A&B Natural Resources Subcommittee

OKLAHOMA CITY - Rep. Mike Dobrinski, R-Okeene, today urged action by the governor in concert with the Legislature to expand funding for eradicating invasive species as the state faces early wildfires. Dobrinski is the author of legislation that created the Terry Peach North Canadian Watershed Restoration Act and the House author of legislation that requires the Oklahoma Conservation Commission to implement a statewide plan targeting harmful woody species on state lands. Both are efforts to reduce materials that consume massive amounts of water and lead to fire threats. This year, Dobrinski is running House Bill 2988 , which currently recommends a tax credit for those who remove harmful woody species through qualified practices as defined by the Conservation Commission. The bill passed in the Appropriations and Budget Natural Resources Subcommittee. Dobrinski said the legislation will be amended before it reaches the House full A&B Committee to instead expand the Terry Peach Act.  "February is not traditionally a month we consider a wildfire risk," Dobrinski said. "After record snowfall last month, warm temperatures and winds have created threatening conditions earlier than usual. Woodward was spared this week, by the grace of God and the work of hundreds of firefighters and first responders. Many in the Panhandle and Northwest Oklahoma, however, have suffered great loss." Dobrinski said lawmakers have talked for years about eastern red cedars and their challenge to the western Oklahoma water supply, along with the fire threat they present for much of the state. "This issue predates my service at the Capitol by at least two decades," he said. "The Terry Peach North Canadian Watershed Restoration Act was a trial study that proved that addressing this issue would improve waterflow, restore native grasslands, return ecological balance and promote wildlife habitat."   Dobrinski said Woodward was threatened because of the proliferation of eastern red cedars southwest of the city, very much like the communities of Stillwater and Mannford, which suffered wildfires last spring. "Our own governor lost a rural residence northeast of the Oklahoma City metro area in those fires, in an area that is very thick with eastern red cedars on neighboring properties," Dobrinski said.  "As the governor approaches the end of his administration, we can celebrate many victories and improvements to our wonderful state," Dobrinski said. "I encourage him to include in his legacy being the governor that decided it was time to turn the tide on our ever increasing eastern red cedar problem. I ask him to please work with our Legislature and emphasize the need to properly fund a sustained effort to improve our state's land and water resources and ensure a safer future for generations to come." 

The Oklahoma House of Representatives today added to its transparency portal a government efficiency survey intended to root out duplication of services, waste and inefficiencies in state government.  This initiative piggybacks on the federal effort to eliminate government waste through the newly-created federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). "We will work hand-in-hand with President-Elect Trump and our federal delegation on broader efforts to make government more efficient with DOGE," said House Speaker-Elect Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow. "We want to ensure our state government is working as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. As lawmakers, we want the assistance of Oklahomans who have first-hand experience with duplicative and wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars." Oklahomans can enter any examples they have experienced of state governmental waste or duplication into the easy-to-use portal, which will be submitted to House budget leaders for review to be utilized during legislative budget hearings and the crafting of the FY26 state budget.  "We know Oklahomans get frustrated every day with the inefficiency of government, and we need their help to root out the most egregious examples so we can eliminate unnecessary expenditures," said Rep. Trey Caldwell, R-Lawton, who will serve as House Appropriations Chairman for the 60th Legislature. "The more efficient we can become, the more we can invest in critical government services and pursue lowering the overall tax burden for all Oklahomans." Constituents can file government waste complaints online by entering some demographic information, the issue area their example encompasses, and details of waste or inefficiencies. "We are confident we will get examples of inefficiency that we likely would not have known about otherwise," said Rep. John Kane, R-Bartlesville, who will serve as Vice Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee this upcoming session. "Every January we have an opportunity to walk through budget requests with state agencies, and we will have the ability to ask about these constituent submissions directly in an effort to make government as efficient and effective as possible." The portal is live today, and Oklahomans can immediately start entering examples of waste they have already encountered or will see in the future. "We hope to capitalize on the momentum we are seeing on the federal level with the efforts of President Trump at DOGE, and the national priority they have set to reduce waste," Hilbert said. "Oklahoma has the opportunity to align with these efforts and lead at the state and local level as we seek best practices and frameworks for auditing and reducing waste in government spending." The Government Efficiency survey may be accessed via the homepage of the House website, okhouse.gov, similar to the House Budget HQ , which was launched in the 2024 session and updated regularly. All submitted agency FY26 budget requests have been updated and can be viewed in the portal.  

A study on the economic impact of Oklahoma State Parks have on their communities met Monday before the Oklahoma House Appropriations & Budget Natural Resources Subcommittee. The study was organized by Rep. Tammy Townley, R-Ardmore. Townley opened the meeting by expressing her gratitude for everyone participating in the study. "I hope this study will bring awareness to the fact that we need improvements in capital infrastructure. It is all of our desire to see want to see Oklahoma growing and thriving," Townley said. "Oklahoma State Parks are a vital part of our state and have the potential to create more growth." Townley reminded attendees that the tourism industry is the state's third largest economic driver and should be invested in regularly. Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department Executive Director Shelley Zumwalt told the committee that state parks welcomed 11.5 million people in 2021, generating $15.5 million in state taxes and $9.3 million in local taxes. Additionally, she mentioned that visitors spent $354.3 million in local communities during their stays. Zumwalt asked the members to consider what the goal of state parks are in their communities. "I would argue that probably in the beginning it was recreation and conservation, but at this point we need to look at it as a source of economic activity because it absolutely is," she said. Zumwalt said deferred maintenance has resulted in the closing of one state park during her one-year tenure and that right now other parks are facing issues that are currently preventable, including deteriorating roads, gas lines that need to be replaced, and rotting buildings and infrastructure. "Right now the funding doesn’t match the need," Zumwalt said. "The growing list of unresolved issues has reached an emergency state." Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department Director of State Parks Sterling Zearley said Oklahoma state parks have approximately $350 million capital needs statewide and only continues to grow. "We need the Legislature's help to make sure we can fund these state parks appropriately not just now, but 10, 15, 20 years down the road when my grandson's old enough to start going out to them," Zearley said. He pointed to the Roman Nose Group Camp, which was originally built in the 1960s and has not been updated since, but the surrounding area cannot afford to lose the $7.8 million spent by park visitors in the community. Zearley said immediate funding of $50 million will allow the department to address critical maintenance needs over the next year, but a total of $350 million is critical to the continued operation of state parks; otherwise, numerous parks are at risk of closure due to unsafe infrastructure.