Too many legislators?

Last week as a member of the rules committee, I attended an interim study to examine a proposal by Representative Gary Banz of Midwest City. Representative Banz intends to amend his House joint resolution 1021 in the 2012 session to send a constitutional amendment to the voters that would reduce the Oklahoma legislature by approximately 10%. What that would mean, in numbers of House members, is that it would reduce 101 representatives down to 91. It would reduce the number of State Senators from the current 48 down to 43. The House fiscal staff estimated that this could reduce legislative expenses by approximately 1.2million dollars annually which at first glance sounds great, especially if you say it real fast. There are several schools of thought on this issue and before I go any further, let me say that in my opinion Gary Banz is a good man. I consider him well intentioned and I believe that he has no malice in his heart toward any specific legislators or particular districts. Gary Banz is a former educator and I am thoroughly convinced that it is nothing more than a mathematical equation. There are some venomous attacks from some concerned groups on his character which I believe are totally unwarranted. I know Gary well and I know that he just sees this as a cost savings and an opportunity to reduce the size of government. That being said let me give you a rural legislator’s perspective on why this may not be such a good idea. First of all, I was the chairman of the Southwest region last session when we drew the new maps and I saw first hand the size and square miles of many of the rural districts. My concern is that you can overburden a rural legislator because many times rural districts are comprised of several hundred square miles. When I had House staff give me a rough estimate of the square miles of my district it was about 1500 square miles with numerous school districts and taking in two county seats. There is a stark difference between an urban district that may be made up of square blocks. Now this measure, should it pass, really will not affect me because I will be termed out before it could possibly take effect, but if you’ve ever tried to make all the different civic events and school functions, parades and festivals in a rural district you’ll know exactly what I mean. I’ve got ten school districts in district 63 and in each of those communities they like to see their Senator or Representative from time to time and if you don’t make the rounds often times they get offended. In rural districts folks usually at least know who their legislators are and in many cases they know them personally. Its much like living in the country, you probably know your neighbor a mile down the road and in many big cities people may not know the neighbor next door. I believe that Representative Banz may not be as in touch with the size and scale of rural districts. Again, as I said earlier I don’t think he intends any harm I just think, to him, the mathematical equation says we will save money. There is another school of thought that some have expressed that says that some folks will be under represented and that it will make it tougher to gain access to legislators and I might tend to agree due to the size of districts that will be created. Under Representative Banz’ proposal the average number of constituents per House district would increase from today’s 37, 142 to 41,224. This would add about 4,000 people for a House member to have to reach, or from the other side of the equation, it would be 4,000 more people that would have to struggle for access to their Representative. Senate districts would increase from 78,153 to 87,241 constituents. If this measure went to the vote of the people in November 2012, the change would be implemented in 2021 following the next census and redistricting process.

Banz contends that many other state legislatures have districts of similar size noting that legislators in 28 other states currently represent more constituents per capita than Oklahoma lawmakers do. Two figures tossed out for consideration were that in 1921 in Oklahoma there were just 92 seats in the House but in 1953 there were 124 members in the State House. Banz also feels that with technological changes in communication over the past several years that access to government officials and the governing process is easier than any other time in our state’s history. While he is technically correct I still think we have to be extremely careful to not make the job of being an Oklahoma legislator so cumbersome that we cannot get good people to run. We need to be very cognizant of anything we create as far as obstacles.

I know that many of you, at first glance, think that any time we can shrink government its better. I think we need to think on this one long and hard and look at all the possible scenarios before we jump off this cliff. I’d be interested to hear how some of you see it. Love to hear from ya’ just shoot us an email with your thoughts.

If you would like to contact me at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or email me at donarmes@okhouse.gov.

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.- Ernest Benn

Finally!

I usually try to write this article on Friday because it sure cuts down on the stress for both me and my assistant on Monday when the deadline for the local paper is looming. Last Friday morning I was in a little bit better mood for our weekly visit because at the official rain gauge at the Armes’ place, which is universally recognized as the one I live and die by, I dumped out an inch of rain. We had received 2/10 of an inch on Thursday and 8/10 of and inch on Thursday night and Friday morning. It was the right kind, good and slow and the temps were cool enough that it wasn’t gonna’ just bake right out of the soil. The skies were gray and it was about 55 degrees with prospects of more to come through the weekend. So, by the time you read this on Wednesday or Thursday, I hope we got more than that. Now this is not a license to start playing with matches and I had to fight the urge to go ahead and burn my feed sacks and round bail twine because technically we’re still in a burn ban and my burn barrel is over flowing. But at least maybe the pump is primed and we have a chance to green up some grass. It’s by no means a drought buster but it sure looks good to see a few puddles around because this has been the worst drought of my lifetime and many of you who are years older than me have never seen it this bad either. No we’re not out of the woods but there is a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. Cooler temperatures have already got folks moving a little better. It’s been nice to be able to work in the afternoons and not have to deal with the stifling heat. I think the whole world will just be more productive over the next few weeks. The crispness in the air makes it a lot easier to think about things like football and things we should be thinking about this time of year. And I believe there is cause for optimism on a lot of fronts. Rain brings the country back to life a little bit and increases the chances for wheat pasture and some things we have to have in this country. Even the state budget, which has been extremely tough over the last year or so, seems to be on the way up. Reports we are getting from the State Treasurer’s office is that things are improving which always tends to perk folks up a little, especially those that live and die by state dollars. Now I don’t have any of the figures in front of me but it seems the state income is clipping along at a pretty good rate and tax collections seem to be up a little. Fuel prices are still pretty stout which, as I’ve said many times before, is a two edged sword. I always seem to mumble a few mild expletives under my voice when I fill up my diesel pickup which is around $80 if I’ve let it get very low. If any of you have seen me out and around in my old silver Crown Victoria, that rig gets a lot better gas mileage and gas is still cheaper than diesel. So unless I’ve gotta’ have a pickup I swallow my pride and forget about how many cool points it’s costing and suck it up and drive the old Crown but with those higher fuel prices come accelerated state dollars which can be good and bad for schools and county commissioners and folks like that who rely on state dollars but yet consume pretty large quantities of diesel and gas. Whoops, I was slipping back into pessimism again, I apologize. Did I mention the fact that it rained? And by the way, when I started this article I pulled back into the house to get something from my shop and I checked the rain gauge and we got another 2/10, still have cloudy skies and still more chance of rain through the weekend so I guess all those prayers for rain may have been finally answered, but Lord, at the risk of getting struck by lightening do you think you could work in 4 inches? We could really use it.

If you would like to contact me while I am at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or send an email to donarmes@okhouse.gov.

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:

Many a man curses the rain that falls upon his head, and knows not that it brings abundance to drive away the hunger. ~Saint Basil

Terrorists, You’d Better Stick with Big Cities

This past week I’ve seen two really good examples of why I live in Southwest Oklahoma while I don’t think Southwest Oklahoma has a corner on this market maybe its just small town America in general but I like it. The first example was the refuge fire that started near Meers and moved around the mountains and headed for Indiahoma. The original command center was at the Meers fire department and by the end of the Labor Day weekend the command center was moved to the Indiahoma School. Having already seen first hand the destructive power of this fire I made my way out there Monday evening like I usually do when there is an incident, to check in with the civil defense director just to make sure that the state resources were where they need to be, because if I don’t and they’re not, I get the call. As I arrived at the Indiahoma School it was a flurry of activity, firefighters coming and going FFA kids carrying ice chests and water jugs and when you walked in the door you noticed the piles and piles of food, sandwiches, chips, homemade pies, Gatorade, water by the pallet load and enough help to float a battleship. Nobody looking for credit just pulling together as a community to make sure no firefighters were hungry or not well cared for. After all, the town of Indiahoma has a volunteer fire department and they “get it.” These guys are not getting paid, many of them are missing work or at the very least their Labor Day weekend to come to the driest corner of the state, the epicenter of the drought to fight a very dangerous wildfire. There is no way that a town like Indiahoma is not gonna’ show their gratitude to these guys and that’s how it should be. The funny part is, and I hate to use the term funny because it really might not have been, but the FFA moms kind of got sideways with the Red Cross. Now before you start saying that Armes was bad mouthing the Red Cross, as my daughter used to say “you better check yourself before you wreck yourself” my mother was and still is a Red Cross nurse and I’ve been given strict instructions on what is to happen to her Red Cross pin upon her death. It is a wonderful organization that does good things in times of disaster but there was no way that the Red Cross lady was any way, shape or form ready for the Indiahoma FFA moms. Those FFA moms are used to putting on feeds and having fund raisers and all that and really, in essence I’m not sure they needed the Red Cross. The Red Cross is good at helping in times of disaster but they don’t have the man power and in this instance the Indiahoma FFA provided the man power. Actually there was quite a little rub between the two. The Red Cross has guidelines on how to take care of the situation and how to get resources to the right place. The Indiahoma FFA moms DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ GUIDELINES, their guideline is “git-r-done.” And they did, they “got-r-done” and in good order I might add. One of the funniest incidents and I know you want me to name names and I’m not going to, was when a couple of five gallon igloo water jugs showed up from a local retailer out of Lawton. Team mom immediately grabbed the jugs and started filling them with water and ice. The lady from team Red Cross said “wait, wait, don’t do that” team mom says “what do you mean?” Team Red Cross says “those are supposed to go to the fire fighters” team moms flippant response back to the Red Cross was “well, don’t you think they want something in them?” The reason I use this illustration is not only to brag on the town of Indiahoma for their rapid response to a very real need but just to try to show how well a small town pulls together at a moments notice to get a job done or to help defend against a natural disaster, in this case fire. As I said in last weeks column a lot of people deserve lots of credit for a lot of things. This was the kind of fire we only read about and we had one here and lots of people helped at every level.

The second illustration that I saw this week was the cohesiveness of a small community when the town of Chattanooga rallied around the family of their police chief Tommy Reed who died last week in a motorcycle accident. I knew Tommy fairly well and he was a really, really good man. In fact he’d been the police chief for over 25 years and in that length of time he’d raised an entire community from the knot head stage to adulthood. Tommy loved his community and as the law of the town he was an authority figure to a couple of generations of kids. Tommy, I think ,in his mild mannered way as story after story were told at his funeral, sort of lovingly jerked a knot in the tail of many a young person growing up in Chattanooga that might’ve had a lead foot or some other ailment of youth and I guess in essence he kind a’ raised the whole town. As the residents of Chattanooga can attest, Tommy watched over that tight knit community not like an employee but like a father. After all, he was no outsider, it was his community too. He was always trying to help by working on peoples’ vehicles and never charging enough, he drove the afternoon school bus and just sort of cobbled together a living so that he could remain in the hometown that he loved. Tommy was a good one and he loved Chattanooga and Chattanooga loved him and it was very evident as the whole community surrounded his family with love and support at his passing.

Yeah, I think if I were a terrorist I’d probably steer clear of the small towns because in our community when you take on one you take on the whole bunch.

If you would like to contact me while I am at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or send an email to donarmes@okhouse.gov

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:
Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable. ~Kenyan Proverb

Fire On the Mountain.

Last Thursday as I headed home from an interim study at the Capitol I received word that one of my friends might be in jeopardy due to a fire that started on the wildlife refuge and had progressed toward Meers and the Mt. Village neighborhood which is just East of my friends place on scenic Highway 115. Of course I’m in a suit and was ill prepared to render much aid because I was in my car and not my pickup and was over an hour away but when I called and reached the Cooks’ Tammy was frantic and said that the fire had burned almost half way down Tarbone Mountain. Their place is called the Tarbone Ranch and it is a veritable paradise where our family has spent numerous weekends and many enjoyable campouts when our kids were in school together. When I asked if they needed anything her response was “I don’t even know.” I decided at that point that I was pretty useless in my car so I decided to go home and get on some work clothes and of course get a pickup. In the meantime, I fought the urge to go on out but I knew I had a friend who might be in jeopardy and I couldn’t just sit there. So I sent her a text and said “are you hangin’ on?” When I didn’t get a response the decision was made. I looked at Dede and said “I’m going” and she said “you probably can’t get in” I said “I bet I can.” So off I went long sleeved shirt, gloves, and toe sacks in the back of the pickup not knowing what I’d find when I got there or if I could be of any help but was dead set that I was gonna’ try. Fearing the worst I headed toward Meers. By this time the sun was low in the West as I approached the mountains I could see the glow of the fire on the horizon. I knew the wind had been a factor and was afraid that it might’ve blown the fire right into them. As I approached the Meers store from the East I fully expected a road block and found nothing but could smell smoke and knew that just around the bend would be flashing lights. By this time dark was setting very quickly and I continued, reaching the Meers store all seemed well and I made the curve, headed north, still no flashing lights or fire fighting vehicles. It was almost eerie as I knew full well there was a major fire and the question was where is this fire? I proceeded North to the curve and could see the lights on top of the wind generators but still no fire and then as I turned back West and made a couple of miles I topped the hill and at the entrance of Mt. Village were several emergency vehicles with lights flashing and as I got closer to the Cooks’ corner, right at their gate, I saw a sea of flashing red and blue and I have to tell ya’ I feared the worst. The last time I had talked to the Cooks’ Tammy said she was wetting down the house with water hoses and Ken was trying to plow a fire break around their house which is nestled in the middle of the beautiful 300 acre Tarbone Ranch surrounded by scrub oak, native grassland and some awfully rough terrain. I was relieved to see another long time friend Brian Demarcus whose ranch gate opens just a hundred yards or so from the Cooks’ gate and when I got out I asked Brian if everyone was ok and he said yes, the fire seemed to be moving East. At that point the wildlife refuge fire crew who seemed to be coordinating the effort was trying to decide how best to attack this huge fire that seemed to be engulfing the whole area and they were getting the logistics together on where to send dozers and graders and how to set strategically placed back fires to do their best to consume the fuel in the path of the fire to have a chance to stop natures fury. By this time I was close enough to Tarbone Mountain to look south and see flames as it burned its way down toward Tarbone Ranch and the Demarcus place and several other surrounding areas. It was eerie in the dark as you looked towards Tarbone you couldn’t help but think that must be what a volcano must look like as it erupts and the liquid fire and molten lava washes down the gullies of a mountain range. Fire in the mountains is a much different animal than a flat land range fire. The biggest challenge is accessibility. The biggest worry in a flat land fire is possibly running a truck into an unseen gully or hitting a tree stump in the dark. In the mountains many times you can’t even get the truck to the fire so it makes the job of saving homes and property even tougher. The chances of getting trapped in a mountain fire are even greater as well as many other hazards most people would not even think about such as rattlesnake bites from an angry reptile whose sleep was interrupted by the fire and is running just as scared as any other animal in that forested area. Of course by this time of night many of the volunteer fire fighters on hand had already put in a days work at their jobs and were looking at a long night of trying to save property and people. It’s just been one of those years. As I’ve said before there’s not much fuel at my house as our pastures are grazed slicker than a cue ball but in those mountains there is enough fuel to reek havoc and that’s exactly what it was doing. I headed home late Thursday night with the Cooks’ at least temporarily safe and prayed for the wind to lay which it finally did and called back Friday morning to check the status only to find out it seemed the fire had gotten closer to them but at least in the daylight there’s a chance and a little bit less risk of injury from hazards hidden in the dark. Little did I know that later that afternoon I would be in the middle of one of the wildest fires I’ve ever seen in my life. The wind had shifted and picked up and some of the areas like Mt. Village and Tarbone were now directly in the path of the fire with the excessive wind and extreme dry conditions things had changed dramatically. Road blocks had been set up and evacuation was under way. I headed back out about noon working my way back up toward the Cooks’ place. Tammy had gotten the boat and their camper and as many keepsakes as she could and tried to get them far away from the oncoming fire. I finally reached her by phone and she said “the fire is coming; Ken and the boys are still down there trying to save the house.” This time I was dressed for it and headed back to Tarbone for what would become the wildest firefight I’ve ever seen in my life. There were firefighters from all over the place lined up at the Meers fire department filling trucks from tankers that had been staged to make sure that water wasn’t an issue and those trucks were being dispatched as quickly as possible to try and save as many homes as they could. I’ve never seen fire change directions so many times or engulf a grove of trees as furiously as this fire did. There is no way that words can describe the helpless feeling that you get when you see a fire roaring towards you. You’re standing there with a garden hose and a wet toe sack knowing you can’t win and then almost out of nowhere comes a brush truck through the flames just when you thought you’d lose the battle and a building would burn. I could write a book on the events of that afternoon but the good news for the Cooks’ is that we were able to save their house and outbuildings but it burned everything else on that pristine 300 acre wild game reserve. That chapter of the fire claimed eleven houses and absolutely scorched the earth. The fact that any homes were saved is nothing short of a miracle. Day 4 of the fire moved the whole operation West where the fire threatened the Treasure Lake job corps center, Phelan Ranch and even the town of Indiahoma. I went to the command center at the Indiahoma School Monday night and after heading out to the fire with the civil defense director, Clint Wagstaff, I knew that the fire would soon be under control because it was coming out of the mountains. They had cut the fire breaks and done enough back burns and had in essence drawn a big enough line in the sand that would be the point that firefighters gained the upper hand. The command center at Indiahoma, in true small town fashion, was an oasis for tired firefighters. I think every FFA mom that knew how to make sandwiches had set up shop. It was all hands on deck with the FFA kids hauling ice and water and making sure that those tired firefighters had something to eat and a place to cool their heels. It was an amazing atmosphere where everyone did what they could and just flat worked their guts out to contain a wildfire of epic proportions. Who gets the credit? EVERYBODY! I’m a proponent of fire as a range management tool but a controlled burn and a wild land fire under extreme drought conditions are two very different animals. So, by all means, pay attention to every thing you do that involves even the smallest spark. And pray for rain.

If you would like to contact me while I am at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or send an email to donarmes@okhouse.gov.

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:
How is it that one match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box of matches to start a campfire? -Christy Whitehead

Carnac Where Are You When We Need You?

Ah, the simpler days. Before cable, smart phones, internet and all those modern day “must haves”. We had three channels from an antenna, four if you were lucky and if your parents would let you stay up you could watch Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon on the Tonight Show. They had a bit that they called Carnac the Magnificent and of course Johnny would be at the desk with a big goofy lookin’ turban and his character was Carnac, a soothsayer or predictor of the future. He would hold an envelope up to his head and he could always tell what was in it. Of course it was all in fun and like most comedy of those days it was simple clean and funny. I wish there was such a guy that could tell us when the drought of 2011 will end.

I can’t count the hours that I’ve spent on the phone the last few weeks trying to help producers through the mind field of government regulations that surround the agriculture business like size regulations for semis hauling hay and what to do about crop insurance and the seemingly non- sensical regulations laid out by the Federal Risk Management Agency. And lest you should loose interest at this point don’t forget if you eat, you are involved in agriculture.

So whether you are a producer or consumer this is gonna’ affect us all. There are several tough spots as we try to plan for whatever the future is. The most immediate concern is with irrigated cotton producers in my district who are scared to death to shut off irrigation wells even though we know the cotton will have dismal yields at best if any at all. Their fear is that if they shut off their wells their insurance will not pay and before you start saying the government shouldn’t be helping with that you need to understand what their input costs are. My closest neighbor raises some dry land cotton and I knew cotton seed had escalated over the last few years by leaps and bounds and I just asked him out of curiosity one day, what does it take to fill your planter before you go the field? His answer reminded me why I don’t grow cotton. He said twenty four thousand dollars, just to fill the seed boxes on his cotton planter. No chemicals, no tillage, just seed boxes. I think you can see the need for risk management. He’s a medium sized producer. We have to remember that someone has to grow the cotton for the fabric we all depend on. It’s gotten to the point where no matter what crop you grow, if you do it without insurance you are insane or just so rich it doesn’t matter.

As natural resources chairman I’m in pretty constant contact with not only the State Ag Department but also the soil conservation folks whose money we appropriate and I think without a doubt they believe, and I agree with them, this drought is worse than the dust bowl. The difference is the conservation practices put into place over several generations have made a difference in whether the soil blows or stays in place. We don’t have a Carnac the Magnificent to tell us when this drought will end we’ve been running irrigation wells putting a very fragile water table at risk just to meet requirements that the RMA requires. The next thing that we’re going to do which flies in the face of everything we’ve learned from the dust bowl is that were getting ready to plow where wheat stubble or remnants of a cotton crop remain and till that soil without any knowledge of where we’re going with this drought because the insurance companies say we have to. I don’t think they are trying to be malicious, it’s just that RMA tells us what those practices need to be and they regulate the crop insurance industry. We know that if this drought continues and we plow wheat ground in preparation betting on the come, not knowing whether it will rain or not, about the first good blue norther that blows in about 90% of our topsoil is gonna’ be in Texas. So the dilemma continues. In a normal year with some sub soil moisture we wouldn’t give a second thought to dropping a plow in the ground and getting’ after it but we are in uncharted waters. Very few people alive today have ever seen a drought of this magnitude. In the meantime we’ve been in contact with the Ag Commissioner and we’ve had Congressman Cole down here in the epicenter of the drought on a windshield tour. Congressman Lucas who is also in a very influential position as House Chair of Agriculture in Washington D.C. has been kept up to speed on the situation. The Congressman is also no stranger to agriculture as he is also involved in the farming and ranching business in N.W. Oklahoma. So I guess my plea is if you’re out and about at the feed store or the co-op or the coffee shop and Carnac the Magnificent shows up ask him “When the heck is it gonna’ rain?” We kind of need to know.

If you would like to contact me while I am at the Capitol, please do not hesitate to call 1-800-522-8502 or send and email to donarmes@okhouse.gov.

And here’s a little something to think about as you go down the road:

Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand
miles from the corn field. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower