OK Budget Talks Continue
Okla. budget talks center on cuts, revenue streams
By Sean Murphy, Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — With six weeks left in the 2014 session, behind-the-scenes negotiations among the House, Senate and governor’s office are ramping up on how to plug a $188 million hole in the budget and fund education, public safety and child welfare.
The chairmen of the Republican-controlled House and Senate budget committees have been meeting with Gov. Mary Fallin’s Secretary of Finance Preston Doerflinger, along with the fiscal staffs for the three sides, as work begins in earnest on how to spend money in a nearly $7 billion budget. Talks are centering around a combination of proposed cuts to some state agencies, along with how much revenue might be available from agency revolving accounts and cash reserves.
The problem is a lack of revenue to appropriate on a growing list of priorities for all three sides that includes increased funding for common education, pay raises for some state workers and more money to fund the Pinnacle Plan, a series of sweeping child-welfare reforms within the Department of Human Services.
“We have obligations to education and covering their benefits. We’d like to find some extra money to increase their funding, like we did last year. We’ve also got a priority on the Pinnacle Plan,” said Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman, R-Sapulpa. “More than anything, we’ve got to make some cuts, and that’s what we’re trying to wade through to see where to make some cuts to make up the difference we’ve got.”