Posted on 01/29/2009 7:27:06 PM PST by Star Traveler
By BARBARA HOBEROCK World Capitol Bureau
Published: 1/16/2009 9:56 AM
Last Modified: 1/16/2009 5:59 PM
OKLAHOMA CITY - Lawmakers will have about $600 million less to spend on the state budget for fiscal year 2010, Gov. Brad Henry said.
“There are going to be some cuts,” Henry said Friday. “State agencies need to be aware of that. They need to brace for the cuts. It is going to be a very challenging fiscal environment and many tough decisions will be made.”
The governor said he will do everything he can to preserve jobs and avoid layoffs or furloughs.
The state has been in a worse position, he said.
“I want to stress, this is no time to panic,” Henry said. “What we need is bipartisan leadership and cooperation.”
When he took office in 2003, the state was facing a $700 million revenue shortfall and virtually no money had been left in the “rainy day” fund. The state’s constitutional reserve fund now has $596.6 million, said Tim Allen, a spokesman for State Treasurer Scott Meacham.
Henry hopes not to tap into that fund, saying he wants to see how the financial picture looks further into the future for the 2011 fiscal year.
The $600 million shortfall cited by Henry includes about $310 million less in projected revenue than lawmakers had to spend in the current budget, which is about $7 billion. It also includes funds from one-time sources, a loss of federal dollars, and money dedicated to bond issues and other areas.
The legislative session begins Feb. 2, when lawmakers will start crafing a budget for the next fiscal year that begins July 1. The state Board of Equalization meets in February to tell leaders how much they will have to spend.
“Estimates vary for the budget shortfall in which we will work this session,” said Senate Pro President Tem Glenn Coffee, R-Oklahoma City. “But regardless of the figure, be it $400 million, $500 million or $600 million, it’s a significant hole. We can’t be certain of the amount at this point, as it is a moving target.”
Coffee said it is a good opportunity to identify inefficient or ineffective programs in government.
House Appropriations and Budget Committee Chairman Ken Miller, R-Edmond, said it will be a tough year to start any new programs.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t do that,” Miller said. “I hope we resist the temptation to make a one-size-fits-all, across-the-board cut and actually make strategic cuts so that we can reduce waste but still provide the services and core functions of government.” Governor: Painful cuts in store
Welcome to the coming Great Depression...
HAAAAAAHAHAHAAHAHAHAAAAAA!
You don’t know what pain is!
Kalifornia is down $40 BILLION AND COUNTING!
They will threaten to cut cops, parks and fire departments and the people will protest and they will raise taxes instead.
They never cut bureaucrats
I haven’t seen yet, how that’s supposed to pan out. I guess I will track it and report the news stories here...
Yup. There are still plenty of want ads in the OK papers for an array of therapists, social workers, etc. to work for the government. Pretty soon we’ll have one social worker per person. I guess we’ll all be taken care of then.
I suggest we cut down on the number of State Legislators. They have submitted over 2,000 bills this session — 2,000+ for the House and Senate. Will someone tell me why this small state needs that many bills — most are garbage when I started reading through them. Why do we need so many Reps and Senators to represent us? We are NOT even close to being the size of Texas. (Understatement)
Why not cut the salaries of our elected Reps/Senators who are some of the highest paid in the Country? Why do they have to meet every year instead of every other year like the much larger State of Texas? Why as part-time State Employees are they given health benefits like they are full-time?
Here is the most telling: State Senators in TX: 31; in OK: 48; State Reps in TX: 150; in OK 101. Population: TX: 24.3M; OK: 3.6M
Will someone explain to me why we need so many legislators per population compared to TX?
You said — “Why not cut the salaries of our elected Reps/Senators who are some of the highest paid in the Country? Why do they have to meet every year instead of every other year like the much larger State of Texas? Why as part-time State Employees are they given health benefits like they are full-time?”
Ummmm..., is someone going to “submit a bill” to that efffect? LOL...
You do see where this goes, don’t you? It will be like “Let’s get rid of your representative and I’ll keep mine!” Or, “We’ll roll your representation over into this other district, and mine will stay the same!” :-)
I don’t think you’ll find much legislative support, or..., popular support, once the details of which reps get rolled over into other districts... Of course, we could just scrap the entire thing, start over, and then “there you go”... but really, that will never happen.
So, all we got going here is simply a “gripe session” about what “is” — as if that’s going to change anything about the current structure and operation of the Legislature.
On the other hand, we could persuade a certain number of legislators to submit no bills at all, during their terms. So, when questioned by the people in their districts — “How many bills have you presented in the legislature for us?” Answer: “None!”. Question: What are you doing?” Answer: “Nothing, but saving you money. I do not intend to do anything or submit any bills or do anything for you, in order to save you money!” LOL...
Now, that would be a novel idea!
—
Next election — “He’s outta here!”
[”We’re gonna get someone who will *do something* for us, in this district!”]
How long have you been pining for Texas? :-)
I was in Dallas for a number of years, but came back to Oklahoma, once again. I liked the ole Big-D, for sure — it’s a lot of hustle and bustle, that’s for sure. And it’s big and you can find everything there.
Oklahoma (and Tulsa) is quite a bit smaller, and even smaller than it was in Oregon for me, in Portland. But, I like it here, too...
Republican Rep Jason Murphy submitted a bill to lower the salary of the State Legislators to $32,000. That didn’t go over too well. The Dems are behind this bloat of our OK Legislature.
There is supposed to be a cap of 8 bills per legislator but seems every year recently they go well above the cap. Some of these bills are useless and a waste of time but they can tell their district how many they submitted. What you don’t hear them say is how many were passed and how many never made it to Committee. :)
Well, I didn’t think that lowering salaries or reducing the number of legislators would go over very well... :-)
But, I didn’t know about a cap on the number of bills put out by a legislator. I don’t even know where to go to find such a thing. Of course, having just gotten back to Oklahoma (in the not too-distant past), I’ve got a ways to go before I get up to speed on these legislative things here.
—
In terms of what passed and didn’t (for each legislator), it seems that there would be a public-service thing that would track such stuff. Maybe there’s not...
Well... it’s kind of a long story. Having a spouse in the oil “bidness” means we have made the TX-OK-LA rounds. I actually was truly pining for TX when we lived in LA, but after a while that state kind of grew on me. Interesting place.
So, now we’re back in OK, and I like it here. I just have never changed my Freeper name. Oh, and I still like TX, too! :-)
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