Rogers County legislators talk budget angst at last 'Eggs & Issues' of session

Yahoo

29-04-2025

Members of Rogers County's state legislative delegation came to Claremore April 18 for their last "Eggs & Issues" discussion this session.
Sen. Ally Seifried, R-Claremore, and Reps. Mark Lepak, R-Claremore, and Derrick Hildebrant, R-Catoosa, spoke at Will Rogers Memorial Museum about the state's budgetary concerns and bills they and their colleagues are carrying.
Lepak said budget pressure is beginning to mount. In the Claremore Area Chamber of Commerce's first Eggs & Issues this session, Seifried said lower revenue from the grocery sales tax cut and potentially higher Medicaid costs mean Oklahoma has fewer chips to play with than in previous years.
This is a big reason why Gov. Kevin Stitt and the House and Senate majorities are advocating for flat budgets for most state agencies, Seifried said. A flat budget means an agency gets the same amount to spend as it did the year before.
"If you really want to tackle some of these hard issues, you really want to be efficient and slow the growth of government, we've got to look at things like, 'Why is the [flexible benefit allowance] increasing that much year over year?'" Seifried said. "In the interim, hopefully, senators will tackle that and try to figure out some other options."
Seifried and Lepak discussed two things hampering the promise of flat budgets: the funding gap at the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and the private prison in Lawton negotiating with the state to buy it.
The House of Representatives formed a 13-member select committee April 15 to investigate the mental health department's finances. Neither Lepak nor Hildebrant is on the investigative committee, but Lepak said the department's funding woes have consumed the chamber.
Commissioner Allie Friesen has told legislators her department is suffering a $43 million funding gap for Fiscal Year 2025 – ending June 30 – and needs $54 million more to avoid service cuts next fiscal year. Friesen is asking for a $6.2 million infusion to last the department through June.
Stitt and legislators have accused the mental health department of covering up its mismanagement of state appropriations. Lepak said he and the rest of the legislative branch have lots of questions.
"How did we get in that position? What happened?" Lepak said. "I think I know, but I have to wait until the process works."
Seifried and Lepak said legislators are also reeling at the prospect of potentially having to spend upward of $300 million to buy the Lawton Correctional Facility. GEO Group operates the prison under a contract with the Oklahoma Board of Corrections but elected last year not to renew it.
The Lawton Correctional Facility houses about 2,500 male prisoners. Lepak said that with GEO bowing out, it falls to the state to either buy the Lawton prison or expend funds to move the prisoners elsewhere.
Seifried said it's frustrating the Oklahoma Board of Corrections didn't bring the issue to lawmakers sooner.
"You saw this coming down the line, possibly as early as fall, and then now you're coming to us, and then the only option is to purchase a prison for $300 million," Seifried said. "... You know, it's just impossible. There's been a lot of angst around that."
The Board of Corrections took no action April 23 after privately discussing its contract with GEO in executive session.
April 10 was the deadline to advance bills from the other chamber through policy committees. When the legislators came to Claremore April 18, their deadline to get these bills out of oversight committee loomed six days ahead.
Four bills they discussed that have surmounted the April 24 deadline are House Bills 1276 and 1539 and Senate Bills 139 and 1027.
Seifried authored S.B. 139 and is the Senate sponsor of H.B. 1276; these are the bills seeking to ban cell phones during the school day. Their only material difference is that the House bill requires school boards to review and renew the policy each year, and the Senate version does not.
Seifried said she hopes one of them will pass this session.
Lepak is sponsoring H.B. 1539, which would set up a path to cut Oklahomans' income taxes. It would require the State Board of Equalization to compare FY 2025 tax collection to FY 2023's in December.
If FY 2025's revenue exceeds FY 2023's by $300 million or more, the state would cut the 4.75% personal income tax rate by 0.25% across all income levels.
The House struck the title from the bill March 6. A bill needs a title to become a law in Oklahoma, so this measure ensured the House would get another chance to review it after the Senate considered it.
The Senate restored its title April 7, Lepak said, and passed H.B. 1539 April 10 without changing the House's language.
"If the House votes for it on the floor, it goes to the governor and proceeds unless we decide to change it or attach something else to it," Lepak said.
None of the three lawmakers is a sponsor on S.B. 1027, which affects Oklahoma's initiative petition process, but Hildebrant and Lepak said they both support it. It is a major Republican priority; House Speaker Rep. Kyle Hilbert is one of the bill's co-authors.
Lepak said S.B. 1027 would restrict the numbers of signatures petitioners can gather in a single county to 11.5% of the votes cast in that county during the last gubernatorial election. In Rogers County, no more than 3,902 people could sign an initiative petition.
Older versions of the bill stipulated no more than 10% of signatures could come from a county with more than 400,000 residents. Only Oklahoma and Tulsa counties fit that bill, and Hildebrant and Lepak said that was the point.
"You get a lot of emails of people thinking that their voice is being taken away," Hildebrant said. "... The problem with initiative petitions is all the signatures for the initial petitions are now coming from Tulsa County and from Oklahoma County ... Rogers County and many of these other counties across the state of Oklahoma don't get their voices heard."
Lepak said this translates to proposals favored by urban Democrats and liberal interest groups more consistently making the ballot and proposals crafted by the Legislature often failing. He said this is why Oklahomans got the chance to vote on expanding Medicaid and legalizing medical marijuana.
Lepak said he doesn't have data on how many of the signatures to get those proposals on the ballot came from urban versus rural areas.
"Anecdotally, you don't see people in Weatherford collecting signatures," Lepak said. "But I could drive from the Capitol up the Northwest Expressway to where my parents live and see four different stations for medical marijuana."