Emergency management; Youth Camp and Recreational Area Safety Revolving Fund; purpose; apportionment of monies; exception; General Revenue Fund; school buildings and fallout protection; youth camps and recreational campgrounds; emergency plans; local emergency management director; effective date; emergency.
HB3027 creates a new revolving fund in the State Treasury for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management called the Youth Camp and Recreational Area Safety Revolving Fund. The fund is intended to support implementation of the bill’s new youth camp and campground safety requirements, and the bill also amends the state’s apportionment statute so that money credited to this fund is excluded from the General Revenue Fund.
The bill expands Oklahoma’s emergency preparedness laws by adding youth camps and recreational campgrounds to the existing framework that already applies to schools and institutions of higher learning. Operators of these facilities would be authorized to plan, design, and maintain their sites to protect campers, staff, and visitors from flooding, severe weather, and other natural disasters. Each camp or campground would be required to maintain written emergency operations plans, including evacuation routes, warning procedures, and hazard-specific response measures, and to update those plans annually or when conditions materially change.
HB3027 also requires that a copy of each camp or campground emergency plan be filed with the local emergency management director in a format acceptable to the agency, with submission or updates due no later than November 1 each year. The bill makes a parallel change to the school safety statute by expressly including youth camps and recreational campgrounds in the emergency planning and filing requirements, while leaving the existing school-related provisions in place. The act is set to take effect July 1, 2026, and contains an emergency clause for immediate effectiveness upon passage and approval.
The bill’s impact on state law is to create a dedicated funding mechanism for emergency management work related to youth camp and campground safety, while also imposing new operational and reporting duties on camp and campground operators. It would affect the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, local emergency management directors, and operators of youth camps and recreational campgrounds, and it would alter the treatment of certain state revenues by carving out the new fund from General Revenue Fund apportionment.
There is no recorded committee transcript or vote history in the provided materials, so no formal debate or roll-call sentiment is available. Based on the bill text alone, the measure appears to be framed as a public safety and emergency preparedness bill, with an emphasis on preventing harm from severe weather and natural disasters. No specific opposition is documented, but potential points of contention could include the administrative burden on camp operators, the requirement to file plans with local emergency management officials, and the diversion of revenues into a new revolving fund rather than the General Revenue Fund.
HB3027 would amend Oklahoma’s revenue apportionment law to exempt the new Youth Camp and Recreational Area Safety Revolving Fund from deposits that would otherwise go to the General Revenue Fund, and it would create a continuing revolving fund for the Department of Emergency Management to support implementation. It would also expand Title 63 emergency preparedness requirements to cover youth camps and recreational campgrounds, requiring written emergency operations plans, annual review and updates, hazard identification, evacuation procedures, warning systems, and filing with local emergency management directors. The bill would directly affect camp and campground operators, local emergency management agencies, and the Department of Emergency Management.
No committee discussion or vote data was provided, so there is no recorded legislative sentiment to summarize. The bill’s language suggests a generally supportive public-safety rationale, focusing on emergency preparedness, severe weather protection, and disaster response for children and visitors at camps and recreational facilities. In the absence of recorded debate, the available context indicates a safety-oriented measure rather than a controversial policy change.
No specific points of contention are documented in the provided transcripts or voting history. Potential areas of concern, if raised, would likely involve the cost and administrative requirements for youth camps and recreational campgrounds to develop, maintain, and file emergency plans, as well as the fiscal effect of creating a dedicated revolving fund outside the General Revenue Fund. Another possible issue is the scope of the new requirements and whether local emergency management offices have the capacity to receive and review the plans.