Road damage caused by heavy oilfield truck traffic has the attention of Marlow State Rep. Brad Boles who has legislation to change funding to help cities and towns pay for road repairs.
His bill came as the result of an interim study last year.
Rep. Boles’ bill would focus on reapportioning some of the gross domestic product tax revenue that is already being collected. He told the Mustang Times recently that oil and gas companies already pay “plenty of taxes” and it is not his intent to raise taxes on the industry.
“—but one issue we have is there’s no funding for cities to maintain the roads or bridges with oil and gas activity,” he said.
Boles said he proposed the legislation to help the city of Tuttle.
“So we’re not raising any tax, but just reapportioning some of that to cities that have oil field activity,” he told the Times.
“Part of that tax, going forward, on new wells, will actually go back to the city limits as well.”
Rep. Boles explained everyone would still get funding but under his bill, some would go back to the cities “so that they have money to cover their basic roads and maintenance that comes with the oil field activity and oil field traffic.”
Tuttle is part of the House District 51.
Source: Mustang Times