(Update: This post was updated at 4:40 p.m. to include response comments from Rep. Scott Inman.)
At a packed press conference this afternoon, Gov. Mary Fallin chastised the Legislature for being “nowhere close to getting our job done and funding the core services of our state.”
On a poster displaying the $878 million state budget hole, Fallin asked if the crowd knew how much new revenue had been sent to her desk with only 17 days remaining in the session.
“Here’s how much,” she said before drawing a large “$0” underneath. “We have 17 days left. And many of you know that five days before adjournment, we cannot hear revenue-raising measures.”
She clarified that a few tiny revenue measures had made their way to her desk, but that they don’t amount to nearly enough.
Fallin: ‘I am frustrated with Minority Leader Scott Inman’
The House was set to hear a major revenue measure this morning, but HB 2365 was not considered as expected, signaling that GOP leadership did not expect House Democrats to help provide the 76 votes needed for passage.
House Minority Leader Scott Inman (D-Del City) held a press conference earlier in the morning to say his caucus would not be voting for the bill in its current state. Inman has demanded inclusion of an increase in gross production tax, which is applied to oil and gas mining in the state and is currently set at a lower rate for the first 36 months of new wells.
Others in Inman’s caucus, however, have indicated they oppose HB 2365’s inclusion of a fuel tax increase no matter what.
Asked after her press event whether she would sign a bill including gross production tax modifications, Fallin chose her words carefully.
“I am open to all ideas of anything that will help us close our budget shortfall and fund our core priorities, but I don’t want to hurt our business climate,” she said.
Fallin said she wants to see votes on the board on various revenue issues. She also said “partisan gridlock” will hinder the state from reaching a budget agreement.
“I am frustrated with Minority Leader Scott Inman because he keeps saying he’s for cigarette tax, for this, for that, but when votes go up on the board, he either blocks the vote or won’t vote at all,” Fallin said.
After the House adjourned Wednesday afternoon, Inman offered a response to Fallin.
“The governor spoke for over 15 minutes today and didn’t offer one solution to the budget problems that she can clearly detail,” he said. “The only solution she’s offered up since the beginning of the session is raising taxes on working families via haircuts, doctor appointments and dog grooming. That’s a non-starter.”
‘The difference between a state and a third-world country’
Fallin invited dozens of government heavy hitters to gather around her during the press conference. Afterward, Oklahoma Secretary of Transportation Gary Ridley called the budget stalemate “embarrassing.”
“Certainly there’s a real problem here in Oklahoma. To me, the difference between a state and a third-world country is a matter of having good health care for its citizens, safety and security to protect its citizens. You’ve got to have a good education system to ensure you educate your children so they can do better than you did. And a good transportation system. If you look at any state and compare it to any third-world country, that’s the difference between them. Right now, we’re going the wrong way.”
Ridley said the Oklahoma Department of Transportation has had to slow down construction projects owing to “cash flow” issues related to budget uncertainty.
“The people of Oklahoma are depending on them to do their job, and however that’s done, they need to produce,” Ridley said of legislators in both parties.
Chancellor of Higher Education Glenn Johnson, a former House Speaker himself, said Oklahoma’s colleges and universities took a major cut in last year’s budget.
“We just can’t have another significant cut to the higher ed budget,” Johnson said. “Our message on behalf of higher education is, there very clearly is a revenue problem. We need a revenue package to address that shortfall. What those components are is between the governor, the House and the Senate.
“Our message to members from both parties in the House and Senate is we need to come together and put together a revenue package that will address this very serious budget shortfall.”
‘This is a serious problem’
Fallin once again threatened to veto any budget sent to her that fails to fund core services at a level she deems adequate. She said business leaders considering the relocation of companies to Oklahoma have expressed concern about the state’s core functions of government.
“They tell me, ‘Governor, your state is so poor you only fund schools enough to provide classes four days a week,’” she said. “This is a serious problem, and it requires leadership.”
Asked afterward what her message about being governor would be to Inman — himself a 2018 gubernatorial candidate — Fallin emphasized that need for leadership.
“It’s a hard job, and it requires courage and leadership,” she said. “And a plan.”
Inman, of course, has released the Restoring Oklahoma Plan. He has remained most vocal on the need for gross production tax modifications to be included in any “grand bargain” on revenue. If and where he’s willing to capitulate on the issue remains unclear, but Johnson recalled his time as Speaker of the House after Fallin’s press event.
“I was in the Legislature during the years of some of the revenue measures in the mid-’80s after the oil downturn,” Johnson said. “My recollection is that on all of those measures, ultimately on final passage there was support from both parties. That’s the way most of those came down in the mid-’80s and early ’90s.”
‘The time to act is now’
About 200 people packed into the governor’s blue conference room, including agency heads, state employees, advocacy groups and industry leaders.
Fallin thanked those in attendance and said people like them have been reaching out to her regularly.
“What I hear is frustration, concern, that we have a big budget shortfall. We have core services that must be funded that are essential to our state,” Fallin said. “But yet we are not making progress fast enough to solve our budget shortfall, so these people have come from across the state to say, ‘The time to act is now. We must fix our budget.'”
