The Oklahoma Senate has overwhelmingly approved a $7.1 billion budget bill that funds state government for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The Senate voted 31-9 Tuesday for the bill that puts into law the agreement reached last week between the Senate, House and governor's office. The measure now moves to the House for final consideration.
The budget includes targeted spending cuts and taps the accounts of several state agencies to close a $188 million shortfall, but avoids cuts to priority areas like higher education and public safety. Most state agencies will receive cuts averaging 5.5 percent.
“We were able to utilize some one-time funds in various agency revolving funds to give supplemental funding to high-need agencies,” Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman (R-Sapulpa) said in a statement. “This helped us bridge the gap in a down budget year without growing government or increasing ongoing expenses in years to come. We also preserved our state’s Rainy Day fund for a true emergency, should one arise.”
The bill appropriates about $102 million less than the budget for the current year, but still boosted funding for public schools by $80 million.
There was no debate against either the joint committee report’s adoption or the bill’s approval. Instead, several members, mostly Democrats, questioned various provisions of the budget and the philosophy underlying its development.
Responding to questions from state Sen. Charles Wyrick (D-Fairland) and state Sen. John Sparks (D-Norman) about funding for the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Clark Jolley (R-Edmond) said the goal was to hold the agency’s budget flat and provider cuts to a minimum, preferably under double digits.
Jolley was also questioned about the use of money from the Unclaimed Property Fund and agency revolving funds. Jolley said the Legislature taps the Unclaimed Property Fund each year.
In FY2015, $25 million from the fund will go to school districts to reimburse them for lost ad valorem revenue and $15 million will go to the Long-Range Capitol Planning Commission, which oversees the maintenance of state facilities.
Sparks questioned whether the state might be using funds for general appropriations that were generated by fees intended to pay the cost of an agency’s regulation of a particular area. Jolley said that was not necessary true since some of the money from revolving funds included tax revenue that was set aside for a particular purpose. He stressed that the revolving fund money was used for one-time purposes and not recurring expenses.
“Do you believe this budget adequately funds education?” Wyrick asked. Jolley said that depends more on the child and whether they are easy to educate, in which case their education might be over-funded, or difficult to education, in which case their education might be underfunded.
Jolley also said the state need to look at all its education funding sources, not solely the state appropriations contained in the bill.
“I would have liked to have some additional dollars going to education, particularly to fund some of the reforms we have passed, but we were not able to do that because of the lack of revenues,” Jolley said.
The bill now moves to the House, where it is expected to be considered Thursday.
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