Alva Review-Courier -

While Rep. Carl Newton laments his first bill that died in committee, Sen. Casey is celebrating passage last year of his "best bill," one he believes actually saves lives. The legislators spoke during the Alva Chamber Community Coffee Friday morning, April 19.

Held at Northwest Technology Center and hosted by Public Service of Oklahoma (PSO), the meeting drew a larger than average crowd. It was the last community coffee for Chamber Executive Director Jodie Bradford-Stevison, who was working her last day. She has accepted a new job in Enid. Caitlin Hofen, communications specialist, is also resigning to take a different position.

Rep. Carl Newton

With the legislative session about three-fourths completed, Rep. Carl Newton says this is the time when the House looks at bills coming from the Senate and the Senate looks at House-generated bills. They first go through committees before making it to the floor. When he spoke Friday, about a week was left in the process. Any bills not heard by April 26 will cease to exist.

Prior Authorization: Newton is the author of House Bill 3190 requiring insurance companies to post online prior authorization requirements for medical treatments. "So if you're needing that procedure done, you can get it done in a more timely manner," he said. "I'm pretty proud of that (bill) because I got all the people in the same room and worked with them, so I think we're moving in the right direction."

Turnpike Tolls: "Week before last, I lost my first bill I ever lost in committee. I've never lost one on the floor, but it may happen this year, too," Newton said. This was a bill from the Senate he was carrying for Sen. Darcy Jech. State turnpikes are converting to Pike Pass or plate pay based on automatic reading of license plates due to safety issues with crashes at toll booths.

About five percent of tags are not being read, and over one-third of those are tribal tags because of lack of registration, Newton said. The Department of Public Safety has those. "So, I ran a bill that the Department of Public Safety through their subsidiary to release the name and the address of the owner of that tag that was on the vehicle," he said. "That's all. Because it's fair, right? You go down the road, you pay your toll. That got defeated because the tribes did not want that to happen." The revenue loss to the turnpike system is about $11 million per year. "We're going to look at that down the road. We need to do something," Newton said.

Water Use: "Water is crucial to our area, and we draw all our water from underground aquifers," Newton said. "If we don't take care of these underground aquifers, we won't have any water to live on." He has a House bill in the Senate addressing this issue. In turn, the Senate has sent a similar bill to the House. "We're trying to put some guidelines in on appropriate volumes, what you should be able to use, on permitted water," he said. "Permitted water is commercial water. Domestic water is water you use around your house." He said OWRB (Oklahoma Water Resources Board) doesn't control domestic water, which also includes farmers with normal grazing on their land. "It's commercial water we're talking about, those that use thousands and thousands of gallons." He said this bill addresses the ten percent that don't want to live by the rules, and there's a lot of pushback.

Wind Turbine Lights: Another interesting bill being considered is light mitigation on wind turbines. The blinking lights from wind farms are used to warn aircraft to avoid their tall towers. However, people on ground level find them annoying. Newton said light mitigation is Federal Aviation Authority approved and PSO is on board. There are two options. Lights would be turned off at night unless an aircraft is detected in the area; then they would come on automatically. The other possibility is skirting the lights so they are directed upward but not seen from the ground.

Farm Kid Drivers: Newton said his 14-year-old farm driver permit went into effect in November and there are already 454 licensed in the state.

Sen. Casey Murdock

Sen. Casey Murdock said his morning didn't start well. He woke up early, at 4 a.m., and had extra time for some chores like stripping his bed and packing. After starting on his way to Alva, he discovered he didn't have his glasses and went back. This time he was 15 miles outside of Oklahoma City when he missed his wallet. Despite a second trip back, he still made it to Alva on time.

"Carl and I agree on basically everything," said Murdock. As a result, when he has bills needing a House sponsor, he calls on Newton.

Turnpike Tolls: "When we are not collecting that on our tolls, who makes up that difference? When we have to fix the turnpike, when we have to run government, function government, who makes up that difference when we're not receiving the money that we should be receiving?" asked Murdock. "We do." He referred back to 2016 and the state budget crisis. "What if we had $11 million that should have been flowing in? Maybe we don't cut CIRB (county roads and bridges)."

Water Use: "Carl's water bill – yeah, we have to do something with our water. We have to protect it, but in Oklahoma water is a property right," he said.

"We have good years, we have bad years, we have wet years, we have dry years. We need to pay very, very close attention to our water. I started looking at 'what can we do, what can we do?' You won't find a bigger advocate for private property rights than me," Murdock added.

He said what scared him in the first draft of the water bill was that it had conjunctive use language. "The best way to explain it is, if Oklahoma City needs that water they get it. They have a right to it. Do you all know that Oklahoma City owns the water rights in 22 counties, the surface rights? They own the water rights clear to Felt, Oklahoma. They own the water rights to the North Canadian, the Beaver ... that conjunctive use, Oklahoma City could say 'we need this water' and irrigators out here would have to stop pulling it out of the ground because it's affecting the water flow in the Beaver (River). You guys familiar with the Beaver River? I'm not going to tell you how old I am, but I think I've seen it run five times. There's not a correlation between the ground water and surface water, especially in these aquifers. If we were to tie that together (conjunctive use), northwest Oklahoma is going to suffer, the panhandle is going to suffer."

He said while Rep. Newton is probably one of his best friends and he doesn't begrudge him for what he's doing on the water bill, "why I'm kind of walking around a minefield on this is the water issue just in my Senate district changes. The water basins in my Senate district change. The Ogallala Aquifer is different than the aquifer around Fairview, the Cimarron Aquifer. It's different. It recharges different. I say this to promote the bill that Carl (Newton) just got off the floor yesterday ... sets up water districts.

"I ran this bill a few years ago, got it passed, so the farmers could get more points for applying for EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program) dollars from the federal government. You're part of a water district and you get more points, which you get more grant money to improve your stuff at home. Then the senator's bill comes out on water; I don't like the conjunctive use, I don't like a whole lot of things in there. I'm going through that bill, picking it apart, while all the time I understand we need to fix our problem."

He explained legislation affects the entire state. "We go from rain forest to high desert in the state of Oklahoma." McCurtain County has 60-65 inches of rain a year. Cimarron County had 14 inches. "That's a big difference, but you ought to be there in Cimarron County the night it all comes!" He said his idea is to address each individual basin to fix the state's water problems.

Conservation Easements: The governor signed Murdock's bill April 18 on conservation easements. If there is a conservation easement on a piece of property, you have to declare it when it sells.

E911 Bill: Murdock describes this bill, passed last year, as the best bill he ever ran because it saves lives. It adds a fee to cellphone bills with the revenue going directly to counties. He said the largest increase in his district was seen in Roger Mills County where they went from $34,000 for E911 in 2023 to $171,000 in 2024. Harper County went from $63,000 to $102,000.

The program concluded with a few questions from the audience. See the entire program at http://www.AlvaReviewCourier.com by clicking on the Videos tab.