By Emma Murphy, Oklahoma Voice
OKLAHOMA CITY — Legislative leaders on Wednesday announced a nearly $12.79 billion state budget agreement that includes teacher pay raises, increased funding for health care agencies and adjustments to state employee pensions.
The appropriation is 1.27% higher than the allocation for the current budget year, but well short of the $13.6 billion that agencies had requested.
“This is my last budget, and we’re putting Oklahoma in a great place,” Gov. Kevin Stitt said. “I get to end my time serving the people of Oklahoma leaving behind a legacy of conservatism and amazing economic growth and really set up the next administration and the speaker and pro tem to have a great next few years.”
House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, said this is the earliest budget announcement in recent years.
“Why I mentioned that is because we are transparently, as the Republican leadership of the state, putting out our budget of what we propose for the state of Oklahoma and doing it in an early fashion, not where it’s crammed down everyone’s throat at the very last minute at the end of the legislative session,” he said.
Rep. Trey Caldwell, R-Faxon, chair of the House Budget Committee, said there were no “across the board cuts” for agencies in the proposed budget, which must be approved by both the House and Senate.
“Everybody started out with a zero baseline,” he said. “So any negative delta that you would see on any single agency line item would be attributed to backing out of one time costs.”
Under the budget agreement, teachers’ minimum salaries would increase by $2,000 with an $85 million appropriation to the State Department of Education. Republican lawmakers also budgeted $60 million for a “reading and math package.”
There is no additional funding budgeted to add days to the public school year calendar.
Lawmakers also fulfilled requests from the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services for a supplemental $49 million for this fiscal year for Medicaid costs, $49 million for the same purpose in the upcoming budget year, and $30.1 million to implement a court-ordered competency restoration settlement agreement.
The Legislature already made a $19.6 million emergency appropriation to the department in February to help the agency cover Medicaid costs.
Another $250 million would be appropriated to the Oklahoma Health Care Authority for changes in federal assistance and Medicaid maintenance. The Health Care Authority requested nearly half a billion dollars from the Legislature to address cash flow issues and projected changes in increased utilization rates for Medicaid in Oklahoma.
Historically, growth in Medicaid utilization has been much less than what the agency is projecting and the increase may not be long term, said Sen. Chuck Hall, R-Perry, chair of the Senate Budget Committee.
“I mean, you’ve seen the Medicaid population coming down, that’s why I think that you’re seeing maybe a ramp up in utilization,” he said. “But then it’d be a cliff, and it’ll drop off. So we could see a lot of relief, prospectively. So, I think that’s a good thing for a state but we need time to be able to look at that. I think a quarter billion dollars investment in the Health Care Authority is a good, clean start.”
Lawmakers are budgeting $15.2 million to increase longevity pay for current state employees, a bonus provided based on their years of service.
Those enrolled in public pension systems would also receive cost of living adjustments, or COLAs, ranging from 3% to 6% depending on a retiree’s time spent working for the state.
The COLAs are paid out of the pension systems, not from state appropriations, according to a Senate spokesperson.
Other appropriations in the budget include:
Lawmakers also plan to invest $200 million in the Taxpayer’s Endowment Fund Trust, which the governor said will allow the state to invest and “lock up” funds for future generations.
Caldwell said the funding comes from the state’s Revenue Stabilization Fund.
There are around $500 million in other “one time sweeps” that come from state savings accounts, Caldwell said.
Senate Minority Leader Julia Kirt, D-Oklahoma City, said Tuesday ahead of the announcement that there is a lack of transparency in the budget process and not enough focus on affordability issues. Oklahomans are “drowning,” but lawmakers aren’t “throwing them a rope,” she said.
The Legislature is constitutionally required to pass a balanced budget by the end of session in May.
