ACEC OKLAHOMA THE FIRST WORD 6/2/22

ACEC OKLAHOMA: THE FIRST WORD 6/2/22

ACEC OKLAHOMA members, as we come roaring into summer of 2022 there are many exciting subjects to cover for our members! From the ACEC National Conference, the regular legislative session ending with multiple special sessions moving forward, our Midstates Conference takes place this month and our next general membership meeting will be in Tulsa, August 24th. Never a dull moment!

Legislative Update: The Governor and Legislature ended up not agreeing on budgetary items and a few policy legislative issues which caused the Governor to issue veto's and the legislature to override his veto's. It is clear the contention between Legislative leaders and the Governor is going to be an ongoing problem Legislature Overrides Veto's The legislature has called for a joint concurrent special session to spend approved ARTBA funds on projects and the Governor has called for a special session on June 13th for tax cuts to the budget Stitt calls for Special Session. ODOT will receive the $22m lost in motor fuel tax due to COVID. These are the highlights for ODOT's budget (Info Shared by ODOT) SB1040 Gen Approps HCS.pdf:

Page 26:

Section 69 – State HCM $193,878,499.00 (Last year: $186,893,663)

Section 70 – ROADS $590M

Section 71 – OAC $4M

Page 47:

Section 137 – Special Cash from the STF -$22,664,867 (Last year -$19,315,210)

Page 48:

Section 142 – Special Cash from the Weigh Station Improvement Fund -$7.8M

Page 50:

Section 148 – Appropriates ODOT $22M, authorizes $5M to be transferred to Public Transit Revolving Fund

None of the legislation or resolutions were successfully adopted we opposed/had concerns with impacting OTA. SB 1610 did not advance out of conference committee, SCR 25, SCR 28 and HCR 1021 (audit OTA and ODOT) did not advance. THANK YOU to everyone who communicated with their legislators!

Secretary Gatz was the guest columnist in the Oklahoman-May 29th responding to turnpike criticism. Please be sure to read!

Viewpoint: Oklahoma turnpike plan drives toward safer transportation (oklahoman.com)

The June Primary Election is fast approaching and everything from Governor to County Commissioner will be on the ballot. At the state level, there are 31 Republican incumbents receiving a primary challenge and two Democrats. Fifty-four state legislators are running unopposed. You can learn more about the candidates here.

-Mike Thompson- President & CEO

Be sure to sign up to participate in our General Membership Meeting on June 10th at 11am. Please Click here to sign up and we will send you a Teams Meeting Link to Participate!

We want to give a special Thank you to Stacy Loeffler, BKL, Inc. for hosting Senator Lankford on May 13th! Our National ACEC PAC provided the Primary contribution to his account and they are also giving a generous $5000 to his general election campaign! We will be hosting an event in OKC for the General Election. More details to come!

ACEC National Convention Update!

ACEC just concluded our first in-person conference since the pandemic. ACEC OKLAHOMA had a great delegation representing us in Washington, D.C. Our delegation participated with other ACEC MO's from all parts of the country during the multi-day convention. It was a great opportunity to learn best practices, network with pier firms, and fellowship within our own delegation. The event was capped off by the national Engineering Excellence Awards Gala.

In addition to the regular programing, our delegation was led by Keith & Terri Angier, Brandon Claborn and Marc & Mya Long in visits to Capitol Hill to thank and lobby our members of Congress. While the U.S. House was not in session, we had productive meetings with multiple chiefs of staff and legislative directors. Our delegation was able to meet with Senator Lankford and Senator Inhofe.

If you missed the convention, you can learn more about its happenings via the podcast which broadcast daily from the Gran Hyatt.

A special Thank You to Evan Handy who attended since Mike had to close out the legislative session. We look forward to next year's convention. Thank you to those who attended and advocated our federal delegation on behalf of our industry.

We Need PAC Money!

The Election season is upon us and our state and federal pac are critical tools for helping elect industry champions. Please donate today!!

You can donate to our state PAC here.

You can donate to our federal PAC here.

Save the Date(s)

ACEC Annual Convention, May 22-25 Washington DC

ACEC Midwest States Conference (Kansas, Missouri & Oklahoma) will be June 8-13 at The Buccaneer St. Croix, Virgin Islands (U.S.) More details to come soon.

August 24th Board and General Membership Meeting

Terracon, 9522 E. 47th Pl, Unit D

Tulsa OK 74145

Other ACEC OKLAHOMA important dates:

ACEC - Calendar

Mike Thompson

President & CEO

220 N.E. 28th Street, Suite 135

Oklahoma City, OK 73105