October concluded with some great meetings: Fall Conference in Austin Texas, Leadership for Engineers concluded and the transportation interim study was a great success with a reception at the Governor's mansion and OTA sold bonds for the Access Oklahoma program.

As mentioned, the Interim Study with ODOT, AOGC and ACEC OKLAHOMA was a tremendous success highlighting Oklahoma's transportation future and needs. Legislators heard from Transportation Secretary Tim Gatz, ACEC OK, AOGC, OEF and other organizations and businesses that provide products and services to the Oklahoma Department of Transportation for the state’s roads and bridges. Gatz said Oklahoma’s highway system has a $20 billion backlog of needs, including 45 structurally deficient bridges.

The House Transportation Committee held an interim study requested by Rep. Ronny Johns, R-Ada and Rep. Nicole Miller, R-Edmond, to examine the challenges facing the state’s transportation, construction and engineering industries. Sen. John Haste, R-Broken Arrow, the Chairman of the Senate Aeronautics & Transportation Committee, also sat in on the study.

Special Session

The special legislative session called by Governor Stitt ended abruptly without considering Stitt's proposal to decrease income taxes. Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat said that the GOP caucus chose to adjourn the special session due to Stitt's refusal to appear before a Senate panel to respond to inquiries about how his tax reduction plan would safeguard the state's finances and government services.

While Treat has expressed support for reducing personal income taxes, he expressed reservations regarding the absence of a sustainable long-term plan. Speaker Charles McCall voiced disappointment over the Senate's abrupt adjournment of the special session without passing any legislation and without prior communication with House leadership. The House, on the other hand, has not adjourned the special session. Without the Senate in session, there is no reason for the House to take additional action because the bills cannot be heard in both chambers, which is necessary for them to be sent to Gov. Kevin Stitt for his consideration.

We can expect significant deliberations on reducing state income taxes or implementing some type of tax relief in the upcoming 2024 legislative session. In the previous session, the House passed several tax cut measures that were left unaddressed in the Senate. Pro Tem Treat clarified that he lacked adequate support from members to advance the bills.

State Budget Update

State Treasurer Todd Russ reported monthly total revenue collections continued to decline in September. September's total revenue collections decreased by $113.6 million, or 7.1 percent, compared to the same month in 2022. The most significant drop was observed in gross production taxes on energy, which fell from $184.7 million in September 2022 to $93.4 million in September 2023, marking a decrease of $91.3 million or 49.4 percent.

Despite the decrease in gross production tax collections, Russ highlighted that September's receipts amounted to $1.475 billion, $225 million or 18 percent more than the $1.25 billion generated in August. While the downward trend from the record annual high in March continues, the 12-month total of $17.14 billion remains $110.66 million or 0.6 percent higher than the previous year's revenues.

Special Elections

Comanche County voters selected their party nominees to face off in a special election to fill Lawton's Senate District 32 seat. Republican Dusty Deevers and Democrat Larry Bush won their respective primary elections. The state does not conduct runoff primaries in special elections. The Senate District 32 general election will occur on Dec. 12, the same day as a special primary election for the House District 39 seat in Edmond. SD32 includes a large portion of Lawton, including Fort Sill and Cameron University. Republicans have an advantage in the district. As of January, the district included 16,414 registered Republicans, 12,997 registered Democrats and 9,150 independents, according to State Election Board data.

Seven Republicans, two Democrats and one Libertarian are candidates in the special primary election for House District 39, vacated by Ryan Martinez, which will be held on December 12th. The general election is scheduled for February 13th.

Republican candidates – Kristen Ferate, 45; William A. Gaige Jr., 47; Tim Hale, 64; Erick Harris, 36; Ronda Lee Peterson, 61; Cris Price, 53; Ross Vanhooser, 63.

Democrat candidates – Regan Raff, 43, Paul Timmons, 62.

The Reminder: Nov 2nd Membership Meeting

Our speakers is Drew Dugan with the Greater OKC Chamber of Commerce and Tyler Moore with Keep OKC Big League to discuss the vote for the new OKC Arena coming up December 12th OKC city council votes to put new Thunder arena on December ballot (oklahoman.com). They will give an overview of the project and answer our members questions.

Sign up for the General Membership Meeting for November 2nd @ AOGC! ACEC OKLAHOMA (google.com) $35 to cover the cost of lunch

The EEA submission portal Is live! You can submit projects here. We will still require a project poster board that must be submitted in-person, but everything else can be done online.

ACEC National has launched a national television campaign which you can view to the left.

The ad, "Spark", will run in targeted states, national cable and connected tv until December. The ad is accompanied by a landing page where viewers can take action and learn more. The landing page is located here.

ACEC is working with coalition allies to make a final push for relief on this critical problem. Congress needs to understand the urgency of fixing R&D amortization before the end of the year.  Even if you contacted your Members of Congress earlier this year, we need you to take action again.

This year we had an earnest group of up and coming Engineers who participated in all three sessions.

We believe we had productive, informative and helpful sessions for our industries emerging leaders. Many thanks to the firms who participated and the industry leaders who provided insight on legislative affairs, marketing, business development, engineering accounting, risk management and more.

Congratulations to our graduates and thank you for your participation! We look forward to next year.

We spend a lot of time asking for support. However we are incredibly close to reaching our goals, raising just under $11,000 for the federal pac and over $9,000 for our state pac.

We want to take a moment to thank EVERY pac donor, big and small. Without singling anyone out, we wanted to take a minute to show you the amount donated by each firm for state and federal as well. Your participation as a firm does a tremendous amount of work for our industry, supporting known allies and improving our ability to economically prosper collectively.

Back by popular demand, PSMJ is offering an Oklahoma City Bootcamp Feb 7-8. A flyer is attached with information related to the bootcamp here.

What: PSMJ Principals Bootcamp

Where: 1601 NW Expressway, OKC OK 73118