Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster, Ron Hays, is visiting with the Vice President of Public Policy at the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, Steve Thompson, as he talks about the highlights from week one of the 2023 Oklahoma Legislative Session.
“The one that is really at the top of our list of concerns right now has to do with giving authority to county commissioners to be able to add additional zoning regulations in rural Oklahoma,” Thompson said. “Tulsa County has made the proposal a number of times in the past, and we have always been able to defeat that with the ag groups and some of the other industries, oil and gas, particularly, that operates in a lot of rural areas.”
Effort to tax rural areas, Thompson said, seems to come up each year, and individuals are seeking to exempt property in town from property tax increases. That issue has been fought off successfully each time it has presented itself, Thompson said, and it will be fought once again this year.
“It is very frustrating because I think there are some misconceptions from our urban cousins in regards to the amount of land someone might own, and frequently, even though we have large acreages, that doesn’t necessarily mean that our profits are any larger than someone who has one acre inside town,” Thompson said.
Thompson said the good news is, ag groups and friends of rural Oklahoma have been able to accomplish keeping that agenda out of the legislature.
“It is frustrating because as you are constantly having to play defense on these issues, it feels like we don’t have the time we would like to make improvements in other areas of the law and other areas of state policy that we would like to try to do something good,” Thompson said.
When it comes to state revenue, Thompson said the state is doing quite well.
“I know there are a lot of funding requests for different projects out there, but we are very excited to support our friends in Stillwater with the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine, to get in line for some funding to increase some things at the vet school,” Thompson said.
With the need for more rural vets, Thompson said supporting the OSU College of Veterinary medicine is a big priority.
“The vet school has had some challenges as far as expanding and keeping up in that realm, and we think that under President Shrum’s vision and with the support of the legislature, we can make some progress in that area,” Thompson said.
Working with legislators in eastern Oklahoma in collaboration with the Oklahoma Department of Ag and the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, Thompson said they have put together a proposal that will help streamline and fight off some of the challenges ag operations have faced when it comes to water permits at the water board.
“There are some technical changes in the works to that, and we are very excited that we think that will be a positive for agriculture if the challenges to somebody’s water permit is based on scientific facts and not just that they don’t like folks who raise chickens for folks who raise hogs,” Thompson said.
