OKLAHOMA CITY – Recent reforms in government purchasing have already resulted in more than $1.2 million in savings and additional reforms could result in state government being more cost efficient and effective, state legislators were told today.

  Members of the House Government Modernization Committee met today to study how better tools and the use of new technology can result in more efficient purchasing practices and enable the public to keep better tabs on how taxpayer dollars are spent.

  “The presentations at this study document that recent modernization legislation is already allowing state government to save taxpayer dollars,” said state Rep. Jason Murphey, a Guthrie Republican who chairs the committee. “The concepts presented provide new ideas for another round of cost-saving and transparency enhancing legislation.

 “In another down revenue year it will be more important than ever for the Legislature to take action and incorporate some of these cost saving suggestions into new legislation.”

 Officials with the Department of Central Services updated lawmakers on the impact of House Bill 1032, the Oklahoma State Government Modernization Act of 2009, which they said is already generating savings. DCS Deputy Director Randy Ross said that the provisions of HB 1032 have allowed DCS to make better use of state spending patterns to negotiate the best possible terms and prices for the state. The result has been “a better skill set, better personnel, and we’re able to do better things,” said Ross.

 DCS officials said those reforms have already allowed them to save an estimated $1 million on a food services contract and another $229,000 on a contract involving work on culverts.

 The agency is stretching state dollars by installing more energy efficient fixtures and reducing usage, using new technology to monitor the condition and use of the state’s fleet of vehicles, expanding online auctions of state surplus equipment, and negotiating cost-saving vehicle lease agreements for state agencies. Ross said a recent lease agreement is projected to save one state agency more than $1 million for this fiscal year.

 Lawmakers also heard from several other presenters.

  Tom Daxon discussed two recent Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs reports on enhanced financial reporting for state government and encouraged officials to shift the focus of governmental accounting from budget compliance to comparing the cost of providing services to the value of the services provided.

 In the July 2009 paper, Enhanced Financial Reporting for State Government: Comparing Cost to Performance, Daxon wrote that “improved accounting and financial reporting practices can make current transparency initiatives more potent. A citizen seeking to hold government to account for its performance will have far better information with which to do so, and find what is currently available on transparency websites more relevant and understandable.”

  The research paper contends that for a government financial reporting system to be truly accountable to the citizens it serves, it must report what it does, what it costs to do it, and what it provides.

  Brian Downs, executive director of Oklahomans for Responsible Government, discussed his organization’s recent report, Blueprint for Transparency: A Review of Oklahoma School District Websites, which examined the web presence and level of transparency of information available for the state’s more than 530 public school districts.

  Among OFRG’s findings was that 79 districts had no website at all or simply a domain name registered with a site still under construction, and that no district fully met all criteria for transparency of information. Downs said the agency would eventually like to examine higher education and other state agencies in a similar manner.

 Logan County Commissioner Mark Sharpton urged legislators to alter state and local mandates that require the use of newspapers for the purpose of legal postings by allowing officials to post those items on the ok.gov portal in order to drive down costs and increase visibility.

 Sharpton said local county and city governments spend thousands of taxpayer dollars each year on required legal postings in the newspaper, and that the notices run for a limited amount of time, are usually in small print, and are not readily accessible to those outside of the community. He said that centralized posting of notices could generate more interest and result in better prices.

 Legislators also heard from representatives from two private companies who discussed tools available to help governments manage information technology staff and resources, and a product that allows for electronically-sealed bidding on contracts, which the company reported as increasing competition and driving down contract costs.

 OKLAHOMA CITY (May 20, 2009) – Governor Brad Henry has signed House Bill 1032, the Oklahoma State Government Modernization Act of 2009, a keystone in the House Republican effort to streamline government.

 The bill was authored by Representative Jason Murphey, R-Guthrie and Senator Randy Brogdon, R-Owasso.

 Murphey said the bill continues efforts to increase transparency of state government spending, puts a stop to certain inappropriate fee increases, requires agencies to provide online access to licensing and permitting processes, eliminates an unnecessary state board, and is expected to save millions of taxpayer dollars by providing a new focus on leveraging state purchasing processes through a dramatic redesign of the state’s centralized purchasing processes.

 The bill increases spending transparency by requiring that all purchases made by state employees with state purchasing cards (P-cards) to be posted online through the ok.gov internet portal for the public to review.

 HB 1032 tightened up statutory language so that state agencies are no longer allowed to backdoor certain IT costs into online convenience fee increases.

 The bill also seeks to make government more accessible by requiring state entities to provide the public with the option of renewing or applying for permits and licenses online. Murphey asserts that online permitting should save many man hours and greatly lessen the cost to taxpayers.

 The changes in HB 1032 should also allow for major savings by shifting the focus of the Department of Central Services from an agency that primarily processes purchases to one that applies more strategy in managing the state’s purchasing.

 A report conducted by IBM in 2007 showed that Oklahoma could realize as much as $70 million in savings if best purchasing practices were put in place. A second report conducted recently by a company on contract with DCS found similar savings potential. HB 1032 aggressively codifies some of the report findings and should provide central purchasing officials with the tools they need to incorporate the reports’ recommendations.

 HB 1032 also eliminated a state board function in conjunction with the Department of Labor. Murphey said that a past modernization study showed that Oklahoma had nearly twice as many agencies, boards and commissions as similar states and he believes it is important to consolidate and streamline government.

 HB 1032 contained additional cleanup languague that supportes the reforms in last year’s House Bill 3325 which allows state purchasing processes to be conducted online. Murphey explained that this reform standardizes formatting and prevents human calculation errors that may have proven costly in the past. The bill potentially could free up many tedious hours spent by state employees with mundane data entry duties that will be no longer required.

 “HB 1032 is an important second step along the path of government modernization,” Murphey said. “The bill will set the stage for a new round of modernization and money-saving initiatives next year.”

 HB 1032 will go into law later this year.

 House Bill 1032, the Oklahoma State Government Modernization Act of 2009, is a keystone in the House Republican effort to streamline government.

 The bill continues efforts to increase transparency of state government and improve efficiency by providing more oversight of state purchasing.

 All purchases made with state purchasing cards, or P-cards, will have to be reported to the Office of State Finance under the bill, which will then post those transaction details online.

 The legislation also amends the state Central Purchasing Act to allow DCS personnel to make better use of state spending patterns to negotiate the best possible terms and prices for the state. The change will also give state buyers more time for ongoing vendor performance monitoring to ensure quality.

 “If the Department of Central Services is given the freedom to focus on larger state contracts where the most money is spent, they will be able to fight for efficiencies to ensure the taxpayer dollars are going as far as possible,” said Rep. Jason Murphey, R-Guthrie and author of the bill.

 The bill also authorizes DCS’s state purchasing director to renegotiate existing contrasts in an attempt to get better rates for the state. An annual report documenting savings realized by each agency will also be required by the legislation.

 The changes in HB 1032 will shift the focus of DCS from an agency that primarily processes purchases to one that applies more strategy in managing the state’s purchasing.

 “As legislators, the taxpayers expect us to be good stewards of their hard-earned dollars, especially in a down revenue year,” said House Speaker Chris Benge, R-Tulsa. “This bill will go a long way toward making sure every tax dollar is spent as efficiently as possible while maintaining the quality services Oklahomans expect.”

 A report conducted by IBM in 2007 showed Oklahoma could realize as much as $70 million in savings if purchasing best practices were put in place. A second report conducted recently by a company on contract with DCS found similar savings potential.

 The bill also seeks to make government more accessible by requiring state entities to provide the public with the option of renewing or applying for permits and licenses online.

 Each entity is required by the bill to provide an annual report detailing the number of applications processed online and any savings realized as a result.

 The legislation passed the House with a vote of 85-13 and will now return to the Senate for final consideration.

 For accompanying video, go to http://www.okhouse.tv/ViewVideo.aspx?VideoID=156.

On The Issues

Great News for Oklahoma Taxpayers

 In May of 2009, Oklahoma State Representative Jason Murphey stated that in the upcoming days, the details surrounding the state’s next budget should begin to become public as legislative leadership and the governor’s office work through negotiations and determine how to account for the multi-million dollar budget shortfall.

 Murphey said that some may see this shortfall as a negative because it will force state leaders to cut the amount of money they control through the budget process. Murphey believes these cuts are a fantastic opportunity, because the shortfall will force legislative leaders and agency officials to do what they would have not taken the time to do when state government largesse was increasing. It is actually in a downturn when money is less plentiful that taxpayer accountability improves, because unnecessary functions of state government are eliminated and pork spending is not as easily dispensed by politicians who wish to buy the loyalty of their constituencies.

 In the past, Murphey has described how that the bills that make up the budget process are often released late in the session and have historically involved a significant amount of last-minute spending that Murphey believes to be inappropriate. Two years ago, this spending was in the form of an excess spending bill known as the “spill over bill,” which was later held to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Last year, the spending took the form of bonded indebtedness which was also unconstitutional.

 In 2009, however, Murphey expects taxpayers to emerge from the budget process as winners. Because of the economic downturn, the government will actually have to get smaller and eliminate some of the pork and waste from the spending process. Legislative leaders are hard at work exposing and eliminating inappropriate spending and it now appears that a number of pork programs known as “pass-throughs” will have to be eliminated and the remainder greatly reduced in size.

 Legislative pass-throughs are funds given to agencies with directions from the Legislature to pass on to a private organization. That organization may use the funds for a good cause but in my view, the process is very subject to corruption and not as subject to accountability, because the private organization could easily serve as a funnel to pass the money on any number of other entities. Murphey believes these types of funding arrangements have been at the heart of previously documented corruption in Oklahoma politics that is still being prosecuted by federal authorities.

 Murphey said it has been exciting to observe the process by which legislative leaders are now engaging as they fold up these pass-throughs. It is especially interesting when they justify the elimination of a pass-through by observing that it is acceptable to stop funding because it appears that the entity is not doing much with the funding. In other words, had it not been for the shortfall, these groups would still be getting money with little or no measurable return on the investment.

 Unfortunately, some of the necessary reduction in the size of government will not occur because of an influx of federal stimulus money. These stimulus funds will prop up state governments all across the nation and keep them from doing the hard work of cutting the size of their governments after years of irresponsible increases in state government spending.

 Murphey plans to keep his readers informed as the budget takes form over the next three weeks and hopes to be able to continue to report some very good news about your taxpayer dollars.

Adding Even More Debt

 In April, 2009, Oklahoma State Representative Jason Murphey wrote about the impact of long-term debt on state government.

  Murphey commented on the fact that the House had recently approved the issuance of new long-term debt to finance a dam project on the Arkansas River in the Tulsa area. Murphey said this means that each year, more of your money will be added to the millions of tax payer dollars that are tied down to paying debt and debt interest.

  Murphey said in 2009, the Legislature approved a major debt package in the last few days of the legislative session. The Tulsa dam project was one of the issues in this bill. Since that time, the Oklahoma Supreme Court has held that the debt bill was unconstitutional because it “log-rolled” more than one issue into the bill.

  Murphey feels that the Court should have also held the bill unconstitutional because it did not allow the people to vote on the bond issuance, which he believes is probably required by our state Constitution in this instance.

  In the case of the Tulsa dam project, Murphey says it is especially egregious because this local project should not involve state dollars. He does not think taxpayers in Logan and Oklahoma Counties should be forced to pay for years on a project that is specific to the Tulsa area. If Tulsa taxpayers want a project in their area, they should pay local taxes for that project.

  In fact, the voters in Tulsa were asked to vote on a similar project and they turned it down. So now, unlike some of the recent MAPS improvement projects in the Oklahoma City area which were been paid for with local tax dollars, this key Tulsa area improvement project will be paid for by all Oklahomans.

  Adding more debt is especially unwise in a fiscal down year. This debt problem has hit especially close to home this year when the state government will be cutting agency budgets because of the downturn. Recently, agencies’ officials testified to legislative committees about where they would make cuts if the economic downturn forces them to cut their budgets by 5%. Those agencies burdened with long-term debt simply point to the fact that they cannot legally cut their bond payments. In fact, a 5% cut might be more like a 10% to 15% cut in discretionary revenue. In other words, as we have gone through time and more debt has been added to the state government, the ability to shrink government becomes inhibited.

  Murphey thinks voters might be able to find comfort in the fact that compared to the federal level counterparts, the long term debt incurrence at the state level is minuscule by comparison.

  One of Murphey's favorite quotes is from ancient Roman times. “The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” In today’s world, a great majority of the people have bought into the philosophy that the incurrence of unnecessary debt is no longer something that should be avoided at all costs. Murphey very much disagrees with this, and believe that as a society we will pay a heavy price due to the lack of fiscal discipline of our elected officials.

  Murphey remains committed to voting against all proposals that incur new debt.

State Rep. Murphey Makes Donation to Pro-Life Ministry

  OKLAHOMA CITY – State Rep. Jason W. Murphey has presented a 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 the third-highest paid, part-time legislators in the nation, making more than double the regional average. Murphey said he made the donation – the difference between Oklahoma lawmakers’ salaries and the salary of the average working Oklahoman when Murphey was first elected to office – to emphasize that legislators in Oklahoma should not be paid 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 wasteful to pay legislators more than double the regional average,” said Murphey, R-Guthrie.

  Murphey stated that Crossroads, a pro-life organization which provides a support network for expectant mothers in Guthrie, is currently working with Focus on the Family to convert a Pregnancy Resource Center to a Pregnancy Help Medical Clinic. As an evangelical ministry that upholds the sanctity of life, Crossroads provides practical assistance, encouragement and unconditional love to women and families facing crisis pregnancies. Crossroads offers alternatives to abortion, promotes sexual purity and provides post abortion counseling.

  Murphey explained that after conversion to a Pregnancy Help Medical Clinic, Crossroads will be able to offer abortion-vulnerable women in the community a free ultrasound scan to confirm viable intrauterine 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.

  Murphey said Focus on the Family’s Option Ultrasound Program is helping to place ultrasounds in 650 Pregnancy Resource Clinics like Crossroads. There have been 81,000 babies saved across the country already, and it is Crossroads’ stated goal to bring this life-saving technology to Guthrie.

A Moral Imperative

 In May, 2009, Oklahoma State Representative Jason Murphey wrote about the education issue.

 Representative Jason Murphey said one of the more misunderstood issues in Oklahoma is that of charter schools. 2009 was probably the first year since he has been in the House of Representatives that no debate has centered around the creation of charter schools, although it appears there will be much debate around a bill that would allow public schools to operate under the same lack of state auspices as charter schools.

 Currently there are approximately 13 of these schools in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, and Murphey has come to the conclusion that very few people actually realize the exciting details surrounding these success stories.

 Consider one example of a successful charter school. Six years ago, the F.D. Moon Academy in Oklahoma City was the lowest performing school in the state. Five years later, in the very same building, students of KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) Charter School produced some of the highest tests scores in Oklahoma, despite tremendous social and economic challenges.

 KIPP eighth-grade students dominated the 2006 Oklahoma Core Curriculum Test (OCCT), with 100 percent passing both the state math and writing tests and 97 percent of KIPP students passing the state reading test. This compares to the statewide average of 72 percent of eighth graders passing the math test and 59 percent of Oklahoma City students passing it. That year, the average Academic Performance Index (API) score for all Oklahoma students was 1180. The average score for Oklahoma City students was 1006. Students attending KIPP averaged 1393 out of 1500, which surpassed even Oklahoma City’s Classen School of Advanced Studies, the 17th best high school in the country, according to Newsweek magazine. Records indicate that 73 percent of those who enter KIPP at the fifth grade level read at third grade level or lower, but by the time students reach eighth grade, 97 percent are passing the state reading test.

 KIPP students attend school from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and twice monthly on Saturdays. As a college preparatory school, KIPP focuses on producing students who will graduate not only from 12th grade, but college as well. In an Oklahoman story, a KIPP student was quoted as saying, “Before, my dream was basketball or something like that. Now I want to be a businessman and KIPP helped me set my goal.”

 Fifty KIPP academies have been established nationwide. Charter schools such as these represent an exciting trend toward reversing the failures of inner city common education.

 Considering the phenomenal track record of this, who would oppose such schooling?

 A few years ago, in an obvious attempt to end such success, the Tulsa School Board took action to declare a moratorium on the establishment of any new charter schools. In response, Democrat State Representative Jabar Shumate, who represents an impoverished part of Tulsa, courageously submitted legislation that would have permitted higher education institutions and city councils in Oklahoma and Tulsa counties to allow charter schools in those counties. Shumate claimed that residents of his district want more of these innovative schools and believe they have a positive impact on students and families.

 Murphey appreciates Shumate’s effort and believe it is immoral for the state government to keep kids trapped in dangerous and failing inner city public schools when it is now clear that they can succeed in the charter school environment. I feel it is important for Oklahomans to realize the exciting opportunities afforded to Oklahoma children by these organizations.

Legislation Streamlining Information Technology among State Agencies Passes House

 Senate Bill 980, by Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee and Rep. Jason Murphey, would create a Chief Information Officer, who would direct technology purchases for state agencies. The consolidation of technology contracts will lead to millions of dollars in savings to the state as improved purchasing power drives prices down.

 Instead of each state agency having its own small information technology (IT) contract, this legislation would allow the state to better leverage its purchasing power by buying IT equipment in bulk for agencies that have similar needs.

 Oklahoma is only one of four states in the country without a centralized technology officer.

 “This bill cuts through bureaucracy. Right now, each agency has its own IT department and the state is spending $340 million a year on IT not including personnel and salaries. We must treat this area of government like a business,” said Murphey, R-Guthrie. “The current configuration is an antiquated system that other states have abandoned and we shouldn’t let Oklahoma be the last state to realize these savings.”

 A task force created by 2005 legislation concluded that Oklahoma lacked a state technology strategy after listening to the concerns of agency information technology personnel. In 2007, as part of an initiative to streamline and modernize state government, the House Republican leadership further examined the costs savings potential in restructuring the state’s technology services.

 Most recently, experts from across the nation appeared before a joint meeting of the House and Senate Appropriation and Budget committees to provide examples of other states’ successes in modernizing their information technology services, often resulting in tremendous savings.

 “In a down budget year, we must do all we can to use the taxpayer dollars as efficiently as possible,” said House Speaker Chris Benge, R-Tulsa. “This legislation would continue our efforts to streamline government so quality services are provided to all Oklahomans at the most efficient price.”

 The bill passed the House with a vote of 62-35 and now returns to the Senate for further consideration.

Should you have additional questions please call 405.563.0034.