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Steve Lewis served as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1989-1991. He currently practices law in Tulsa and represents clients at the Capitol. You can sign up on his website to receive the Capitol Updates newsletter by email.
The legislative session started Monday with Governor Fallin’s state of the state address. It’s hard to escape the thought that this is going to be a very tough year because of the budget situation. The appropriations subcommittees have started and will continue budget hearings in which the state agencies come in and outline their budget needs for next year. Right now it’s like the state agencies and the legislature are living in alternative universes. The agencies are asking for millions in budget increases and the legislature is working with a budget that begins with a $300 million deficit.
Last year legislators filled a similar budget gap by taking money from various revolving funds that had been generated in various ways for various purposes. In a couple of instances the Supreme Court ruled the revolving fund grab unconstitutional. There could possibly have been others similar rulings if challenges had been filed. But even where taking the revolving fund money is legal it has produced some unfortunate results. In at least one case the money was to be used to match federal funding which became impossible to do. The legislature and governor were betting that the economy would produce enough increased revenue during the year to write at least a flat budget for next year, but that hasn’t happened.
It sounds as though the governor is going to propose again to make up the budget gap by tapping revolving funds. On a personal budget basis this would be like using the money you had set aside for next year’s college expenses to pay the rent. You don’t have much of a choice unless you want to become homeless, but your kids will pay a steep price in the future.
The first time I heard the phrase “starve the beast” was in the mid-eighties. At that time it was a strategy to limit federal spending on government programs by cutting taxes in order to deprive the government of revenue. In our day the strategy has trickled down to some state governments. Back then the federal government cut the taxes, but instead of starving the beast it engaged in deficit spending. In Oklahoma we say we have to balance the budget every year. But instead of balancing the budget by matching revenue with expenditures we are engaging in deficit spending by robbing the revolving funds. It’s probably better than the draconian cuts that would otherwise be required, but it’s not creating much of a future for the kids.
