Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY — Supplemental funding measures that will take almost $80 million from Oklahoma’s constitutional Rainy Day reserve fund to help pay for public schools and prisons were signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Mary Fallin.
The legislation, which the state Senate approved last week and the House passed Monday, gives the schools and prisons funding for ongoing operations during the fiscal year that ends June 30. The measures follow revenue failures caused by a sharp drop in oil and natural gas prices.
Finance officials ordered state agencies to reduce their budgets by 3 percent in January due to a shortfall in revenue collections for the rest of the 2016 fiscal year. Earlier this month, agencies were ordered to cut spending by another 7 percent for the remaining four months of the year.
With work complete on the supplemental spending bills, Fallin said lawmakers need to focus their attention on the new fiscal year that begins on July 1 and her proposals for increasing recurring state revenues to help close an estimated $1.3 billion hole in next year’s budget. One proposal calls for expanding the state sales tax to include a variety of services that are currently exempt.
“Failure to do so will result in the same problem next year,” Fallin said in a statement. “The Rainy Day fund option is a one-time fix, but we need to do the tough work to pass a budget this session that contains true, meaningful fiscal reforms the state needs.”
After the supplemental funds are withdrawn, the Rainy Day fund will have a balance of about $306.5 million.
One of the supplemental measures Fallin signed provides $51 million to the state Department of Education for public schools and to pay the full cost of health insurance for teachers, administrators and support personnel.
The other sends $27.5 million to the Department of Corrections to pay for prison staff and essential services for the state’s increasing inmate population.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister said the supplemental funds will help offset the impact of this year’s revenue failures and other budget challenges Oklahoma school districts have faced this year.
The additional funds will permit schools “to minimize disruptions to our schoolchildren and educators as they close out the school year,” Hofmeister said.
Joe Allbaugh, interim director of the state prison system, said the funding “will go a long way to preventing drastic cuts that would ultimately jeopardize the safety, security and operations of our prison facilities and the citizens of the state.”
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