OKLAHOMA CITY – An effort to create an Oklahoma bullion depository died in the Legislature last session, but the senator who authored Oklahoma Senate Bill 1351 is keeping the goal alive through a proposed interim study.
Sen. David Bullard (R-Durant) teamed up with Rep. Cody Maynard (R-Durant) to file IR-24-007, a request for an interim study, which, if approved, would study the legal and logical reasons to create a transactional gold and silver depository in the state. The proposed study would examine the legal and constitutional reasons involved in this type of financial investment. The study has not been assigned to a committee, as of press time.
Six years ago, in the summer of 2018, Texas opened the doors on the nation’s only state-run bullion depository to provide Texans with a safe and secure place to store precious metals, according to comptroller. texas.gov. The depository is a highly secure, government-backed storage facility comparable to the U.S. Bullion Depository in Fort Knox, Kentucky, where federal gold reserves are stored.
Oklahoma’s SB 1351 defined “bullion” as precious metals that are formed into uniform shapes and quantities such as ingots, bars or plates, with uniform content and purity. It would be suitable for or customarily used in the purchase, sale, storage, transfer and delivery of bulk or wholesale transactions in precious metals.
Bullard’s intent is that an Oklahoma bullion depository would be established as a division in the Office of the State Treasurer. It would be under the direction and supervision of a bullion depository administrator jointly appointed by the governor and the state treasurer with the advice and consent of the state Senate.
The text of the bill made clear that no deposits made to the depository would be considered part of the General Revenue Fund or be certified by the State Board of Equalization as available for appropriation. However, any revenue the depository would generate from fees, charges or other payments received in the course of normal operations would be required to be deposited to the credit of the General Revenue Fund.
In addition, the proposal included requiring the depository to make available a debit card, issued upon a request by the depository account holder to make transactions debited from the balance of the holder’s account. The balance available through use of the debit card would be equal to 80% of the current spot price of the deposits in the holder’s account. Fees and procedures for issuing the debit card would be determined by the State Treasurer.
In a related bill, House Bill 3027, which also did not make it out of the Senate Finance Committee last March, Maynard proposed to make gold and silver legal tender. The bill text defined “specie” as a coin having gold or silver content and also as refined gold or silver bullion that is coined, stamped or imprinted with its weight and is valued primarily based on its metal content and not its form.
Maynard’s intent with the proposal was that specie could be used to pay debts and not be characterized as personal property for taxation or regulatory purposes. Sen. Dusty Deevers (R-Elgin) was listed as a co-sponsor of SB 1351.