Jan
29
New session starts Monday!
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The 2010 legislative session kicks off Monday, highlighted by Gov. Brad Henry’s final State of the State address. It’s going to be an interesting session that has a decided focus on the state’s budget. But here are a few other topics OFRG will be closely following this session:
- Defeating State Question 744 - while not something that can be done legislatively, OFRG will be working hard over the next 10 months to educate voters on the true effects of State Question 744 on the state’s budget. This includes the launch of a website and speaking engagements around the state.
- Ballot Access Reform - a measure that passed by a combined 128-1 in the House and Senate last session was vetoed by Governor Henry. OFRG will work with lawmakers on a new version that will extend the period to gather signatures for a petition from 90 days (currently the shortest period in the country) to one year (the national standard) and will require signature gatherers to register with the state.
- Transparency in state government - OFRG is proposing the creation of Open Books 2.0, an upgrade to the state’s current website devoted to state spending. The new website should include a real-time check register and a searchable database. Following up on our Blueprint for Transparency, we would like to see school districts put more information on the internet as well including detailed budgets.
- School District Audit Reform - Districts get annual audits, but only 31 companies provide these audits and only rarely are the results posted on a school district’s website. Also, the State Department of Education needs to have standardized accounting codes that remain constant throughout a school year.
And don’t forget that OFRG will be tracking bills important to taxpayers in order to create the LIST (Legislative Index and Scorecard for Taxpayers) which will grade lawmakers on how they vote on those bills. We’ll be posting the bills that could be included in the LIST within the next week or so. Be sure to come back to the blog often, check out our website as well and follow us on Facebook and Twitter throughout the session for important information from the taxpayer’s perspective!
Jan
28
It seems like every week, State Question 744 gets another vocal opponent. This week, it was none other than Governor Brad Henry who told the Editorial Board of the Oklahoman that he will not vote for it. Henry goes on to say, “If it looks like it has momentum and may pass, I may speak out more publicly than I already have.”
It’s good to have you on board, Governor!
Another Democratic leader has come out against State Question 744 as well. Sen. Andrew Rice (D-Oklahoma City) told the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber that there is widespread bipartisan opposition to the measure that would force the legislature to spend an additional $850-million on Common Education. In Rice’s words, “It ties the legislature’s hands. Fifty percent of the budget goes to education, so we have a pretty big commitment already.”
So, if you’re keeping track, the current Governor, all four major candidates for Governor, the House Speaker, Senate President pro tem, the future Democratic leader in the House and future Democratic leader in the Senate have ALL stated on the record that they oppose State Question 744.
When you have that much bipartisan agreement that State Question 744 is a bad idea for Oklahoma, it’s hard to take the OEA’s argument seriously that it will improve the state.
Jan
26
Budget agreement cause for concern
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Governor Henry and legislative leaders have reached an agreement that they say will close the $1-billion shortfall in the current year’s budget. The terms include the following:
Under the proposal, the monthly allocation for state agencies will continue to be reduced by 10 percent for the rest of FY 2010 to reflect slumping revenue collections.
In an effort to protect some priority areas, a handful of agencies in education, health and public safety will subsequently receive additional appropriations to supplement their budgets this year and reduce their share of the overall reduction. Even with that action, every state agency will receive some level of targeted cut for the current fiscal year.
As part of their budget pact, state leaders have agreed to assign priority status to K-12 schools, higher education, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority and the Department of Corrections, and provide each agency with a supplemental appropriation.
Under the terms of an earlier agreement, K-12 education will receive $50 million to address a shortfall in the HB 1017 Fund. Another $80 million will then be divided between K-12 schools and higher education based on their overall percentage of general revenue. The OHCA will be allocated $33 million in a supplemental appropriation and the DOC will receive $7.2 million.
If you add up the figures in the last paragraph, you get $170.2-million in supplemental appropriations. But remember that the state also has to pay back the $233-million in various cash reserve funds it has used to fill gaps over the last seven months. That means the budget agreement will actually cost $403.2-million out of the Rainy Day and/or stimulus dollars. And that’s before a single dollar is spent in Fiscal Year 2011.
OFRG argues that the Rainy Day Fund needs to be as full as possible for FY 2012 because stimulus funds will no longer be available, leaving a $600-million dollar hole in the budget, about the same amount as the Rainy Day Fund has. If you take the $403-million out of the Rainy Day Fund to fill gaps this year, the new governor and new legislative leaders will have a much harder time making ends meet.
While we applaud the continuation of 10% cuts for most state agencies, there needs to be a concerted effort to identify programs to be cut and efficiencies to be made in every agency.
Jan
26
Poll shows wide support for term limits, not as much for SQ 744
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A poll commissioned by the Tulsa World shows overwhelming support for State Question 747 which would impose term limits on all statewide elected officials. More than three-quarters of those polled say they are in favor of expanding the two-term limit currently imposed on the Governor to the other statewide offices (Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, State Treasurer, State Schools Superintendent, State Auditor, Labor Commissioner, Insurance Commissioner and Corporation Commissioners). Statewide term limits has been a policy agenda item for OFRG since its inception and we’re proud to see the people of Oklahoma getting a chance to vote on it.
The poll results for State Question 744 show that the people of Oklahoma need to be educated on what exactly it will do. When posed with the poll question of “Do you support raising education spending to the regional average?” it can fool people into thinking it’s a fairly simple question. If the poll question were worded to include the dire consequences to the rest of the state’s budget, we’re sure that most people would feel the same as many prominent education advocates: State Question 744 would be a disaster for the state.
That’s where you can help. Talk to your friends and neighbors about the effects of State Question 744. If you have a civic or professional group that you belong to, OFRG would be more than happy to make a presentation about what State Question 744 would do. Go to the Speakers Bureau page of our website for more information on that.
We only need to look at what happened in Massachusetts this month for proof that poll numbers nine months before an election are not necessarily a predictor of the election’s outcome. But it is going to take some work by people who care about fiscal responsibility in state government to convince voters that “NO” is the answer for State Question 744.
Jan
25
Tulsa World columnist Wayne Greene says State Question 744 is a bull in a china shop approach to trying to help education in Oklahoma. As the OCPA’s Brandon Dutcher points out, he’s just the latest in a long line of high-profile education supporters to publicly come out against State Question 744.
OFRG has been on the front line of the fight against SQ 744 and will be unveiling our latest effort in a couple weeks. Stay tuned!
Jan
22
Transparency requires data
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If Oklahoma is to have a more transparent government, it needs to provide data to the public so that it can be analyzed. Paul Monies with the Oklahoman has an excellent idea on his blog today that would create a digital warehouse for such information. As Paul points out, there is a lot of information available on various state agency websites, but it’s scattered and buried. As he also points out, this could be one of the duties of the Chief Information Officer, a position created during the last legislative session which has not yet been filled by Governor Henry.
Providing a central data location would greatly improve transparency and move Oklahoma to the forefront of the transparency movement. As lawmakers consider ideas to make government more efficient, they should not forget that having an independent set of eyes looking at the data can only serve to find more ways to use taxpayer dollars in the best way possible.
Jan
21
Not every way to save the state money involves cutting programs. As Rep. Jason Murphey (R-Guthrie) points out in an Edmond Sun editorial this week, there are structural costs in government that can be reduced. Introducing more modernization and technology into practices like accounting and purchasing can go a long way towards reducing the cost of government without affecting services to the public. Best of all, these kinds of efficiencies give permanent savings of taxpayer dollars.
State governement needs to review all of its practices to find ways to save money. Every dollar wasted by inefficient service is a dollar that has to be cut from important programs or taken from the Rainy Day Fund. It should be the goal of every agency to look at how it operates and come up with ideas that will save money. It’s the duty of every lawmaker to hold the agencies’ feet to the fire to make sure that happens.
Jan
20
The Department of Corrections is moving two of its training facilities to an Oklahoma City location operated by the Department of Public Safety in a measure House leaders say will save about $600-thousand. Not only does it allow the closure of the DOC facilities, but it allows those who worked at the training facility to be placed in other areas where Corrections is short-staffed because of budget cuts.
State agencies and elected officials need to find more examples where duplicative services can be combined in order to get the most for the taxpayer’s dollar. Every dollar that’s saved is a dollar that does not need to come out of the Rainy Day Fund right now. It is crucial to save that money for FY 2012 when stimulus dollars will be gone, leaving more holes in the state’s budget.
Jan
19
Looking at bills, wondering where the money will come from
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As we reported last week, OFRG is creating the Legislative Index and Scorecard for Taxpayers (OFRG-LIST), a way for taxpayers to see how lawmakers vote on issues of transparency and fiscal responsibility. To do that, we first have to read through every bill to see whether its provisions fall into the good or bad category. That process is time-consuming, but already we’re scratching our heads wondering whether some lawmakers are aware that the state is in a serious budget situation.
Just as we called out state agencies for submitting larger budget requests for this year even though they know there is less money to be had, some lawmakers also seem to be oblivious to the budget shortfall. We may give more details once the LIST is compiled, but there are bills out there that would spend millions of dollars and grow the size of government. Is that what Oklahoma needs right now?
We hope that if any of these bills actually get to a committee for consideration, each lawmaker will explain exactly how it is to be paid for in a time when every agency is being cut by 10% or more. Tough times demand leadership from elected officials and that includes not proposing bills that grow government and increase spending just to placate special interests.
Jan
15
Playing with numbers
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Put this down as another reason why State Question 744 would be a huge problem for Oklahoma if it passes in November: you can’t trust the numbers.
If you go to the State Department of Education’s website and look at the Stat Card for 2007-2008 (the most recent data available, apparently), you will see the claim that Oklahoma spends $7,615 per student. This is the same figure used by the OEA to justify SQ 744. But the OEA claims that the regional average for 2007-2008 is $9,078 while the State Department of Education Fact Sheet says it is $8,870. That difference of $200 per student is a difference of almost $127-million!
Here is where it gets interesting: according to an article in today’s Oklahoman, Education Week is out with a new report ranking states in six categories and 17 subcategories:
The report analyzed funding from the 2007 fiscal year and found that Oklahoma’s per-pupil allocation was $8,836, compared to the national average of $10,557.
So according to Education Week, Oklahoma’s per pupil average in the 2006-2007 school year was almost at the regional average for the 2007-2008 school year! Increasing to the regional average would require $34 per student or about $22-million. That’s far short of the $850-million the OEA claims would be needed.
Oh, and let’s not forget that an examination of education spending by OCPA results in a regional average of $10,257 per student. That would put Oklahoma at the highest per-pupil spending in the region.
It kind of reminds you of the lottery debate when supporters claimed it would bring in $500-million for education.
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