There was a rock-climbing four-wheeler event below the dam at Disney recently.  The land is owned by the government (GRDA) but GRDA allows public access.  Each year, tens of thousands of folks come to our area for these events. What a boom to the Disney/Langley area. The restaurants, souvenir shops, local campgrounds, gas stations, etc. all benefit from these meets. It is a good deal that GRDA has this kind of relationship with local citizens for the benefit of all. We can all be proud of this public-private cooperation.

A constituent from Eucha asked: Does America really use a Spanish company to calculate our vote totals? I asked the State Election board if that was the case.  The answer?—no, well maybe, kinda sorta, but not really. Here is the scoop. Vote tallies are done by each county election board and forwarded to the state election board who calculates the state totals. The state then uses a computer program to send out the totals to not only national election officials but also the news media.  The American company that made the software for this computer program was recently purchased by a Spanish company.  So the answer is: the vote totals are tallied locally by each state, they are distributed by computer software owned by the Spanish company.

The racing season has started at Salina Highbanks Raceway. A great place to go eat at the trackside restaurant (open Thursday through Saturday), watch the races, and maybe stay for some after-the-race entertainment in the restaurant. A first class facility sanctioned by NASCAR.  Call 918-434-7223 for more details.

I enjoyed speaking to the Mayes County retired teachers organization in Pryor.  The food was so good and the hospitality so nice I might crash all their meetings!

April 15th is in the past. I hope everyone got their taxes in on time. Speaking of taxes, negotiations are still underway on Oklahoma ’s income tax rate and the state budget. It’s hard to get a plan that the majority of 149 Legislators and the Governor can agree on. Well, we have to have this done by adjournment the last Friday in May, so I will have a final report soon.

Last weekend I visited some of our State Parks. They are so beautiful but due to recent cutbacks we are really short on maintenance folks and budget. Improving the upkeep and improvements of our State Parks is one of my priorities.

It is a pleasure to serve as your State Representative. I can be reached at dougcox@okhouse.gov or (405) 557-7415.