OKLAHOMA
CITY – Oklahoma lawmakers debated funding bills for state agencies
Tuesday and questioned their spending priorities in a tight budget year
as the Legislature moved closer to a planned adjournment on Friday.
The
House and Senate have taken up dozens of budget limitation and other
funding bills to pay for state services in the upcoming year following
last week’s agreement on a $7.2 billion spending plan for the fiscal
year that will begin July 1.
The state budget plan uses $631
million in federal stimulus dollars to increase spending for education
and health care while cutting other agencies by 7 percent overall. But
some House members questioned the Legislature’s spending priorities
during debate on funding bills for agencies they said are not core
functions of state government.
“It’s not an appropriate use of our taxpayer dollars,” said state Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City.
Lawmakers
passionately debated funding measures for the Oklahoma Arts Council,
the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority and the Oklahoma
Educational Television Authority, which operates a statewide public TV
network.
OETA’s $4.8 million state appropriation represents a
42.5-percent cut from the previous year due to the elimination of $3.2
million for new digital equipment purchased in previous years. But it
also represents a cut in its operating budget of $363,607, or about 7
percent, that is in line with other agencies, lawmakers said.
Supporters
of the public TV network said it is an important educational and
entertainment service that is the only source of news and information
for Oklahomans who live in rural areas and cannot afford cable or
satellite television services.
“Leave Big Bird alone,” said state
Rep. Joe Dorman, D-Rush Springs, referring to the full-body figure in a
yellow costume featured on the Public Broadcasting System’s children’s
television show Sesame Street.
“We know this is a tough year on the budget,” said state Rep. Earl Sears, R-Bartlesville.
Sears
said he is frustrated that the budget plan includes no raises for
schoolteachers and public employees, many of whom have not received a
raise since October 2006.
“It’s called balancing,” Sears said. “Deals have been cut. Let’s don’t take it out on this particular agency.”
But
opponents said it is not appropriate to fund nonessential state
agencies when core government functions, such as the Oklahoma Highway
Patrol and the Oklahoma National Guard’s 45th Infantry Brigade, are
asked to take cuts that could result in worker furloughs.
“We
want to tell them we want to leave Big Bird alone? Priorities, members,
priorities,” said state Rep. Mike Ritze, R-Broken Arrow. “We don’t have
money to send the 45th overseas but we’ve got money for Big Bird.”
When
lawmakers do not fully fund the essential services of government,
“we’ve got it upside down,” Ritze said. “We’re looking at funding a TV
station instead of funding law enforcement. Frankly, it’s a slap in the
face.”
“We didn’t earn this money. The taxpayers earned it,”
Reynolds said. “The Legislature didn’t earn it, but now we’re going to
spend it in the next three days, $7 billion of it.”
The funding
bill’s author, state Rep. Lee Denney, R-Cushing, said many lawmakers
who oppose funding for OETA appear on its news programs to promote
their ideas.
“My own children cut their teeth on Big Bird,” Denney said.
Denney
also pointed out that the measure was a budget limitation bill whose
defeat would simply remove legislative oversight over how the agency
spends money it is appropriated by a separate measure, the general
appropriations bill.
The bill passed 77-20 and was sent to the Senate for final action.