On Tuesday, Governor Fallin and the Republican leadership of the House and Senate announced an agreement on the FY ’12 budget. Total state appropriations for next year will be $6.511 billion, which is $254 million, or 3.8 percent less than this year’s final budget.

To make the budget balance and limit the magnitude of cuts, the agreement includes some $370 million more revenue than what was certified as available for appropriation by the Board of Equalization in February. Although full details have not been spelled out, the main revenue enhancements appear to be: $120 million in cash balances that have accumulated this year; some $100 million from the final round of federal stimulus money approved by Congress last summer; and a $100 million transfer from the State Transportation Fund that will be partly made up for by a $70 million bond issue for the Department of Transportation. Additional revenues include transfers from the Unclaimed Property Fund and agency reserve funds, increased tax compliance efforts, and diversion of tax revenues slated for the ROADS program to the General Revenue fund. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the more contentious skirmishes in the battle over SQ 744 concerns the question of whether, in the absence of a constitutional amendment basing common education funding on a constitutionally-entrenched formula, Oklahoma’s elected officials have neglected K-12 funding.

Supporters of SQ 744 argue that at least in recent years, school funding has not been a top priority of the state’s elected officials. In kicking off the campaign for SQ 744 in 2008, OEA President Becky Felts stated, “If we want better workers, stronger employees, a well-educated workforce, we have to make public education a priority.”  On its website, the Yes on 744 campaign refers to the need to “re-prioritize public education.”  Recently, Oklahoma Teacher of the Year Heather Sparks wrote:

I posted an entry this morning that compared the mid-year budget cuts being absorbed by each of the ten largest state agencies. Unfortunately, the post – which I’ve now deleted -  included outdated information regarding funding for the Departments of Transportation and Common Education. In particular, I was unaware of a bill (HB 2433) that imposed a 7.5 percent cut to ODOT’s appropriation from the State Transportation Fund, and of some additional funding decisions (included in HB 2352) that aim to restore a greater part of the funding cuts to the Department of Education than initially announced. I will re-examine this and post revised numbers once FY ’10  appropriations bill have made it through the process. I apologize for the error and any confusion or inconvenience it may have caused.