All funds appropriated to the Department of Transportation and all funds credited to the State Highway Construction and Maintenance Fund and all funds received from the United States Government under contracts with the Federal Highway Administration are to be used and expended by the Department to pay: Legal obligations in the operation of the Department and the Commission, and in the construction and maintenance of roads and highways; the expenses of operating and maintaining the state highway system; expenses incurred in constructing, repairing, and maintaining state highways, farm-to-market roads and county highways as authorized by law; matching federal funds for the annual Federal Highway Administration allocation to the Center for Local Government Technology at Oklahoma State University for the Federal Highway Administration Rural Technical Assistance Program, up to seventy-five percent (75%) of the amount of funding the state is required to provide; necessary and convenient items not specifically mentioned herein; salaries, wages, and lawful expenses of the members of the Commission, the Director, the Departmental employees, the attorneys and other professional help of the Department; for the purchase of office supplies, furniture, fixtures, and equipment; for the construction, maintenance, and repair of needed warehouses, garages, division headquarters, and other needed buildings; for premiums on bonds, workers' compensation insurance, public liability and property damage insurance; for the purchase of materials, tools, machinery, motor vehicles, and equipment necessary or convenient in the operation of the Department and construction and maintenance of roads and highways; for witnesses' fees, sheriffs' mileage, and publication cost in actions to appropriate right-of-way, land or materials needed in the construction or maintenance of roads and highways; any expenses which may be necessary or convenient in constructing and maintaining roads and highways and in accomplishing the purposes for which the Commission and the Department were created; for the acquisition by purchase of right-of-way and land and relocation assistance to persons displaced as a result of such acquisition; as shall be provided by commission regulations which shall not exceed in amount similar assistance provided by federal law and regulations, provided further that (1) all payments received by persons displaced by reason of this act are not to be considered as income for state income tax purposes; (2) nothing in this act shall be construed as creating in any condemnation proceeding brought under the power of eminent domain, any element of value or damage not in existence immediately prior to the date of enactment of this act; (3) all final determinations made by the Commission as to a person's eligibility for, or the amount of any benefit payable by reason of this act, shall be determinative and not subject to judicial review; any final judgment rendered by a court of competent jurisdiction in eminent domain proceedings for the taking or damaging of real or personal property for which the state is liable; for the expense of audit as provided by law and for the satisfaction of any and all lawful claims or demands of whatsoever kind or character arising out of contracts with or judgments rendered against the Commission or the State of Oklahoma as a result of the construction and maintenance of roads and highways; and other expenses authorized by law.
Amended by Laws 1988, c. 289, § 17, operative July 1, 1988; Laws 1989, 1st Ex.Sess., c. 1, § 18, eff. July 1, 1990.