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"Suggestion Box" Bill Goes to Governor's Desk

pixabay.com

State representatives send an employee incentive program to the governor’s desk.

Rep. Ken Walker says it would let state employees collect financial awards for finding ways to save their agencies money.

"Somebody can only receive one award per year based off an idea that they have," Walker said before a House vote on the measure. "I would imagine that [the Office of Management and Enterprise Services] would come up with the rules for when it would be given."

The program doesn’t apply to suggestions that would require legislation, and it has a minimum savings requirement of $5,000. The employee award cap is 20 percent of the amount the agency saves.

Rep. David Derby said he would prefer the bill not limit the program to agencies with more than 10 full-time employees.

"Would you be agreeable to remove that 10 and let every state agency that's appropriated have this particular incentive available to them?" Derby said to Walker. "Because there are some agencies out there that have 10 or less that deal with quite a bit of money."

Walker promised to fix that portion of the law later. Rep. Wade Rousselot seemed skeptical.

"I've been here 11 years, and I've heard a lot of people say, 'Let's fix that, we'll fix that next year, but vote for my bill this year,'" Rousselot said. "Are you familiar with that phrase?"

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.