Tie-breaker’ law would impact Tulsa business

On Friday, Gov. Brad Henry is expected to sign into law Senate Bill 1714, a bill first introduced into the Oklahoma House of Representatives by Rep. Danny Morgan , D-Prague, that would give preference to Oklahoma-based companies on projects that utilize state dollars.

 

Morgan calls it the “tie-breaker” bill.

 

“What the language says is, if you’re spending state dollars on any goods or service through the bid process, and the bids should come back even, then the Oklahoma contractor gets preference,” Morgan said.

 

The bill goes on to state that if no Oklahoma company bids on the contract, the contract must go to a U.S.-based company. Only if no U.S. business bids on the contract may it go to an overseas company.

 

The bill supports Oklahoma contractors by giving them an advantage over out-of-state companies when bidding on Oklahoma projects. The bill states, “Give preference to goods and services that have been manufactured or produced in this state if the price, fitness, availability and quality are otherwise equal.”

 

“We need to treat Oklahoma businesses the way they should be treated, and that is to say, ‘We want your business here,’” Morgan said.

Morgan said the bill helps protect those deciding on the outcome of the bidding process.

 

“If everything is equal and you’ve got an out-of-state contractor bidding and an Oklahoma contractor bidding, I didn’t want there to be any undue influence put on the decision-maker by the out-of-state bidder,” he said. “The decision should be automatic. It prevents any undue, inappropriate influence on decision-makers because the decision is made for them.

 

“I don’t know if that ever went on, but I created that situation in my mind.”

 

Morgan said reciprocity was the original intent of the bill.

 

“I had a lot of business owners in my district who would go to other states to use contracting their services or were bidding (on contracts) in other states, but the states they were going into have all these hoops these guys have to jump through,” Morgan said.

 

He said other states’ regulations on out-of-state contractors make it difficult for Oklahoma contractors to be competitive in those states. SB 1714 includes language that forces out-of-state contractors bidding on Oklahoma contracts to follow their states’ requirements for out-of-state contractors while working in Oklahoma .

 

“If your state has certain requirements for out-of-state bidders, you have to meet those same requirements in Oklahoma ,” Morgan explained.

The bill received overwhelming support from the House when Morgan introduced it in March, and it passed by a 93-0 vote. It stalled, though, in the State Senate, when it landed in Sen. Randy Brogdon’s, R-Owasso, committee, and he refused to hear it.

 

“When Sen. Brogdon refused to hear it in committee, that floored me,” Morgan said. “I never got a good explanation. I just about gave up on this.”

 

However, representatives from the Tulsa Metro Chamber of Commerce and Mayor Dewey Bartlett Jr.’s office visited Morgan, expressing their support for the bill and interest in adopting similar statutes in Tulsa — but they’d need a state law in place before that could happen.

 

Morgan said Bartlett ’s Chief of Staff Terry Simonson and others from Tulsa asked him to seek another bill into which he could insert the language of his and have it passed.

 

“They put a fire under me,” Morgan said.

 

Mike Bunney, chief economic development officer for the City of Tulsa , said Tulsa ’s interest in adopting similar regulations stemmed from an interest expressed by business leaders in the community at Bartlett ’s small business forums, held earlier this year.

 

“Certainly the mayor, the mayor’s office and myself, we’re all about promoting Tulsa business,” Bunney said. “If we can figure out a way to do that and kind of use the state legislative framework as a guideline, we’d like to do that.”

 

Bunney said as soon as Henry signs the bill, he plans to turn it over to the city attorney’s office and get to work on preparing something similar to present to the Tulsa City Council.

 

“We’ll research the city charter and make sure (we can do) what we think we can do and try to get it in front of the council within 60 days or so,” Bunney said.

 

He said adopting similar rules would positively impact business in Tulsa .

 

Morgan said representatives from other cities have also called him, expressing support for his bill and interest in adopting similar rules in their towns.

 

Bartlett, along with members of the local business community, will have a press conference tomorrow at 2 p.m. to announce intentions to adopt legislation similar to SB 1714.

 

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