Sen. Corn Proposes Solution to Avoid Trooper Furloughs

State Sen. Kenneth Corn said the safety of Oklahoma’s citizens is too important to allow highway patrol troopers to be furloughed. He’s come up with a plan to prevent that. Currently the Department of Public Safety charges $5 for copies of driving records. That fee has not increased for several years. Corn, D-Poteau, said the state could keep the troopers on the job by increasing the fee to $10.

“If we do this, we’d generate about $5 million dollars for the Department of Public Safety. It would be enough to prevent furloughs and keep those troopers on our highways, protecting law abiding citizens,” Corn said.

In the budget agreement now working its way through the legislature, DPS is targeted for a 6.5 percent budget cut. However DPS Commissioner Kevin Ward stated on Monday that cut would result in furloughs for 800 Highway Patrol Troopers.

“The best scenario would be if we had the funding to both avoid any kind of fee increase as well as avoiding furloughs, but due to the national recession, that simply isn’t possible this year,” Corn said. “If troopers were needed because of a manhunt or some catastrophic situation and several were furloughed at the time, it could pose a public safety risk. We cannot allow that to happen.”