Rep Tess Teague's HB 2530 Passes out of Committee
HB 2530 imposes strict forensic and performance audits on the Oklahoma Turnkpike Authority, one of the planks of the Gary Richardson Governor campaign.
Jamison Faught over at the Muskogee Politico wrote a good article on the legislation. The agency has not had any oversight in the sixty years it has been in existence and the eminent domain powers allows the agency to steamroll over opposition on new turnpikes as well as continuing to funnel the high interest bonds into the hands of the donor classes. The audits would show if the spending is in line with other costs of other road systems and expose the corruption and feather bedding of ex politicians that have left the legislature and other state jobs only to land a six figure do nothing job over at the OTA.
"Lawmakers should also be outraged by the blatant deception from OTA Executive Director, Tim Gatz, during his testimony before the committee today," says Richardson. "Gatz claimed OTA already performs audits. However, he omitted the fact that those are financial audits which provide a fraction of the insight a performance audit would reveal. Gatz claimed OTA's 'major bondholders' are a matter of public record. However, he omitted the fact that disclosure is voluntary and up to the bondholders themselves. He also failed to mention that he used money, that was supposed to go toward fixing our roads, to pay off two high-dollar liberal lobbyists to bully lawmakers into voting against the bill. I was a prosecutor for many years and I know this - anyone fighting transparency that desperately has something to hide."
HB 2530 now will head to the floor of the House if House Leadership doesn't kill the bill.
