Appropriations, budget subcommittees open to everyone
Every year, the House holds a number of Appropriations & Budget subcommittee meetings before session starts requiring each state agency, commission or board that receives state funding to come before the appropriate committee to detail how they spent prior year funding and to submit their budget request for the next fiscal year.
These meetings are always open to the public.
In addition, for the past five years or more, the House has held larger meetings open to any member that wants to participate in which we host the six agencies that receive the largest amount of state funding to come and present very detailed budget requests and spending updates. These meetings are held in the House chamber and also are open to the public, both those who want to attend in person or watch online.
The state Senate holds similar meetings. This year, however, Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat is touting the idea that this is part of his new budget transparency work. He promises that instead of just regular meetings, senators will now be grilling the agencies that receive state funding with many more questions. I’m glad to see that, but I propose that should already be occurring as it has been on the House side for a number of years now.
Of note: the state budget originates in the House and the Senate every other year. All revenue-raising measures must originate in the House first, the chamber closest to the people.
In other news, we wrapped up another successful majority party caucus in Tulsa this past week. Many inspirational speakers addressed our caucus. The speaker I found most interesting was Jim Bridenstine. The former congressman and former director of NASA spoke of the future of the aerospace industry in Oklahoma and his belief that Oklahoma could become a leader in this emerging industry. Many don’t realize the Oklahoma has the ability for the space shuttle to land in Burns Flat, with its thirteen thousand foot runway, should the need ever arise .
In a continuation of my discussion of legislation I’ll be authoring this coming session, one of the bills I will introduce involves the Oklahoma Tax Commission. As we deal with out-ofcontrol inflation, many times equipment values are increased, which increases taxes due. I will be attempting to lock in values so they can never exceed the purchase price. I also plan to work with the Oklahoma Department of Corrections with some legislation to provide some funding to remodel the prison rodeo grounds so we nay resume our own Prison Rodeo.
As always, thank You for allowing me to serve you. I can be reached at (405) 557-7381 or by email at jim.grego@ okhouse.gov.
Jim Grego serves District 17 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. His district includes Latimer County and parts of LeFlore and Pittsburg counties.