State Employee Suggestion Box Bill Passes Oklahoma House

Legislation approved by the Oklahoma House of Representatives would expand a state employee suggestion program enacted in 2015 by the same author, a news release from the capitol says.

According to the release, the 2015 law authorizes state agencies to financially reward an employee when that employee makes a suggestion that results in a direct cost savings to the agency of $5,000 or more. The reward is limited to 20 percent of the cost savings.

The 2015 law only applied to agencies with more than 10 full-time employees. House Bill 2471, by state Rep. Ken Walker, removes that limitation, based on a promise he made on the House floor in 2015, he said.

“When this legislation was approved by House members, I promised that I would come back and remove the limit on agencies with less than 10 full-time employees,” said Walker, R-Tulsa. “The truth is that there are small agencies that manage a lot of money. If the intent is to spur cost-savings proposals, then it is unproductive to overlook key agencies based on an arbitrary measure of how many full-time employees they have.

“We need all hands on deck. Legislators look at policy from a bird’s eye view. State employees are in the trenches and they know where agencies can use taxpayer dollars more efficiently.”

The legislation was approved by a unanimous vote of 90-0 and now proceeds to the Oklahoma Senate for consideration.