Lobbyists want Oklahoma lawmakers to take another look at “prosperity districts” as a way to help struggling rural areas.
The districts let communities band together to form effectively self-governing entities exempt from state, local and some federal regulations.
"And that's the kind of dramatic change and reset button that some communities need, but we do allow for exemptions from these baseline concepts," said Compact for America's Nick Dranais.
Prosperity districts can be formed with as little as 1 square mile of land. The thinking is if small communities band together unimpeded by regulations, business will flourish.
The districts can’t take actions to impact areas outside their borders, and all landowners must agree to one before it’s formed.
"Externalities are controlled. Exit is as easy as entrance. Entrance is a high hurdle requiring total consent," Dranais said. "The sunsetting of any regulation that the district does ... means if you've got any crazy regulations coming out of the district, it's going away every five years. We've preserved judicial authority. We've preserved the Constitution."
Some lawmakers are concerned such districts could hamper statewide infrastructure projects like roads, pipelines or utilities. Dranias said that can be addressed.
"You can say, 'We're only allowing prosperity districts in the southwest corner of Oklahoma where we have income levels below X,'" Dranias said.
Dranias said the concept is similar to policies that allowed Hong Kong and Singapore to thrive and Disney World to be built. A bill to allow prosperity districts stalled in the state Senate in the regular session.
Compact for America is a conservative advocacy group pushing for prosperity districts in several states.