Impasse brings session to a halt
Legislature fails to act on budget hole
Instead of pursuing a cigarette tax vote destined to fail Wednesday, Oklahoma legislative leaders halted special session just three days after they convened.
Committees and previously scheduled interim studies will still meet, but lawmakers won’t return to the floor until leaders in both the House and Senate call them back. That decision stops any significant progress in filling a $215 million funding shortfall, leaving the agencies most affected by the shortfall waiting for answers.
House Speaker Charles McCall backed off his centerpiece cigarette tax vote Wednesday, effectively putting Oklahoma’s special session on hold until Republicans and Democrats reach a funding deal.
Democrats won’t support the cigarette tax without Republican support of a tax increase on oil and gas production. McCall needs 22 Democrats to pass the $1.50-per-pack tax. Passing a tax increase requires 76 votes to pass the House.
“We have our members lined up to support this measure on the floor vote. However, we do not have a commitment or confirmation
from the minority Democratic Party of the House that they will deliver 75 percent of their caucus to pass this measure,” McCall said.
House Minority Leader Scott Inman fought back against McCall’s criticism, saying the GOP’s proposals so far lack the broad range of options needed to restore years of budget cuts.
“They told us for weeks that they had a plan. And we asked for it; it was never presented to us,” Inman said. “And finally today, when they had their opportunity to roll out their plan to balance to budget, increase funding for core services, they punted. Then they chose to come into this press conference room and place blame.”
Because there is no agreement, leadership decided it would be a waste of money to convene the entire Legislature every day without any revenue or budget votes on the agenda. Keeping the House and Senate in session costs an estimated $30,000 each day.
State agencies are reacting to the monthslong Oklahoma Capitol stalemate that renewed itself in special session. So far, that includes hypothetical plans for more budget cuts if lawmakers don’t adopt new revenue. Before the session, lawmakers asked agencies to draw up scenarios for that very situation.
If lawmakers don’t find money for the Department of Human Services, it could lose anywhere from 3.1 percent of its budget to 10 percent, or $61 million. Spokeswoman Sheree Powell said DHS has made $66 million in reductions to administrative costs over the past three years and can’t not make any further cuts without harming programs and services.
“We’ve cut so many positions, we’ve closed offices, we’ve consolidated offices. Now we’re down to just programs and services,” Powell said. “We don’t want to cut child welfare services because of all the progress that’s been made.”
She said DHS will continue to cut internally before harming programs and services, but the agency is “extremely limited” in its ability to do so.
The Oklahoma Health Care Authority lost about $70 million when the cigarette tax was struck down, but has found about $14.7 million in leftover funds, cuts and savings from policy changes. That leaves it with a roughly $55.3 million budget hole for the current fiscal year.
OHCA’s board heard other ideas to cut costs at its Wednesday meeting, but didn’t take action on them. One idea would help with out-of-pocket costs for people eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, which could save the state about $9.4 million. OHCA staff also raised the possibility of about $12.1 million in savings from an acrossthe-board cut to Medicaid rates.
Carrie Evans, chief financial officer for OHCA, said staff are monitoring the situation at the Legislature. Additional cuts could be necessary by November if nothing changes, she said.
“We’ll just keep waiting as long as we can,” Evans said.
In a news conference, McCall said Oklahoma will lose out on $21 million from new cigarette tax collections this year because of the impasse.
“But House Republicans still stand ready today to reconvene, to vote on this measure and pass it, where it can still be ratified this week by the Legislature and we can capture that $21 million for health care throughout the state of Oklahoma,” he said.
That fact wasn’t lost on Oklahoma Public Employees Association spokesman Tom Dunning.
“Everybody’s just holding tight until we know what’s going to happen in special session,” Dunning said. “Every day that goes past is a shorter time frame to save money.”