The Commissioners of the Land Office will be able to modernize under legislation signed by Governor Henry today.
House Bill 3026, by House Speaker Chris Benge, creates the Commissioners of the Land Office Reform and Modernization Act. The legislation puts in place a modern management infrastructure for the land trust, improves accounting practices in accord with best practices and recent audit recommendations, and updates or repeals obsolete statutes and rules.
In recent years, outdated institutional practices and accounting systems led to the opportunity for mismanagement of the agency.
“The current leadership at the Commissioners of the Land Office asked for these changes to proactively bring more accountability and public confidence to their operations, and we support these changes wholeheartedly.”
The Commissioners of the Land Office, better known as the "School Land Trust," is a constitutional, nonappropriated agency that administers the school land trust funds for the production of income for the support and maintenance of the common schools and the schools of higher education.
Rep. Gus Blackwell, whose Panhandle district includes more than half of the state’s school land, said this legislation will go a long way toward ensuring that the monies generated by the CLO go where they are intended—to Oklahoma school children.