Senate President Pro Tem Treat names Sen. Garvin to LOFT

I’m thrilled to announce that I have been appointed by the Senate Pro Tempore to serve on the oversight committee for the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT). Created in 2019, LOFT assists the Oklahoma Legislature in making informed, data-driven decisions that will serve Oklahomans by ensuring accountability in state government, efficient use of resources, and effective programs and services. The office provides timely, objective, factual, non-partisan, and easily understood information to facilitate informed decision-making and ensure government spending is efficient and transparent, adds value and delivers intended outcomes. They analyze performance outcomes, identify programmatic and operational improvements, identify duplications of services across state entities, and examine the efficacy of expenditures to an entity’s mission. LOFT is a foundational resource for the Legislature as we work to improve state government services.

LOFT splits their program evaluations into three categories - rapid response, priority program evaluations and secondary program evaluations. Rapid response evaluations are completed within three months and include special requests from the oversight committee to the legislature for assistance with urgent funding or policy decisions.

Priority program evaluations are included in the office’s annual work plan that is provided at the beginning of each legislative session. These are completed in 6-8 months.

Finally, secondary program evaluations are long-term reviews of our state’s largest agencies and programs based on their annual budgets and overall impact.

The oversight committee meets regularly to be updated on LOFT’s work and findings. To date, they’ve conducted numerous evaluations of several agencies, including the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission (OESC), the Department of Education, and the Department of Health, along with specific boards and their processes like the Board of Equalization, which is responsible for providing certified revenue estimates to the Legislature to craft the annual state budget.

This summer, the committee was briefed on how state funding is distributed for K-12 public education and also about operations and challenges at the Department of Corrections and how those are being addressed. You can learn more about LOFT and read their reports at http://www.okloft.gov/.

Our next meeting is this Wed, Aug. 31 at 2 p.m. in Room 535 of the Capitol. The meetings are streamed live at https://oksenate.gov/live-proceedings. We’ll be briefed on LOFT’s priority evaluation of the distribution of mental health services in our state. Working in healthcare, this is an area of great importance to me, and I hope this provides us with some valuable insight as to how we can provide better services to those in need.

If you have any questions or concerns on legislative matters, please contact me at the Capitol. Please write to Senator Jessica Garvin, State Capitol, 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd. Room 237, Oklahoma City, OK, 73105, email me at Jessica.Garvin@oksenate.gov or call (405) 521-5522.