BY MICHAEL MCNUTT / The Oklahoman
Published: February 17, 2010
An agreement is close on how much of the state’s savings account will be used to take care of a nearly $500 million deficit at the end of this fiscal year, Gov. Brad Henry said Tuesday.
Once a deal is reached, emergency appropriations can be allocated to public schools, the state’s health care agency and to prisons to make up for monthly across-the-board cuts and to partially restore lost revenues. The governor in his budget proposed about $101 million in supplemental funds to make up for revenues coming in about 25 percent below estimates so far this fiscal year.
Approval Tuesday by a state board that finalized how much lawmakers will have to spend this session and a correction to the current fiscal year deficit didn’t have much effect on negotiations, the governor said.
"The framework of the agreement that we announced earlier is still in place and we’re trying to work through some technical issues specifically — among a few other things — about how much Rainy Day Funds versus stimulus dollars we use in both 2010 and 2011,” Henry said. "I’m very confident we’ll have an announcement soon about that.”...
FULL ARTICLE
Posted on
Wed, February 17, 2010
by Crystal Drwenski