The Oklahoma House dealt a blow Tuesday to Gov. Mary Fallin’s proposal to boost government accountability, reaching a tie vote on the bill to set up an office dedicated to it.
House Bill 2876 used $2 million from Fallin’s executive budget to set up an accountability office within the legislature. The 15 member office would evaluate agency budgets and operations.
Rep. Shane Stone balked at provisions directing that office to also review administrative rules, something a House committee already does.
"If I gave you $2 million to improve our processes, to make us a more efficient body, is this what you would spend it on? Somebody doing the exact same job that we are already supposed to be doing in a committee?" Stone said.
Rep. Cory Williams said the office’s reporting requirements show it would not work for the people of Oklahoma.
"They’re available to only committee chairs in the majority party and only the Speaker and only the Pro Tem. That is not accountability. This is a misnomer at best and a fraud at worst," Williams said.
Williams said the committee amounts to political patronage.
"The Speaker and the Pro Tem do the hiring and firing. The Speaker and the Pro Tem set the compensation out of the $2 million to $3 million that this new agency you’re creating is going to be awarded, and the people in this office only report to the Speaker, the Pro Tem and the committee chairs," Williams said. "It is not the Office of Accountability. It’s the office of whatever the hell the majority party wants to put together."
The bill was laid over after the House voted 44–44 on it.
