Magna Carta News
Thursday, February 12, 2004
Oklahoma House of Representatives
February 11, 2004
By MIKE W. RAY
House Media Division Director
OKLAHOMA CITY -- A former Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper now serving in the Legislature believes state highway maintenance workers deserve extra pay because of the dangerous nature of their jobs.
House Bill 2345 by Rep. Glen "Bud" Smithson would authorize the Oklahoma Department of Transportation to pay a stipend of $50 per month to any of its employees who are "subjected to hazardous duty."
The determination of what constitutes "hazardous" work conditions, and the minimum number of hours an ODOT employee would have to work each month to qualify for the proposed stipend, would be left to the agency's discretion. The stipends also would be contingent on the availability of funds.
Smithson, who is retired from the Department of Public Safety, said he rubbed shoulders with many highway department workers throughout his 27-year career as an OHP trooper. "They are out working all hours of the day and night, in all kinds of weather, patching potholes and throwing sand or salt on the roads when it's icy. They risk their lives to do their jobs." Several of them have been maimed in recent years when struck by errant motorists, Smithson noted.
A stipend "would be a small way we could show our appreciation for what they do," the first-term legislator asserted. The stipends would cost an estimated $564,000 per year, fiscal analysts calculate.
The state Transportation Department had 2,402 employees on its payroll Feb. 1. Of those, 946 had job classifications that were designated as potentially hazardous; that number included 826 equipment operators and 120 job superintendents.
The House Appropriations and Budget Subcommittee on General Government gave House Bill 2345 a "do pass" recommendation Wednesday.
The proposal now will be considered by the entire 101-member House of Representatives.
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