Oklahomans for Responsible Government

During Governor Brad Henry’s State of the State address today, he talked about increasing the Rainy Day Fund to provide more protection in the future.  Yet in his budget, he would leave less than $43-million in the same account after he leaves office.

“Governor Henry knows that it took several years of unprecedented revenues to get the Rainy Day Fund to the level it’s at right now,” said Oklahomans for Responsible Government Executive Director Brian Downs.  “By draining more than $550-million dollars from the Rainy Day Fund, Oklahoma will have a tiny reserve at a time when stimulus dollars will no longer be available, leaving a $600-million hole in the budget next session.”

When speaking before the joint legislative session, Governor Henry was very detailed when it came to spending money and never mentioned a specific place to cut state spending.  In fact, the Governor’s budget proposal only includes $66-million in targeted agency cuts, a pittance in comparison to the more than $1-billion reduction in certified funds for FY 2011.

OFRG does applaud Governor Henry for his desire to consolidate some state agencies in order to save $5-million.  However, more needs to be done to save money instead of counting on the Rainy Day Fund to continue spending that should be cut.

“Governor Henry talked about the dire situation when he came into office in 2003,” said Downs.  “But if his budget were enacted, he would be leaving the next Governor in a similar predicament: a budget shortfall due to disappearing stimulus funds and hardly any money left in the state’s savings account.”

OFRG hopes that legislative leaders and Governor Henry can come to an agreement that will balance Oklahoma’s budget while keeping as much money in the Rainy Day Fund as possible.  If an emergency were to come in FY 2012, Oklahoma would only have access to a quarter of the Rainy Day Fund which, under the Governor’s scenario, would be around $10-million.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 1st, 2010 at 6:00 pm and is filed under Press Room. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.