OKLAHOMA CITY – A bill that would provide $5 million in funding for small towns to repair roads damaged by oil field trucks and equipment sailed through a House subcommittee last week.
House Bill 3037 would create the Municipal Road Drilling Activity Revolving Fund. The bill’s author, state Rep. Brad Boles, said the measure would fund repairs to municipal roads that were damaged by oil field traffic and equipment.
Boles said the fund would earmark $5 million for cities and towns with populations less than 15,000 people. The money can only be used to repair roads damaged by traffic from the oil and gas industry. He said the town must apply for the program and provide matching funds of 25 percent.
“What I’m trying to do is get some relief for these smaller communities that have had their roads damaged,” Boles, R-Marlow, said. “These communities don’t get ad valorem funding and they don’t have a big sales tax base.”
Boles’ proposal would reallocate money from the general revenue fund for the program. The bill cleared an appropriations subcommittee on an 8-0 vote and is awaiting a vote by the full committee.
“Our municipalities simply don’t have the budget to continually repair roads and bridges that were not designed to withstand heavy traffic and equipment like the oil and gas industry brings in,” Boles said.
Jack Porter, a former Grady County commissioner said Boles’ idea has merit. Porter said many of the state’s rural areas see significant traffic from the oil and gas industry. The problem, he said, is that the roads and bridges weren’t designed to handle that type of traffic and repairs require both funding and equipment.
“I’m sure it (the bill) would help these towns,” he said. “They usually don’t have the equipment to do much.”
Porter, who served as a commissioner for more than 20 years, said trucks hauling gravel and those that move drilling rigs can do real damage to a roadbed.
“I spent about 30 to 40 percent of my time dealing with bad roads,” he said.
Boles said the measure was sparked by an interim study that looked at infrastructure problems in the state’s smaller communities.
“I’m very supportive of the oil and gas industry,” he said. “It generates jobs, pays taxes and is part of our supply chain. The energy sector pays over a billion dollars in gross production taxes to the state.”
Boles said his goal was to create a program that did not adversely affect the industry or the state’s small communities. “We came up with a solution that we felt wouldn’t have any opposition,” he said.
He said the whole state benefits from the oil and gas production located in these communities and it’s only fair that our state helps offset some of the costs that these communities have in their infrastructure due to industry activity.
“We want this bill to be laser focused on repairing roads damaged by the oil and gas industry,” he said.
House Bill 3037 is expected to be heard by the full House Appropriations Committee soon.