Tassie Katherine Hirschfeld of PikeOffOTA; OTA is Soviet-Style Centralized Planning

Friday, January 31st, our guest on the podcast was Tassie Katherine Hirschfeld of PikeOffOTA, the group that is pushing back against the Oklahoma Transportation Authority and their continued need to displace Oklahoma residents for completely unneeded toll roads for which taxpayers pay multiple times.

The whole discussion was worthwhile and you can see that in full on our Rumble and YouTube channels, though you can find it with public comment on YouTube and on our Facebook page. Seeing the comments is almost as good as the discussion.

One of the most important parts of the interview I think, was when Tassie – who spent quite some time in Cuba doing her Ph.D. research – compared OTA with Cuba’s soviet-style central planning. This is important. America is a Republic in administration and a Democracy in action, wherein the people who make up the citizenry are able to interact with their government officials and – ideally – direct how they are governed. This is NOT how the OTA functions, however, Tassie makes that very clear.

Unfortunately, the problems with OTA are not simple. In the video below, Tassie describes last year’s court case against the OTA in which PikeOff accused them of not following the Oklahoma Open Meeting law. The District Judge agreed that the OTA was not being forthcoming with information and transparent about the ways in which they were doing business and told OTA to stop work on their ACCESS program, but OTA just chose not to and the Judge didn’t make them. Therefore, it was like nothing had ever happened – OTA wasn’t taken to court, PikeOff didn’t win a lawsuit and OTA just went right along as they had before. Where else does this happen in life? I wouldn’t imagine I would be able to get away with not following a judge’s ruling, but OTA did.

It’s going to be very important for EVERY Oklahoman (because this won’t stop and someday this could be YOUR home) to pay attention to legislation this year regarding OTA has REQUESTED. PikeOff has provided that information and I’ve pasted it in below. Please let your senator and representative BOTH know that you want to see these laws PASSED this year! Thanks so much to Amy Cerato of PikeOff, for the information!

OTA SPECIFIC

HB1188 – Title 69, Section 1707 – Abutting property owner rights along turnpikes, including compensation  for damages, devaluation of property or at the request of the property owner, acquisition of property plus all relocation costs incurred by owner. (Rick West) **MIRROR BILL TO SB969

HB1781 – Title 69, Section 1914 (NEW LAW) – Restricting how and where the OTA can advertise. (Shaw)

HB1939 – Title 69, Section 1705 – Sunset location authorizations if the OTA has not commenced physical construction in earnest within five years. (Sterling) 

HB2090 – Title 74, Section 213 –  State Auditor and Inspector to perform a special audit providing a determination of the revenue required to repay the original cost of existing turnpikes, provide an assessment of risk within the agency, conduct a 15 year look back and 10 year projection of maintenance reserved fund balances, deposits, expenditures and explanation of cross pledging refinancing practices, provide explanation of gap between required reserve maintenance fund deposits and actual reserve maintenance funds, provide an explanation of financial impact of cost overruns on the driving forward program. (Menz)

HB2093 – Title 69, Section 1709 – Establishing a bond debt ceiling on the OTA. (Menz) **MIRROR BILL TO SB963

HB2097 – Title 69, Section 1711 – – NEW LAW – Requiring legislative approval via a joint resolution for toll increases. (Menz) **MIRROR BILL TO SB964

SB963 – Title 69, Section 1709 – Establishing a bond debt ceiling on the OTA. (Standridge) **MIRROR BILL TO HB2093

SB983 – Title 69, Section 1705 – Audit by the State Auditor and Inspector prior to Bond Sales.  Auditor can request any information necessary for the determination of the feasibility and economic soundness of any turnpike projects or parts thereof listed in 1705(e) which are to be financed with revenue bonds. (Standridge) 

SB966 – Title 69, Section 1703 – Creation of a Turnpike Legislative Oversight Board.  OTA must annually provide a copy of its most recent annual report to the members of the Turnpike Legislative Oversight Board, in addition to any information requested by such body. (Standridge)

SB969 – Title 69, Section 1707 – Abutting property owner rights along turnpikes, including compensation  for damages, devaluation of property or at the request of the property owner, acquisition of property plus all relocation costs incurred by owner. (Standridge) **MIRROR BILL TO HB1188

SB 964 – Title 69, Section 1711 – NEW LAW – Requiring legislative approval via a joint resolution for toll increases. (Standridge) **MIRROR BILL TO HB2097

Open Records Act

HB2095 – Title 51, Section 24A.5 – Requiring state agencies to reply to open record requests within 30 days.