By Rep. Scott Fetgatter
The beginning of the legislative session is far away in our review mirror and the end for this year is just beyond the horizon. Most of the bills that are going to make it into law this year have already been through committee and heard by either the Oklahoma House or Senate as this Thursday is the house of origin deadline.
This deadline requires that all legislation authored by House members be approved by the House to continue in the process to become law. Moving forward, House members will go back to committee and begin hearing legislation from the Senate and vice versa. The one exception to this deadline is that bills that deal with the budget aren’t affected.
Now that we are at a point where most legislation has been looked at by at least one committee and one full chamber of the legislature, we can begin to see a picture of what the budget will look like. To help get a clearer “picture,” House leadership sent out a questionnaire asking the heads of appropriated agencies to outline what would happen to their agencies if there was a 5, 10 or 15 percent budget cut. This questionnaire was a quest for information.
There is no legislation advocating for such cuts. I want to make this point clear because there are many rumors and news stories circulating about state parks being closed. At the time of my writing this, there is no legislation looking to cut the budget of the Oklahoma Tourism Department, and there is no legislation advocating for the closure of state parks. Furthermore, if any lawmaker comes up with legislation to do so, they are going to have hard time convincing me that something that promotes local economies, education and families spending time with each other should be closed.
The state park rumor is a great reminder that during the budget process individuals should be skeptical of the things they hear until after a proposal has been finalized. The reason is because not all ideas are created equal. There are going to be some great ideas that come out of the budget talks, but there are probably going to be some bad ones as well.
As always, I consider it a great joy in life to serve you in the Oklahoma Legislature. If you have questions, concerns or feedback, please reach out to my office at (405)557-7373.