The Oklahoma House approved budget cuts Monday in order to fund state government through the end of the 2018 fiscal year in June.
House Bill 1020 is a measure from the legislature's second special session that cuts state agency budgets by 0.66 percent across the board in order to trim nearly $45 million. That’s the shortfall left after the Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down a cigarette fee passed at the end of the 2017 legislative session, erasing more than $200 million from the state budget. Actions by the legislature and Gov. Mary Fallin in the first special session tapped one-time monies, reducing the initial gap.
The 0.66 percent cut translates into a nearly 2 percent budget cut per month for each state agency. House Appropriations and Budget Chair Kevin Wallace said leadership considered targeted cuts, but it wasn’t going to work.
"At this time, there’s not enough months … to try to be more selective. If you start holding agencies flat, cuts become too big for the last quarter for the other agencies to handle," Wallace said.
The cuts passed 67–24, with all voting Republicans in favor and all voting Democrats opposed. It now goes to the state Senate.
Other action by the House means Oklahoma’s state medical schools should get the funding boost they need to get through the year. The House approved almost $32 million OU and OSU's programs. The programs were in jeopardy after losing that much in federal funding.
Rep. Bobby Cleveland said the money comes from a 1 percent state budget cut made after a revenue failure last fiscal year.
"It turned out we didn’t need to cut it that much, so at the end of the fiscal year, we had excess cash that was in the [2017 budget] that flowed over to the [2018 budget]. And that’s the money that we’re talking about in regards to helping us in the 18 budget," Cleveland said. "We used a little bit of it. Some of it — we used about $23 million of these $83 million worth of funds to help us in mental health in the 18 budget."
Lawmakers anticipate needing to spend $110 million next year to replace lost Medicaid matching funds and keep the programs accredited.
The House also passed a measure directing spending through the end of the current fiscal year at the Department of Human Services. All three bills now go to the Senate.
