going to be effected by this?
State revenue is down 28% from the projections. We are about to be seriously effected by the cuts that keep coming.
Good luck to anyone on the wrong end of this.
going to be effected by this?
State revenue is down 28% from the projections. We are about to be seriously effected by the cuts that keep coming.
Good luck to anyone on the wrong end of this.
I taste terrific.
The Oklahoma School of Science and MAth is being affect...which sucks in general, but further sucks because two years ago the school was the ONLY state agency that received a cut!
Hard times.
Olevet Posse Bail Bondsman
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As someone that's lived outside of Oklahoma since 1994 -- what's up with the rainy day fund?
Is that still around? Are we using it? Did we spend it already?
It should have been topped off very nicely a couple of years ago when petro prices were through the roof.
Anybody got anything?
The Rainy Day Fund is at it's constitutional limit of $600M. The Legislature and the governor both have to sign off on tapping it, however the Legislature is not in session until February. There may be a special session in January, however $600M won't even begin to be enough to cover the deficits. We're looking at a $1B shortfall right now.
A couple more questions if you don't mind --Originally Posted by Viking Kitten
Is the $1bn shortfall for 2009, or for 2010? Or does OK have a fiscal year budget?
And more to the point, if the $1b shortfall is for 09, isn't that water under the bridge? It's Dec 18.
If it's for 2010, does that mean that the pencil pushers are predicting a $1bn cut in spending levels over 2009? If so, they could be wrong. Obama keeps telling us the recession is over, right?
OK has a fiscal year budget. July through June. We are currently in FY 2010.
Tulsa's new Mayor (?) is going to hack away at the FOP. Called out for the Sheriff's Dept to help cover some areas that the FOP won't be able to get to.
I guess losing the Horses wasn't enough anyway...
Lots of Policemen and Policewomen are going to lose their jobs it seems.
And Firemen. And staff within all areas of the City. When the vast majority of your budget is police and fire salaries, that's about the only choice when you've had to have reductions to the extent that we have.
Just FWIW, and perhaps to inspire further discussion, these various entities like schools, law enforcement and fire which are apparently under-resourced, seem to have one thing in common; the ratio of adminstrative personnel to classroom teacher, beat cop and firehouse firefighter seems as though it may be way out of whack.
Put another way, I've heard it stated repeatedly, in print and by broadcast media, the ratio of school admin types to classroom teachers is 1:1. I don't know what it is for cops and fire, but I bet it's close.
Now, might one way out of this predicklement be to either cut back on admin types, or at least require them to take some kind of pay cut, while leaving the folks at the tip of the spear alone? I know, contracts and all that stuff. But nevertheless, I'd rather see that sort of thing than cutting first-line folks.
What say you?
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Yes. And that budget was based on projected monthly revenue (tax collections, etc.). The key word there is projected.
Before the fiscal year even began, lawmakers knew thought they would have about $600M less to work with as compared to the FY09 budget. So almost all state agencies were ordered to cut their budgets by 7.5 percent. Most agencies were able to absorb that through cutting back operating expenses, hiring freezes, eliminating overtime, thing like that.
But then the actual revenue started coming in, and it was much lower than expected. So the Legislature told agencies to trim an additional 5 percent from their budgets. That's when we could start to see it and feel it. Salaries represent around 90 percent of most agency's budgets. You can't cut 12.5 percent without dipping into your human costs.
Then this week the really bad news hit, one of the worse Novembers in the state's history in terms of collections. Additional cuts of 10 percent were ordered for December and January. That means agencies are operating with more than 17 percent less money than last year, and that means people are going to lose their jobs. With no signs of the situation getting better, there is talk that the additional cuts will be annualized, meaning even steeper cuts in February and March. This is where the $1B contraction figure comes in, and remember that figure represents about 1/7th of the state's entire budget. Lawmakers from both parties are throwing the term "Great Depression" around.
We haven't even begun to talk about FY2011 yet, except for the fact that the Stimulus money, which has filled some of the holes this year will then be gone.
Oh and before somebody else does it...
I say, what is happening now is nothing compared to what is about to happen in relation to underfunded and broke public pensions, possible default by States such as California, New York, Meatchicken, etc.Just FWIW, and perhaps to inspire further discussion, these various entities like schools, law enforcement and fire which are apparently under-resourced, seem to have one thing in common; the ratio of adminstrative personnel to classroom teacher, beat cop and firehouse firefighter seems as though it may be way out of whack.
Put another way, I've heard it stated repeatedly, in print and by broadcast media, the ratio of school admin types to classroom teachers is 1:1. I don't know what it is for cops and fire, but I bet it's close.
Now, might one way out of this predicklement be to either cut back on admin types, or at least require them to take some kind of pay cut, while leaving the folks at the tip of the spear alone? I know, contracts and all that stuff. But nevertheless, I'd rather see that sort of thing than cutting first-line folks.
What say you?
And what is already happening with the Dollars collapsing, China is beginning to stop buying our Debt, we risk losing are AAA bond rating, and our national debt is quadruple what it was a year ago.
The porkulus has been the absolute most expensive fail in American history, the States are going broke and jobs are continuing to be lost, and our Dear Leader is in Denmark trying to give more money we don't have away to fighting something we cannot control or may not even exist.
2010 is not going to be a good year.
Its figures like this that tell you that BLS unemployment numbers are basically hogwash.
If the economy were improving, sales taxes would be going up, not collapsing during the biggest shopping season of the year.
Oklahoma’s budget has country’s biggest deficit
BY RANDY KREHBIEL - Tulsa World
Only a few months removed from being declared "recession-proof” by national media, Oklahoma faces the largest state budget deficit in the nation, according to a report given by the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The conference’s November update of state budgets says Oklahoma’s 18.5 percent shortfall for the current fiscal year edges out Arizona’s 18 percent, with Illinois, at 16.5 percent, in third.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/artic...1_Onlyaf274401
Last edited by SanJoaquinSooner; 12/20/2009 at 03:20 PM.
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Yikes.
Early projections for next year's (2011) budget were announced today. An additional billion dollars less than this year. Things are gonna get ugly.
Good times.
I heard today that 26 high schools have reported that they don't have the revenue to finish the year.
I don't think some people fully realize how bad it's about to get. We are looking at losing nearly 1/4 of our workforce. That's a lot of Oklahomans out of work folks.
I taste terrific.
That's crazy. I think we spent more the past couple months than I have in any other holiday season since being in OK. Crazy...
A big part of the problem is that the geniuses in the legislature cut taxes a couple of years ago when we had a surplus. They cut auto inspection fees, and other things. They didn't replace the revenue for the most part. They did try to shift some of it to gross production taxes, but when the industry took a nose dive, so did revenue.
Turn in your Republican card right now. Can't be havin anyone wanting higher taxes.
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