opportunities for those who have worked hard over the past few years and have developed a reputation for having conservative values, interacting well with the public and being dependable and efficient. Their services are now in high demand. As an example, one of my former legislative assistants received three invitations to apply for work with a new office holder in just the last few days alone.

The first new policy proposals are also starting to take shape. Last week, House of Representatives Speaker-elect Kris Steele commissioned a committee to consider reforms in the legislative process with a goal of enhancing legislative transparency. Two of these possible reforms will include the requirement for House conference committees to meet in public before approving legislation and eliminating the loophole by which legislation presented to the House in the last two days of the legislative session does not have to be posted to public purview for a certain amount of time prior to consideration by the House.

You may recall my past updates in which I described how a substantial amount of legislation is presented in these last two days which greatly leads to the opportunity for changes to be placed into law without the ability of legislators or the public to know or understand the impact of the change.

These reforms, if enacted, will go a long way in making the legislative process more transparent and would continue a series of recent reforms which is transforming the legislative process to being much more open.

Property tax reform is one of the most demanded reforms by House District 31 constituents. Representative David Dank has already filed HJR 1001 and HJR 1002 which once again seek to implement property tax reform.

This is also the time when new legislative office assignments occur and as an item of note my office will be moving from office number 400B to office number 437 starting as of this week. Please direct all future written correspondence to Office 437, 2300 North Lincoln Blvd., Oklahoma City, 73105.

2010-11-19T15:22:00.001-08:00

Speaker-elect Steele Names Working Group to Reform House Rules http://ping.fm/qRMqe

2010-11-15T14:53:00.001-08:00

Murphey Update - Defending an Important Principle http://bit.ly/ccwPa5

Defending an Important Principle

2010-11-15T11:31:00.000-08:00

The events of the most recent election cycle have reminded me of the importance of what I believe to be one of the important governing principles established by our nation’s and state’s founding fathers.

When I sought election to office in 2006, one of the key components of my message to prospective voters was my opposition to efforts in the Legislature to increase State Representatives’ term of office to four years.

Currently, Oklahoma Representatives serve for two-year terms. I have observed that this makes the House of Representatives very responsive to the values of the people of Oklahoma. Each Representative must treat his constituents’ concerns with respect because the Representative knows he will be subject to a vote within a 24-month time period.

I also believe this is the reason that the House is likely to be the branch of the Legislature to generate new ideas for reform. Being forced to campaign for re-election every two years means the Representatives must talk to their constituents and listen to the latest ideas for change. This means that the House is more likely to sponsor these new ideas sooner rather than later.

The concept that the lower House of the Legislature (in this case, the House of Representatives) should be the closest to the people dates back many years and can be tied to the British governing principle where the lower House is known as the House of Commons and represents the values of regular citizens.

This important principle was copied by our nation’s founding fathers when they designed the lower House of the American Congress to be subject to re-election every two years. The writer of the 55th Federalist Paper (either Alexander Hamilton or James Madison) opined that it would be difficult for a member of the House of Representatives to dare to betray the trust committed to him by the voters within the short span of two years.

This policy was subsequently copied by our state’s founding fathers when they determined that members of the Oklahoma House of Representatives should stand for re-election every two years.

Also, much the same as our federal Congress, the Oklahoma Senate was designed to have longer serving terms because this policy insulates Senators from the sentiment of the moment and provides that they can afford to be a more deliberative legislative body.

The recent election cycle is a fantastic demonstration of the wisdom of our founding fathers. A historic number of Representatives were defeated this year because all the members of the federal House of Representatives were subject to re-election and because there was a significant consensus that Congress was not representing the values of the people. The Senate did not experience this same changeover because only a third of the Senators were eligible for re-election. Should Congress continue to not represent the values of the people, it is very likely that the leadership of the Senate will also change in upcoming years.

This is just one of many important and time tested principles that have been handed down to us through the years. Defending the application of this wise principle to Oklahoma governance became an important part of my desire to seek office in 2006. I am glad to report that after that election, efforts to change the terms of office of Oklahoma Representatives were abandoned. I believe this was in part because of the strong message sent by local voters.

2010-11-11T09:58:00.001-08:00

This is a fantastic Oklahoma open data GIS resource. http://bit.ly/dD7Qtg

2010-11-07T20:23:00.001-08:00

Murphey Update - Working with House Speaker Chris Benge http://bit.ly/denUbW

Working with House Speaker Chris Benge

2010-11-07T20:09:00.000-08:00

Last week the House of Representatives’ Republican caucus met for the first time since the recent election to elect new officers and prepare for the upcoming legislative session. The 70 person caucus contains members from every part of Oklahoma, including districts which have never before elected Republican representatives.

Since the next Legislature will take office next week, a number of the colleagues with whom I have worked in the past few years will be leaving the Legislature, including House Speaker Chris Benge who is term limited.

I have enjoyed the opportunity to work with Speaker Benge. I have found him to be one of the most honorable legislators. He was not one of the legislators who would play the political games which all too many politicians play. He treated legislators with respect. If he told us that he would support our idea then that is what he would do. If he opposed your idea then he was strong enough to accept responsibility for opposing it. I observed that he was not one of the politicians who would pass the buck by making it appear as if he were for your issue while secretly having it killed.

Benge placed a high priority on fiscal responsibility issues. His desire to guard the taxpayer dollar meant that he was extremely supportive of ideas for cutting government spending. He maintained that support even when our ideas came under heavy attack from those seeking to maintain the status-quo.

Benge’s support was extremely vital at the end of the 2009 legislative session when members of the opposition party launched a very aggressive attack against our effort to save millions of taxpayer dollars through streamlining the State’s IT infrastructure. Under Benge’s leadership the House passed the measure. The savings from this proposal are now set to come online at a time when state policy leaders will be required to cut millions of dollars of state spending.

I enjoy the opportunity to watch governance systems and learn from the mistakes and successes of policy leaders. I very much benefited from observing the system Benge used to develop and implement policy. Using the infrastructure put in place by previous House Speaker Lance Cargill, Benge utilized the talents of a team of energetic and intelligent policy professionals to maintain a communication pipeline with legislators, issue stakeholders, state officials and the office of the Speaker. This provided an efficient method for the dissemination of the enormous amounts of information that must be processed for the development and advancement of policy. It would have been easy for Benge to tear down his predecessor's infrastructure but instead he took advantage of it and used it in what I believe to be an effective manner.

One of Benge’s best long-term legacies will result from his courageous decision to allow the video broadcast of House proceedings. Because these feeds are archived, indexed and linkable they will greatly enable the citizens of Oklahoma to examine legislative actions for many years to come.

I developed the most respect for Speaker Benge in those times that I opposed his policies. It can be considered a risky event for a representative to vote against his own party’s Speaker’s legislation. However, I did this several times and was on more than one occasion one of just a very few representatives to do so. However, I never experienced retaliation for these votes and was never pressured to change my vote.

I am honored to have been able to work under the leadership of Speaker Benge and appreciate being able to learn from his example.

2010-11-02T18:00:00.001-07:00

Logan County Assessor. 22 of 23 precincts - Hampton: 8250 Votes for 0.66% Gooch: 4231 Votes for 0.34%

2010-11-02T17:56:00.001-07:00

Logan County District 1 Commissioner. All precincts - Sharpton: 4181 Votes for 0.75% Evans: 1374 Votes for 0.25%

2010-11-02T08:49:00.001-07:00

Edmond Sun (@edmondsun) - Local reps look at Indiana health bill - http://bit.ly/8XZMkS

Setting the Record Straight about SQ 754

2010-11-01T09:58:00.000-07:00

During the past few days I have received several questions from those who are worried about the possible implications of voting for State Question 754. They are worried because of this statement which has been appended to the question’s ballot title: “Thus, under the measure, once adopted, the measure could not be effectively amended. Nor could it be repealed.”

This is understandably a reason for concern because no one wants to vote for something which cannot be amended. However, the statement that it cannot be amended is completely false. The bill states that provisions of the Constitution cannot force the Legislature to appropriate money by a pre-determined formula such as the one proposed by State Question 744 (the effort to force the Legislature to appropriate common education funds based on the way other states appropriate education funds). However, nothing in the bill prevents the people of Oklahoma from amending this section of the Constitution in the future.

The Attorney General has the power to change the way the ballot title reads before it is submitted to a vote of the people and this ballot title was changed by the Attorney General’s office. This is an extremely important responsibility because very few people ever read the bill and will be completely dependant on the ballot title to give them a proper perspective of the Constitutional change.

Here is the ballot title for SQ 754 as approved by the Legislature. This is the version most people will never see:

“This measure amends the Oklahoma Constitution. It would add a new Section 55A to Article 5. It relates to the state budget. It relates to the ability of the Legislature to spend money each year. It would allow the Legislature to make decisions about the state budget. The Legislature would be able to decide how much money to spend each year. The Legislature would not be required to spend a certain amount of money for any one government service or function. If this amendment is adopted, the Oklahoma Constitution could not require the Legislature to do this. If this amendment is adopted, the Oklahoma Constitution could not require the Legislature to make spending decisions based on how much money any other state spent.”

Here is the title as re-written by the Attorney General:

“This measure adds a new section to the Oklahoma Constitution. It adds Section 55A to Article 5. The Legislature designates amounts of money to be used for certain functions. These designations are called appropriations. The measure deals with the appropriation process. The measure limits how the Constitution could control that process. Under the measure the Constitution could not require the Legislature to fund state functions based on:

1. Predetermined constitutional formulas, 2. How much other states spend on a function, 3. How much any entity spends on a function.

Under the measure, these limits on the Constitution's power to control appropriations would apply even if: 1. A later constitutional amendment changed the Constitution, or 2. A constitutional amendment to the contrary was passed at the same time as this measure.

Thus, under the measure, once adopted, the measure could not be effectively amended. Nor could it be repealed.”

It’s important to reiterate that nothing in the bill prevents the people of Oklahoma from voting to repeal or amending Section 55A of the Constitution. You can see for yourself by reading the actual bill (http://bit.ly/cHbyGG).

2010-10-24T15:44:00.001-07:00

Murphey Update - Tired of Negative Political Attacks http://bit.ly/deyvb8

Tired of Negative Political Attacks

2010-10-24T15:36:00.000-07:00

This is the time of the year where the political candidates who are trailing their opponents in the polls realize that unless they start producing negative campaign pieces then they will probably lose in the upcoming election.

I don’t enjoy watching these commercials, especially when the person being attacked is someone I know and respect and when I know, based on my experience as a Legislator, that the subject matter being used in the attack is very much targeted in a dishonest and deceptive manner.

I have seen my share of inappropriate and disgusting political attacks over the years but one of the most deceptive and disingenuous commercials that I have ever seen have been those targeting State Senator Todd Lamb. Lamb is campaigning for Lieutenant Governor and has been polling ahead of his opponent. I have served with Senator Lamb as a fellow member of Edmond’s legislative delegation and have always been impressed with his character which is a sentiment that I believe is shared by his colleagues of both parties with whom he has worked with in the Legislature.

A few days ago, Lamb’s opponent started running a set of incredibly deceptive commercials that are a direct assault on Lamb’s character. The commercials fault Lamb for his conference committee vote for a bill which put into law a process enabling for the transition of the state Medical Examiner’s office to another location.

A majority of Legislators, including Lamb’s opponent, also voted for the bill because they had no reason to believe that there was anything unusual about the legislation. After the Legislature adjourned there were some questions raised about the individual who might have been placed in charge of the transition. These questions are being looked into by the appropriate authorities but no language designating the identity of the transition coordinator was in the bill and legislators had little way of knowing any of these details at the time of their vote.

Lamb’s opponent has tried to construe Lamb’s vote to make it appear as if Lamb was a participant in trying to do something inappropriate. Lamb’s opponent does not reveal that he also voted for this same bill and he does not tell the public that any impropriety tied to this matter was not in the bill and legislators would have not had any way of knowing of any proposed impropriety.

Also, coming under heavy attack from a desperate opponent is former House District 31 resident Janet Barresi who is campaigning for State Superintendent of Education. Barresi has been a leader in the effort to provide educational opportunities to Oklahoma students and in that role has served as an appointee of the House of Representatives as the Chair of the Achieving Classroom Excellence (ACE) task force. Based on my familiarity with the issues, I believe the commercials targeting Mrs. Barresi’s efforts to better education have been very unfair.

Probably the most ironic and out-of-touch attack took place just two days after the House Government Modernization Committee heard testimony demonstrating the potential savings to the taxpayers through the implementation of the state’s IT consolidation effort. The opponent of State Representative Jason Nelson mailed a mailer attacking Nelson for supporting the consolidation proposal on the grounds that it “grew government”. The bill actually cuts millions of dollars from the state budget and was one of the rare proposals brought before the legislature which was designed to very much shrink the size of government.

I believe deceptive attacks like these are an admission by the attackers that they have little reason to give the people for voting for them and that they are willing to engage in dirty politics to achieve power.

2010-10-22T10:39:00.001-07:00

Study Finds Oklahoma IT Consolidation Reforms On Track http://bit.ly/aY6lp5 #oktcot #gov20

Study Finds Modernization Reforms On Track

2010-10-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

Study Finds Modernization Reforms On Track

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: State Rep. Jason Murphey State Rep. David Derby
Capitol: (405) 557-7350 Capitol: (405) 557-7377

OKLAHOMA CITY – State and local governments are set to save $21 million each year due to purchasing reforms enacted in recent years by the Legislature and is on track to achieve further savings through consolidated information technology services and financial shared services, House committee members were told today.
Randy Ross, the deputy director at the Department of Central Services testifying at a legislative study before the House Government Modernization committee today, said the agency is continuing to negotiate new contracts for commodities utilized by state and local agencies. He said state agencies are projected to save approximately $13 million and local entities projected to save nearly $8 million. The agency is expected to document total savings in January.
“Central purchasing reforms have helped provide millions of dollars in relief to state and local government budgets as their revenues decline,” said state Rep. Jason Murphey, R-Guthrie and chairman of the committee. “We expect to see further savings from current IT consolidation efforts and financial saved services and were encouraged today to hear that those efforts are being implemented at a breakneck pace.”
The committee also heard testimony that recent legislative reforms are allowing state officials to re-negotiate contracts with vendors who are no longer providing products at a price which is competitive with commonly available peer products.
Chief Information Officer Alex Pettit and a representative of Capgemini told the committee that the data-collection phase of the IT consolidation effort is underway, with surveys sent out to agencies last week and an automated scan of seven agencies already completed. The final report of the IT consolidation plan is scheduled to be completed Feb. 28, 2011. A rough draft will be available by mid-December of this year.
“The CIO has already identified a need for technology standardization among agencies, a problem with document compatibility and a lack of communication between the IT personnel of various agencies,” Murphey said. “I have been very impressed with the speed of this consolidation effort.”
State Rep. David Derby, vice-chairman of the committee, sponsored the IT consolidation initiative as part of House Bill 1170 during the 2009 legislative session and plans to file follow-up legislation during the 2011 to incorporate any additional reforms suggested in the plan.
“The state stands to save millions through the consolidation of services in a massive area of state spending,” Derby, R-Owasso, said. “It is critical that the Legislature implement the plan’s suggestions after they are made available in February.”
The committee also heard from Brenda Bolander with the Office of State Finance, who said 95 agencies, representing 99 percent of travel claims, were using the newly implemented electronic payment system for travel expenses. She also noted that 20 percent of interagency payments were now made electronically. She said that OSF plans to implement an online system for submitting travel claims and grant provisioning. A Hackett Group report showed that Oklahoma needed to make more of its financial processing electronic.
OSF Director of Operations Jim McGoodwin reported that 22 agencies were not yet in compliance with a 2010 law requiring licensing to be available online. The number represents approximately one-third of agencies which must comply with the law.
“While there are some excellent examples of state agency online licensing offerings, it is very disturbing that this many agencies appear to be ignoring the law,” Murphey said.
“The Oklahoma Office of State Finance, Department of Central Services and Chief Information Office are experts in their areas,” Murphey said. “As state agencies increasingly delegate purchasing, information technology and financial services to these support agencies, they will be better able to focus on their own respective missions.”
The study also examined the use of videoconferenceing to reduce travel costs and heard from representatives of Oklahomans for Responsible Government and the Oklahoma Council on Public Affairs and received testimony from the Oklahoma Healthcare Authority regarding the possible realization of savings through the implementation of a telework pilot program for state employees.

2010-10-22T07:57:00.001-07:00

Newsok: One third of Oklahoma state agencies not yet offering online licenses http://bit.ly/acjL7o #gov20 #oktcot

2010-10-20T17:09:00.001-07:00

ASPHALT RESURFACING PLANNED FOR SIMMONS ROAD IN LOGAN COUNTY @marksharpton http://bit.ly/cYcG9

2010-10-18T11:03:00.001-07:00

Consolidation of Oklahoma's State Government IT Systems http://bit.ly/9g6aZq

Consolidation of Oklahoma's State Government IT Systems

2010-10-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

This week the House of Representative’s Government Modernization Committee will conduct two interim studies designed to analyze the progress of the ongoing modernization reform initiatives and explore the possibility of implementing a new series of transparency and cost saving reforms.

The savings from the Legislature’s modernization efforts of the past two years are starting to come online at a time when state government will be required to once again greatly reduce the size of the state budget.

Recent state budgets have been propped up by stimulus funds, rainy day fund expenditures, and a crazy accounting gimmick which placed state government in debt to the oil and gas industry.

The time for state government to cut its budget is now as the rainy day funds are starting to become depleted and the federal government will likely start to retreat from its unwise policy of issuing so much new debt.

One of the key modernization reforms taken by the Legislature and the Governor was the enactment of House Bill 1170 in 2009. The proposal was sponsored by Representative David Derby who serves as the Vice-Chair of the Modernization Committee and was designed to cut cost by implementing an enterprise-wide IT strategy for Oklahoma State Government. Each year these technology expenditures account for many millions of dollars of state spending. This spending is all too often fragmented among state agencies which leads to wasteful spending practices, missed saving initiatives, lack of an enterprise-wide long term IT vision and failure to provide for an across-the-board security strategy to protect the taxpayers’ personal information.

House Bill 1170 was approved because of the tremendous commitment of both House Speaker Chris Benge and Senate Speaker Pro-Temp Glen Coffee. The plan was also supported by Governor Henry who courageously signed the bill even though every single member of his party voted against it in the Legislature.

At that time, those of us in the Legislature who supported this cost-cutting effort, pointed to the time when the stimulus funds would be gone and state government would have to cut costs as a reason for why it was important for us to approve the bill as soon as possible.

Now, some of the provisions of this law are starting to go into effect just in time for the government financial shortfall. Early next year, Oklahoma’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) is scheduled to present the IT consolidation plan which is mandated by law to reduce state IT spending by at least 15%.

Our interim study will provide the opportunity to review the ongoing progress of this reform and prepare for additional legislation which may be needed to implement the components of the CIOs plan.

2010-10-15T13:47:00.001-07:00

Study finds information sharing crucial to health care http://bit.ly/9WTfOI

STUDY FINDS INFORMATION SHARING CRUCIAL TO HEALTH CARE

2010-10-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

Contact: State Rep. Seneca Scott
Capitol: (405) 557-7391

Contact: State Rep. Jason Murphey
Capitol: (405) 557-7350

OKLAHOMA CITY (October 13, 2010) – Despite high quality doctors and hospitals, Oklahoma ranks almost dead last in health outcomes. This is due in part to inefficiencies in data sharing and coordination, according to Dr. David Kendrick, Greater Tulsa Health Access Network founder and managing coordinator.

Kendrick spoke at a legislative study to examine the feasibility of a collaborative information technology health care model. The Greater Tulsa Health Access Network covers 11 counties in northeastern Oklahoma and is working to increase data sharing to reduce duplication in care and cost per patient. The study was requested by state Reps. Seneca Scott and Jason Murphey

“Access to health care in Oklahoma is a serious problem that could be improved through greater efficiency in our health care system, particularly in the area of information sharing,” Scott, D-Tulsa, said. “Speakers repeatedly pointed out that the system is fragmented and could be improved in ways that would actually reduce costs. I think the study was highly productive and informative.”

“This study documented some of the tremendous advances in quality of care which can be afforded through the application of new technologies,” Murphey, R-Guthrie, said. “It is important that these technological advances also be used to provide Oklahomans with transparency tools which can be used to track health care costs and put the health care consumer back in charge of free-market oriented decision-making.”

John Silva, CEO of the Morton Comprehensive Health Center, noted the importance of federally qualified health centers in reducing emergency room visits and giving primary care to the uninsured. Better information sharing could allow better coordination between the FQACs and other health care providers, he said.

The study also examined the Denver Health model, presented by Dr. Patricia Gabow, CEO of Denver Health. While the Tulsa health system is made up of various independent health care centers and organizations with separate, unconnected administrations, Denver Health integrates all health systems and centers under one administration, resulting in a cost-savings through reduction in duplication.

Jan Slater, CEO of the Oklahoma State University Medical Center, said that the residents of North Tulsa have a shorter life expectancy by 14 years than residents of South Tulsa and that this was largely due to a lack of coordination and continuity in the local health system. She noted that most nonprofit medical centers cannot operate profitably if they provide services to more than 5 percent to 8 percent of the uninsured population, yet Denver Health successfully serves 46 percent of the Denver uninsured population.

The study also heard from Dean Gandy, executive director of the University Hospitals Authority and Trust; Dr. Jim Hess, vice president and chief operating officer of Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences; and an Oklahoma Health Care Authority spokesman.

“I think those who attended the study will now have a greater understanding of the direction our health care system needs to take,” Scott said. “The task now is to discover how we as lawmakers can contribute to this process and ensure better health outcomes in our state.”

2010-10-10T20:22:00.001-07:00

Murphey Weekly Update - The 2010 Judicial Retention Ballot - http://bit.ly/c5xwWt

2010 Judicial Retention Ballot

2010-10-10T20:05:00.000-07:00

During each general election cycle, voters of Oklahoma are asked to vote on whether or not they wish to retain certain judicial officials.

This year you will be asked to vote on retaining or removing two Justices of the Oklahoma Supreme Court and four Justices of the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals.

Each Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice is placed on the ballot for retention every six years. This year Justice Steven Taylor and Justice James Winchester are up for a retention vote. Taylor was appointed by Governor Henry in 2004 and Winchester was appointed by Governor Keating in 2000.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about the court’s decision to declare a recent legislative tax increase on health insurance policies to be unconstitutional. Both of these justices voted to stop the unconstitutional tax increase.

Another important decision was rendered by the court earlier this year when it ruled that it is wrong for fees to be levied and used for government funds not related to the fees’ purpose. This was an important decision because it reinforced the principal that taxes should not be levied under the misleading designation of a fee. Taylor supported this decision, and Winchester opposed it on the grounds that he did not feel the Court had original jurisdiction in the case.

Additionally, both Taylor and Winchester have supported recent court rulings against the Legislature’s unconstitutional practice of logrolling appropriations measures, which I have written about on more than one occassion.

The four Justices of the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals who are up for the retention vote are Deborah Barnes appointed by Governor Henry in 2008, Doug Gabbard appointed by Governor Henry in 2005, John Fischer appointed by Governor Henry in 2007 and Larry Joplin appointed by Governor Walters in 1994. I am not aware of any high profile cases which these justices have been a party to in the last few months.

Since the retention ballot was developed in 1967, every justice has been retained. Should the voters decide to remove a justice from office, there is a procedure to be followed. Oklahoma’s Judicial Nominating Commission would nominate several applicants for the position and the Governor would choose a new justice from that list of applicants.

You may recall that State Question 752, which will also be on the ballot on November 2, will ask you to vote on enhancing the composition of the Judicial Nominating Commission to include two non-attorney members. Currently, nearly half the Commission is appointed by the Oklahoma Bar Association and the reforms contained in State Question 752 will allow for a more varied representation on the board.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you want additional information about these votes.

2010-10-08T08:41:00.001-07:00

Edmond Sun - Murphey keeps up fight for efficiency - http://bit.ly/952Iyy Thanks to @clarkjolley for the kind words.

2010-10-06T12:31:00.001-07:00

How much money does your county get to maintain county roads? Here is the breakdown from the Tax Commission. http://bit.ly/bOw8yO #oktcot

2010-10-04T09:59:00.001-07:00

My Practices for Using Twitter as an Elected Official http://bit.ly/azgiRa #gov20 #oktcot

My Practices for Using Twitter as an Elected Official

2010-10-04T09:54:00.000-07:00

I very much enjoy the ability to utilize new forms of communication with constituents. This is a unique time in history because these forms of communication are quickly evolving.

I was introduced to the idea of using Twitter by Edmond Senator Clark Jolley who was probably the first Oklahoma legislator to make use of the service. In the summer of 2008, I started using the service and over the course of the past two years, I have observed and attempted to apply what I believe to be a set of best practices.

I have determined that the main focus of my use of Twitter as an elected official will be to provide resources to my constituents.

For example, I have found that one of the greatest strengths provided by Twitter is that of an excellent real-time distribution network for documents which would otherwise remain largely inaccessible to the taxpayers. For instance, prior to a recent local school bond election, I received an e-mail from a constituent. He wanted to know how his local property taxes compared to other school districts in the state. We requested the information from the Oklahoma Tax Commission and subsequently posted a link to the document using Twitter and Google documents (the document is available at ping.fm/W8V67).

As a result, voters were allowed instance access to data which is probably not available anywhere else on the web (although it should be). Because of Twitter, the link to the document was instantly available to a wide purview and could be forwarded through e-mail and other social media. The potential impact of the proposal on local property taxes compared to the tax of surrounding districts had been an issue of dispute up until that point, but with the publication of this document the voters could see the exact impact of the proposal.

During the last session of the legislature, Twitter provided an avenue for informing constituents of upcoming votes of interest in the House. Voters can now observe the House debating bills online at okhouse.gov. While it is true that an agenda is posted on the House website, the actual debate and vote on a bill can occur at any time, or not occur at all. Twitter allowed me to alert voters to issues of interest where I was able to attach a link to the live broadcast of the debate.

I have also observed Twitter practices which I have determined to avoid. The foremost practice which I have determined not to emulate is that of using the network as a forum for launching partisan attacks. I view the service as an excellent opportunity to share information that will allow voters to make decisions on their own without editorializing against or demonizing those who have a different point of view. I have found that elected officials can appear especially partisan when they are forced to make a statement in the 140 characters or less allowed by Twitter. It is my intent to use the service as a positive venue and not as a political attack tool.

If you are interested in following my Twitter account, you may do so at twitter.com/jwmurphey.

2010-10-01T07:05:00.001-07:00

States and Localities Explore Alternatives to Big ERP http://bit.ly/98hRV4

2010-09-27T08:41:00.001-07:00

Murphey's stance on the 2010 State Questions http://bit.ly/9rqe6T

The 2010 State Questions

2010-09-27T08:31:00.000-07:00

On November 2, there will be 11 state questions put before the voters for their consideration.

As a Legislator, I supported all of the questions, with the exception of the first and last ones on the ballot (SQ 744 and SQ 757).

State Question 744 dictates that the Oklahoma Legislature appropriate funding for state education entities by a formula which is tied to the amounts appropriated by other states. I believe it is very bad policy to place legislatures in other states in charge of setting policy which will be used by Oklahoma. Legislative hearings have determined that the passage of this legislation would have a dramatic impact on the funding of a number of other non-education state government agencies and the passage of this proposal would make it extremely difficult to realize tax relief in the future.

State Question 757 enables the legislature to expand the size of the state’s Rainy Day Fund. I believe this is also bad policy as it would allow legislatures to avoid returning money to citizens in the form of tax relief in the good revenue years, and also avoid necessary reductions in wasteful government spending in the down revenue years. The up and down government revenue cycle is a huge tool for restraining the size of government and a large rainy day fund allows legislators to avoid making some tough choices.

I support the remainder of the state questions. This includes SQ 746 which would establish a voter ID law. The legislature was forced to send this issue to a vote of the people in order to bypass a gubernatorial veto.

I was the House author for SQ 747. If approved, this proposal would establish term limits on all statewide elected officials. I have witnessed the dramatic effects term limits have had in cleaning out the corruption of the previous legislatures, and I believe this important policy will have a positive impact if applied to the rest of state government.

SQ 748 will modernize the legislative apportionment process by allowing for a more broad based representation on the apportionment commission which would draw state redistricting lines should the legislature fail to do so.

SQ 750 would institute a reform to the process by which Oklahoma citizens can petition to change the Constitution. It proposes to index the initiative petition signature requirement to a percentage of the total vote of each gubernatorial election only. Currently the requirement is tied to the general election which means it is much hard to complete an initiative petition following a presidential election when many more people voted.

SQ 751 declares English to be Oklahoma’s official language and does not allow law suits to be filed against the state for not offering services in other languages.

SQ 752 updates the membership of the State Judicial Nominating Commission to include two new non-lawyer members.

SQ 754 is a counter to SQ 744. It states that legislative appropriations cannot be made based on the amount spent by other states. If both SQ 744 and SQ 754 are approved, the law will likely be determined based on which state question garners the most votes.

SQ 755 is designed to prevent state courts from using international law as a guideline for determining the outcomes of Oklahoma cases. It is also designed to prevent the application of Sharia law.

SQ 756 is Oklahoma’s federal health care opt-out proposal. It is designed to prohibit forced participation in a health care system. It also prohibits making an employer join a health care system.

Please let me know if you have questions about any of the specifics of any of these proposals. You may reach me by email at JWMurphey@gmail.com.

2010-09-22T10:25:00.001-07:00

City of Guthrie Website Receives Standard of Excellence at 2010 WebAwards http://bit.ly/a2ZNMP#gov20