Oklahoma Republicans leaders are cheering their budget deal, but who does it really help?

Judging by all the backpatting we witnessed last week, Oklahoma’s Republican legislative leaders want us to believe their latest budget deal will make our state a beacon of prosperity.

Janelle Stecklein

In reality, it feels a lot like the opposite.

It appears Oklahomans ended up with a budget agreement negotiated behind closed doors by a small group of influential lawmakers and lobbyists that got their hearts’ desires at our expense. And, it appears this is a budget that has been crafted in a vacuum by people completely oblivious to the giant pile of flaming dog doo that Congress appears poised to leave on our doorstep. (Maybe that fire is the light from the previously mentioned beacon.)

I couch this all with “appears” because 99.99% of us have no idea how Oklahoma’s budget was created.

Last year, Oklahomans for the first time were able to watch budget negotiations play out in real time during a series of public hearings. While those conversations at times were as dull as watching paint dry, they really helped the public — including the media — understand how the deal was reached. And, they helped curtail lobbyists’ influence.

Unfortunately, the House and Senate legislative leaders who championed that strategy termed out or lost reelection. They were replaced by new leaders who, disappointingly, decided to scrap that process and largely revert to conducting budget talks in meetings that aren’t publicly accessible.

So we don’t know why – after years of resistance – that this is the year lawmakers chose to bow to Gov. Kevin Stitt’s pressure to cut the state’s income tax. The expected impact of the 0.25% cut on state coffers varies greatly depending on who you ask.

The timing is a headscratcher because Congress is planning cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP or food stamps, that could require states like ours to foot the difference. Not to mention that pesky inflation that while slowing has not disappeared.

That $3.5 billion that lawmakers are bragging about having in savings isn’t going to last long if the federal government decides to require our state to pay for federal programs that help low-income residents. Ours is the sixth poorest state after all.

I don’t understand why our Legislature doesn’t want to wait until the dust settles in D.C. before making tax cuts. After all, to raise taxes requires a supermajority legislative vote or a vote of the people.

Maybe lawmakers are focused on political points for the moment. But cutting taxes now could leave future Legislatures in a precarious financial position. It wasn’t long ago that Oklahoma lawmakers cut taxes and then had to plug a $1 billion shortfall. During that time, in 2018, they had to cut services and even had to raise taxes on gas and diesel, cigarettes and gross production.

I’d rather any savings from Stitt’s tax cut be invested in fixing our pothole-ridden public roadways or boosting teacher salaries so we can get more qualified educators in our classrooms.

Or perhaps we could invest it in growing other state agencies’ budgets. Most of those will remain flat next year, which would be great, except for the fact that everything is getting more expensive. That means they’re getting cut.

Lawmakers increased public school funding by $25 million, but allocated double that in new money to private schools, which serve only a small fraction of school children. In exchange for that $25 million, public schools will be required to add an instructional day to their school calendar, which will pretty much eliminate any financial benefit from that windfall. Private schools face no such requirement.

But even beyond that, this budget inexplicably contains over $750 million in special interest projects.

Instead of requiring the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University to fundraise to feed their ambitions, lawmakers think taxpayers should foot the $200 million bill to build OU’s new pediatric heart hospital and spend $250 million so OSU can improve its College of Veterinary Medicine.

Taxpayers are being asked to subsidize those projects at the same time our state’s CareerTech is slated to see its budget reduced by about 8.8%, or by over $17 million.

CareerTech is an entity that provides career and technical training to over 520,000 Oklahomans each year, preparing them to work in many of our professions that don’t require a traditional college degree, but face critical shortages. Health care would be one of those.

Maybe we should fund that and our other core government services adequately before spending $312 million to buy a private prison in Lawton. That purchase sounds like a terrible investment for a state whose voters have signaled at the ballot box that they want to reduce our state’s incarceration rates. There wouldn’t be a need to buy more prisons if lawmakers are taking that missive seriously.

Most years these budget agreements sail through the Legislature, but there are plenty of new faces in the Capitol this year that have proven that they’re not afraid to challenge the status quo.

No budget agreement should ever be a done deal without giving Oklahomans time to weigh in.

Like all budgets, it will still need to clear the committee process, be voted on by both chambers and be acted upon by Stitt. Lawmakers have until 5 p.m. May 30 to pass one.

So here’s hoping that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle take the time to listen to their constituents and that they’re thinking critically about whether all the components of this budget along with the proposed tax cut best position our state for success in future years.

Oklahoma Voice (oklahomavoice.com) is an affiliate of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, supported by grants and donations. Oklahoma Voice provides nonpartisan reporting, and retains full editorial independence.