June 20, 2007
OKLAHOMA CITY - State Representative Jason Murphey (R-Guthrie) is expressing his disappointment in the recent gubernatorial approval of a pork-filled appropriations bill. Murphey voted against House Bill 1278 even though it included thousands of dollars for an organization located in Murphey's district. Murphey hopes his vote will send a message discouraging pork spending.

“For government to get smaller, legislators must start voting against pork spending, even when it affects their own district,” Murphey said.

Murphey explained that Senate budget negotiators apparently loaded up HB1278 with thousands of dollars of earmarks to non-governmental organizations, including a controversial appropriation of $200,000 for a project known only as “A Pocket Full of Hope". The bill also included a $150,000 appropriation to Guthrie's Pollard Theater.

Murphey stated that many members of the House of Representatives felt they had little choice but to vote for the measure so as not to throw a monkey wrench into budget negotiations with the Senate. The controversial bill only passed the House by a margin of four votes, leading Murphey to predict that the ability of Senators to gain approval for pass-through pork spending is short-lived.

“Because the leadership of the House is committed to conservative fiscal spending, I feel confident that the ability of old guard Senate politicians to waste taxpayer funds through pork spending will eventually become a thing of the past,” Murphey said.

Murphey hopes to convince his constituents that even if they are the temporary beneficiaries of pork spending, in the long run, everyone loses when politicians dole out political largess by sending state appropriations to third party organizations. In his weekly report to constituents, Murphey pointed to the recent disclosure that two $150,000 pass through expenditures appear to have been funneled from state government through a Guthrie organization to a company partly owned by former State Senator Gene Stipe. This is an example, Murphey said, of how politicians benefit from the taxpayers to the possible detriment of the local organization and the community that is tainted by the disclosure.

“It is wrong for government money to be given to a private organization that does not provide the government with quantifiable services,” Murphey said.