For the past eight days, the Tulsa World has dedicated an extraordinary amount of space to how the state prioritizes spending, the Slicing the Budget Pie series. The last element in that series is the editorial that appears on this page.
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While we’re talking about how to spend the money in the budget, it makes some sense to talk about how the budget is written.
I’ve observed the process for years and for the purposes of this effort interviewed three people who have intimate knowledge of its successes and failures: state Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Clark Jolley, Finance Secretary Preston Doerflinger and Oklahoma Policy Institute Executive Director David Blatt.
That’s an interesting mix of perspectives: There’s legislative and executive branches, conservative and liberal orientations, advocacy and implementation expertise, two government insiders and one well-connected outsider.
They all have something in common: They know the state can do a better job writing its budget — better processes that would lead to better results.
How it works: Let’s talk about how it works now. In a few days, the governor will present a balanced budget proposal to the Legislature. It’s a useful document because it represents the thinking of the person who has the final say-so on the budget, but it will be based on preliminary estimates of revenue, and therefore essentially is tentative.
Later this month, final estimates of state revenue for the budget year that starts July 1 will be certified. The Legislature will be able to spend up to 95 percent of that money. That seems like a pretty simple issue of math, but it isn’t because there is a lot of other state money around the edges of that revenue estimate.
The Legislature will appropriate somewhere around $7 billion, but the state will spend somewhere closer to $17 billion. Most of the rest of that money isn’t discretionary revenue. It includes a lot of dedicated funds such as tuition and federal money for specific programs such as Medicaid.
But there is some squishy money that can be discretionary if the Legislature says it is. There is money that previous Legislatures and voters have dedicated to things such as schools and roads that isn’t available for appropriations, unless.... What previous Legislatures have done, the current Legislature can undo. That money is still in play.
And there also is money — reportedly around $1 billion — in cash funds controlled by state agencies. A lot of that is fee money gathered by self-funding state agencies that tends to accumulate over the years. The Legislature can declare some of that money excess and rake it in for the budget.
There will be public budget hearings throughout the legislative session, where agency directors and others will make their cases for bigger budgets.
But the final decisions aren’t made in those committees. They’re made in the budget talks, which tend to happen late in the session between the governor’s office and the top legislative leaders. They decide where the money goes and where it comes from.
Typically in May, the results of those talks are announced. They can come through the normal legislative process in individual appropriations bills or one humongous general appropriations bill, as happened last year. General appropriations bills are special because they’re really, really big, and they can’t be amended.
A general appropriation bill that comes out of a secret budget negotiation makes most legislators and the public at large interested bystanders in the budget process.
The most important work in the process happens in the final days of the Legislature. That is by effect and intent. Effect in that it takes a long time to figure out budgets. Intent in that the later the budget deal is announced in the constitutionally limited legislative session, the less time there is for mischief from those who don’t like the plan.
Jolley, Doerflinger and Blatt all have good ideas for improving the process and you can watch my interviews with them on the Tulsa World’s website.
Here’s my thinking:
1. Get rid of the squishy money. Stop taking tax revenue off the books for future Legislatures, and stop funding state government on “excess” fees. Tell the people the truth about how much state government costs and fund it with fair general taxes.
2. Stop the secret budget talks. It’s the people’s money. Let them see how it’s going to get split up. My bet: People will be more willing to pay for a government they can scrutinize with specificity.
3. Involve the entire Legislature. Want fewer days spent debating if the watermelon is a fruit or a vegetable? Involve every lawmaker in all the budget decisions of the year in a public environment.
4. Don’t use a general appropriations bill. The public deserves a public discussion (with the opportunity for real legislative action) on each individual agency budget.
5. Don’t wait until the end of the session to pass the budget. Decisions made under the duress of time constraints are less likely to be wise decisions.