OKLAHOMA CITY – Though the Oklahoma Legislature earmarked more than $3.1 million for programs in rural Oklahoma, much more needs to be done, the executive director of the Oklahoma Municipal League recently said.
With state revenues in the black for the first time in several years, lawmakers increased funding for several rural programs including $1.5 million for flood control dams, $1.1 million for firefighter resources, $500,000 for a public-private partnership to maintain clean water in Northeast Oklahoma and $90,000 to hire an additional state veterinarian.
The legislature also held back about Rural Oklahoma policy ... about $200 million for a reserve account.
And though those programs are helpful, Mike Fina, the municipal league’s chief, said lawmakers still have much more to do.
“Rural Oklahoma is shrinking every year,” Fina said. “It doesn’t have the opportunities for young people to stay in their communities, or for people who retire to stay in communities. If we don’t start addressing those issues, rural Oklahoma won’t survive.”
RESOURCES NEEDED
The rural parts of Oklahoma, he said, need resources for infrastructure, health care and technology. Fina said programs such as the 5G initiative – which would bring highspeed wireless connectivity to the state – would help draw residents to rural areas.
“It (5G) would help enhance education and health care,” he said. “Consider things such as telemedicine. The 5G initiative would help all that, but we’re not there yet. The legislature needs to get out of our way and let us get the fiber in the ground. Municipalities all over Oklahoma work directly with technology and telecom companies and they can spread out all over Oklahoma.”
But technology isn’t the only issue.
LIMITED HEALTHCARE
CHOICES
Because fewer and fewer doctors practice in rural areas, residents have limited health care choices or are forced to drive extended distances for medical care. This year, the legislature attempted to pass a $25,000 five-year income tax credit for doctors who set up practices in communities of less than 25,000 people.
That measure, House Bill 2511, was authored by House Speaker Charles McCall. Jason Sutton, a spokesman for McCall, said the measure was supported by rural House members.
“He (McCall) certainly recognized that access to affordable health care in rural areas is getting harder and harder to come by,” Sutton said in a media statement. “The bill would establish a pilot program to give doctors incentive to set up in rural areas, and if it works out well, I think the will might be there to expand it to include nurse practitioners or other medical professionals.”
However, while the bill cleared the House on a 98-2 vote, it stalled in the Senate’s finance committee.
An analysis of the 2019 legislative session produced by the Oklahoma Farm Bureau noted that rural Oklahoma continues to face a health care crisis.
“Numerous pieces of legislation were introduced this year aimed at addressing this issue. Unfortunately, none were sent to the governor’s desk for a signature but are all still eligible to be heard next year,” the organization said.
Farm Bureau officials said one of their priorities was to reduce the supervision requirements for nurse practitioners across the state. Legislation attempting to reduce the requirement didn’t make it to the governor’s desk.
Though nurse practitioners perform many of the same services as physicians, they are prevented from prescribing certain medications and must work under a physician’s supervision.
In many rural areas of the state, primary medical care is provided by a nurse practitioner. The group’s professional organization said they would take another run at the issue in 2020.
EVIRONMENT AND
PUBLIC SAETY
In addition to health care policy, legislation that would have better protected the environment and increased public safety in rural areas faced an uphill battle this year. Despite concerns by farmers about plastic waste, lawmakers passed legislation which prevented communities from regulating plastic bags.
“I don’t think there are many places even thinking about addressing the plastic bag issue now,” Fina said.
Oklahoma City Community College Political Science Professor Shanna Padgham said policies that address environmental issues and climate change will remain controversial because of the terminology.
Padgham pointed to the state’s recent incidents of flooding as an example. She said lawmakers need to make agriculture and the environment a priority and develop ways to address climate change without framing the issue in those terms.
“Right now, we don’t create policy around climate change,” she said. “We are going to have to be really creative in how we talk about the issue, though I think people are going to be forced into it. Getting green done can be done if you don’t care what you call it.”
PUBLIC SAFETY
Fina, the OML leader, said the legislature also needs to pass legislation that provides additional money for rural public safety. He said many rural communities work with county government to respond to police and fire incidents outside of their boundaries.
When that happens, he said, the communities lose money.
“This is something we’ve been working on for a long time,” he said. House Bill 1992 would have allowed rural communities to capture some ad valorem fund and use those funds for public safety.
Fina said that bill, too, was sidelined this year.
“The Speaker said we would get it passed during the next legislative session,” he said. “It would really help communities with on-going public safety costs.”
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Fina said he remains hopeful that lawmakers will ‘get out of the way’ and let rural communities manage their own economic development opportunities.
“It’s a big mistake when the legislature thinks they are economic developers,” he said. “They are not. Municipalities are the best at economic development, they are doing 90 percent of it.”
State lawmakers will return to the State Capitol next February.
“It (5G) would help enhance education and health care,” he said. “Consider things such as telemedicine. The 5G initiative would help all that, but we’re not there yet. The legislature needs to get out of our way and let us get the fiber in the ground. Municipalities all over Oklahoma work directly with technology and telecom companies and they can spread out all over Oklahoma,” said Mike Fina, the executive director of the Oklahoma Municipal League.