Rep. Murphey: Transportation reform malaise

It was one of the most interesting presentations I observed this year: a veteran state transportation official spoke to a mixed group of long term and new lawmakers.

He spoke of the importance of the state’s eight year plan to upgrade state highways and replace bridges. He told the audience of his appreciation for their work to create and fund this plan and he very articulately contrasted the way things are now compared to the way they used to be 12 years ago.

“You have taken the politics out of transportation funding,” he said.

As I have spoken and written of the benefits of the Legislature’s transportation policy reforms in recent years, I have pointed to two main factors of the reform: the redirection of motor vehicle revenues from general government funds back to transportation, and a criteria-based assessment system for determining which projects are funded first.

The second of these factors has been extremely important because it means fast growing areas such as ours (where the need for infrastructure improvement is so great) are experiencing a complete rehabilitation of the state highway infrastructure. From the four laning of Hwy. 74 to the Guthrie viaduct, the impending Waterloo/I-35 and completed Hwy. 33/I-35 exchanges, and the proposed new Cimarron river bridge north of Guthrie, it’s impossible to drive in our area without witnessing the effects of these reforms.

Because these decisions are now being made free of politics, I can represent your values in the Legislature without having to worry about putting these projects at risk.

It was very different in the old days and it would have been difficult for a legislator to call for reform or criticize the old guard legislative power brokers without having to worry about the effect of those actions on local transportation funding.

Even worse, the politicization of transportation funding meant that the old guard powerbrokers could trade transportation projects for votes and support. A local commuter might appreciate a transportation project, but in the back of his mind he had to wonder, “What did my legislator trade away in order to get this project done?”

As I watched the transportation official speak to the legislators, I observed that the long term legislators were not only extremely appreciative of his comments, but interestingly, I think they were informed by them. I believe many of them were completely unaware of the fact that they had been responsible for the amazing reform of taking the politics out of transportation funding.

I think many of the new legislators were also unaware of the dramatic changes that have taken place in just the last few years. I feel that this lack of knowledge is a byproduct of the legislative malaise I described in last week’s article.

In recent years House officials have failed to reiterate the defining characteristics of the legislators’ accomplishments — and for the past three years have actually reversed several of their predecessors’ reforms by repeatedly raiding transportation funding accounts, capping the amount of motor vehicle revenue that goes to transportation, and used eight year plan projects to launder massive amounts of new state debt that would be unconstitutional were it not for the laundering action.

Because of this, long term legislators who were a part of those transformative changes have started to forget about them and the new legislators don’t know what it used too be like. In fact, many new legislators who have voted for leadership’s initiatives will go to the polls this year with a voting record that is distinctly hostile to transportation reform. Unlike their long term counterparts, new legislators don’t have the redeeming value of having previously completely transformed transportation policy in Oklahoma.

The next generation of legislative leaders must learn from these shortcomings. They must once again define the Legislature’s core values by endorsing the important concept that motor vehicle revenues should actually be used for road funding, end the repeated raids on transportation funding that have occurred in the past three budget cycles, and remind legislators where we have come from and determine never again to return to those times.

Thank you for reading this article. Your interest and input are much appreciated. Please do not hesitate to email Jason.Murphey@hd31.org with your thoughts and suggestions.

Sincerely,