Washington County's District 1 Commissioner Mitch Antle attended the 46th Annual American Legislative Exchange Council meeting last week in Austin, Texas.

Legislators from across the nation attended the event. 25 states were represented, and approximately 1,500 people were in attendance. ALEC opened an arm called the "American City County Exchange" about 6-years ago, and it is where Commissioner Antle focused most of his attention on because Bartlesville's State Senator Julie Daniels asked him to provide her with insight on how the branch was working.

A total of 46 hours and some were worked by Commissioner Antle at the meetings in Austin. He said learned a lot and that he picked up some terminology that the wants to present to the County's Regional Transportation Planning Organization. A word like “micro-mobility” that focuses on public scooters is one of the things he picked.

Commissioner Antle said legislation that goes through the Oklahoma State Capitol building comes from this meeting.

One of the discussion items covered in the meetings was budgets. The budgets on the City-County side very State by State, and they are not necessarily what we all assume.

Everyone knows what is going on with the budget in the State of Oklahoma, but other entities across the nation provide different avenues for the State overall. As long as the model meets the community's needs, Commissioner Antle does not see why the successful ideas from other states should not be used in Oklahoma.