With our oversight committee deadline in the rearview, the full membership of the House of Representatives has been hearing dozens of bills in chamber each day of the legislative session.
On Wednesday night, I presented House Bill 3880 to the members and secured its passage.
This bill would allow all Tourism and Recreation Department employees to earn commission on sales from advertising, sponsorships, subscriptions and merchandise related to department publications and tourism promotions. These funds would come from within the department’s existing budget and not require additional funding from the state. Currently, only employees of Tourism’s “Oklahoma Today Magazine” division can earn commissions for such work.
The hope is that this could result in additional positive revenue for the state. It would extend to additional print or digital publications beyond this one magazine as well as any tourism promotion efforts of the department.
Tourism is the third largest industry in Oklahoma, contributing $11.8 billion to Oklahoma’s economy in direct visitor spending in 2022. According to the department, we had 18.3 million visitors in 2022 that generated $833 million in state and local taxes, $2.9 billion in direct earnings generated by travel spending and generation of 103,300 jobs.
Allowing department employees to earn commissions only makes sense. In my mind, these employees are like travel agents encouraging people to visit Oklahoma. Giving them the ability to earn income based on their performance should increase their motivation to tell the story of our great state, and should help us attract top talent to these important positions. This should bring additional visitors to our many state parks and other attractions as well as our many festivals and public events. This activity will help further boost the economy of our state and our local economies.
This was a request from the Department of Tourism, and I was happy to help get this legislation passedintheHouse.Itnowmovesto the state Senate for consideration.
Our work in the House chamber will continue to be busy as we expect to hear several hundred more bills before our third-reading deadline, March 26. By this date, all House bills that have passed will move to the Senate, and we will receive all the Senate bills that have passed. We’ll then hear these bills in committee and then on the floor of our chamber.
Remember, if I can help you with anything, please do not hesitate to reach out: (405) 557-7383 or Josh. Cantrell@OKHouse.gov.
Josh Cantrell serves District 49 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. His district includes Love County and parts of Carter and Marshall counties.