Rep. Murphey – Legislators should avoid policy bills next year

In recent years I have been a part of an ongoing effort to repeal state laws. The most recent round of these repealers will be taking effect over the next few weeks.

Although we have repealed numerous laws, we can’t keep up with the overwhelming number of new laws that are being approved.

In recent years the number of unnecessary state statutes has greatly increased, even though voters elected a new wave of small government advocates whose stated goal is resistance to overbearing government and unnecessary new law.

Here’s a possible solution: what if Oklahoma adopted a system used by other states where policy proposals could only be considered every other year?

This would cut down on the amount of proposed laws. The proposals which are frivolous or unnecessary may not survive the test of time created by the two-year interval. This would result in fewer new laws, and when this reform is accompanied by our continued repealer efforts, perhaps we could reach our goal of repealing old laws as quickly as new ones are approved.

Secondly, legislators would have ample time to focus on the state budget in non-policy years. Lawmakers constantly and correctly complain of their inability to get a handle on government spending. They appropriate millions of dollars each year — only to be attacked for more money from the very recipients of that money during the ensuing months. Legislators don’t have time to monitor the new spending before they are placed under the gun for even more.

When faced with the challenge of voting on and sponsoring policy, these lawmakers don’t focus on budget accountability as carefully as they should. They know they are falling short and not meeting the expectation of taxpayers to provide good stewardship, and it bothers them. They want the opportunity for more oversight of wasteful government spend.

It is also important to realize that many state regulations occur through the propagation of agency-issued rules. A year free of policy proposals would allow our administrative rules overseers to greatly increase oversight of proposed rules, another overlooked area. Perhaps lawmakers could even start repealing existing rules.

This common-sense reform would empower lawmakers to carry out their true responsibility to the taxpayers, as opposed to considering new and unnecessary laws every year.

Thank you for reading this article. Your interest and input are much appreciated. Please do not hesitate to email [email protected] with your thoughts and suggestions.

Sincerely,