§ 47-156 — Purchase of passenger automobiles or bus with public funds

prohibited - Exceptions. A. Unless otherwise provided for by law, no state board, commission, department, institution, official, or employee, except the following, shall purchase any passenger automobile or bus with public funds: 1. The Department of Public Safety; 2. The Department of Human Services; 3. The State Department of Rehabilitation Services; 4. The Department of Wildlife Conservation; 5. The Department of Corrections; 6. The State Department of Education; 7. The Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics; 8. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control; 9. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation; 10. The Transportation Commission; 11. The Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food, and Forestry; 12. The State Department of Health; 13. The Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services; 14. The J.D. McCarty Center for Children with Developmental Disabilities; 15. The Military Department of the State of Oklahoma; 16. The Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department; 17. The Oklahoma Conservation Commission; 18. The Oklahoma Water Resources Board; 19. The Department of Mines; 20. The Office of Juvenile Affairs; 21. The Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs; 22. The Oklahoma Supreme Court; 23. The District Attorneys Council and Oklahoma district attorneys, provided adequate funding exists; 24. The Oklahoma Boll Weevil Eradication Organization; 25. The Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission; 26. The Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training; 27. The Office of the Attorney General; and 28. Service Oklahoma. B. 1. The Oklahoma School for the Deaf at Sulphur, the Oklahoma School for the Blind at Muskogee, and any state institution of higher education may purchase, own, or keep if now owned, or acquire by lease or gift, and use and maintain such station wagons, automobiles, trucks, or buses as are reasonably necessary for the implementation of the educational programs of said institutions. 2. No bus operated, owned, or used by such educational institutions shall be permitted to carry any person other than students, faculty members, employees, or volunteers of such institutions. The provisions of this section shall not be construed to prohibit: a. the operation of intracampus buses or buses routed directly between portions of the campus of any institution not adjacent to each other, nor to prohibit the collection of fares from such students, faculty members, or employees of such institutions, sufficient in amount to cover the reasonable cost of such transportation, or b. the Oklahoma School for the Blind or the Oklahoma School for the Deaf from entering into agreements with local public school districts pursuant to the Interlocal Cooperation Act for the mutual use of the schools' and the districts' vehicles. Such use may include, but is not limited to, the transportation of students from local school districts with students from the Oklahoma School for the Blind or the Oklahoma School for the Deaf in vehicles owned by the Oklahoma School for the Blind or the Oklahoma School for the Deaf when traveling to school-related activities. C. The J.D. McCarty Center for Children with Developmental Disabilities, the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Oklahoma Veterans Centers may own and maintain such passenger vehicles as those institutions have acquired prior to May 1, 1981. D. The use of station wagons, automobiles, and buses, other than as provided for in this section, shall be permitted only upon written request for such use by heads of departments of the institution, approved in writing by the president of said institution or by some administrative official of said institution authorized by the president to grant said approval. Such use shall be permitted only for official institutional business or activities connected therewith. Such use shall be subject to the provisions of Section 156.1 of this title forbidding personal use of such vehicles, and to the penalties therein declared. E. Any person convicted of violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by fine or imprisonment, or both, as provided for in Section 156.1 of this title. F. For the purpose of this section and Section 156.3 of this title, a station wagon is classified as a passenger automobile and may not be purchased solely for the use of transporting property. Such vehicles shall include, but not be limited to, all vehicles which have no separate luggage compartment or trunk but which do not have open beds, whether the same are called station wagons, vans, suburbans, town and country, blazers, or any other names. All state boards, commissions, departments, and institutions may own and maintain station wagons purchased solely for the purpose of transporting property if acquired prior to July 1, 1985. G. The provisions of this section and Section 156.1 of this title shall not apply to public officials who are statewide elected commissioners.

Legislative History

Added by Laws 1941, p. 201, § 1, emerg. eff. May 22, 1941. Amended by Laws 1947, p. 314, § 1, emerg. eff. May 16, 1947; Laws 1949, p. 337, § 3; Laws 1961, p. 308, § 1; Laws 1963, c. 193, § 1, emerg. eff. June 10, 1963; Laws 1978, c. 273, § 11, emerg. eff. May 10, 1978; Laws 1981, c. 291, § 1; Laws 1982, c. 287, § 42, operative July 1, 1982; Laws 1984, c. 161, § 2, emerg. eff. May 1, 1984; Laws 1984, c. 240, § 6, operative July 1, 1984; Laws 1985, c. 43, § 2, operative July 1, 1985; Laws 1986, c. 309, § 12, operative July 1, 1986; Laws 1987, c. 165, § 1, eff. July 1, 1987; Laws 1988, c. 322, § 2; Laws 1990, c. 51, § 112, emerg. eff. April 9, 1990; Laws 1990, c. 263, § 132, operative July 1, 1990; Laws 1991, c. 77, § 1, emerg. eff. April 17, 1991; Laws 1992, c. 307, § 6, eff. July 1, 1992; Laws 1995, c. 128, § 1, eff. July 1, 1995; Laws 1996, c. 326, § 1, eff. July 1, 1996; Laws 1997, c. 2, § 7, emerg. eff. Feb. 26, 1997; Laws 1998, c. 179, § 1, emerg. eff. April 29, 1998; Laws 2000, c. 240, § 2, eff. Nov. 1, 2000; Laws 2001, c. 62, § 1, eff. July 1, 2001; Laws 2001, c. 414, § 5, eff. July 1, 2001; Laws 2002, c. 22, § 13, emerg. eff. March 8, 2002; Laws 2006, c. 213, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2006; Laws 2007, c. 1, § 29, emerg. eff. Feb. 22, 2007; Laws 2014, c. 380, § 2, eff. Nov. 1, 2014; Laws 2023, c. 272, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2023; Laws 2024, c. 452, § 53, emerg. eff. June 14, 2024; Laws 2025, c. 330, § 12, eff. July 1, 2025. NOTE: Laws 1986, c. 301, § 19 repealed by Laws 1987, c. 165, § 2, eff. July 1, 1987. Laws 1996, c. 130, § 1 repealed by Laws 1997, c. 2, § 26, emerg. eff. Feb. 26, 1997. Laws 2001, c. 36, § 1 repealed by Laws 2001, c. 329, § 12, emerg. eff. June 1, 2001 and by Laws 2001, c. 414, § 14, eff. July 1, 2001. Laws 2001, c. 329, § 2 repealed by Laws 2002, c. 22, § 34, emerg. eff. March 8, 2002. Laws 2006, c. 211, § 22 repealed by Laws 2007, c. 1, § 30, emerg. eff. Feb. 22, 2007.