Oklahoma House of Representatives
Office of the Speaker

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mike Fina
Media Assistant to the Speaker
Oklahoma City: (405) 962-7618 or (800) 522-8502
Common Sense
By House Speaker Larry E. Adair
The main focus at the State Capitol for the past two weeks has been the Democrat General Appropriations Bill and Senate Bill 553, the State-Tribal Gaming Act. Although these issues have garnered most of the media attention, several other bills slipped under the radar of the public eye.

One of those measures is House Bill 2293, authored by Abe Deutschendorf a Democrat from Lawton. The bill would provide tax credits to qualified manufacturing facilities located in the state that build housing components. In order for a company to be eligible they must manufacture components or systems that are incorporated into the
structure of single-family residential dwellings. The amount of tax credits authorized would not exceed $2.7 million.

The measure would encourage businesses to produce products that will lower the cost of building new homes in rural Oklahoma. Developing building systems that can be mass produced would lower the cost of production of housing components such as wooden house frames or plumbing assemblies. Typically these components are used in prefabricated housing construction.

The continued development of rural Oklahoma is crucial to the advancement of the state. Providing quality affordable housing is a key component in attracting new growth to rural areas. In some areas construction costs can skyrocket to more then $125 a square foot. In order to encourage families to locate in rural areas we must lower the
cost. Prefab housing is a good alternative to conventional construction because many of the components are already constructed prior to arriving at the job site, thus lowering the cost to consumers.

There is a real need for affordable housing in rural Oklahoma, and the House of Representatives took a step in helping to lower construction costs by approving this proposal. The measure will now be heard in the State Senate and if passed, it will be sent to the Governor to be signed into law.

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