Budget standoff ends with agreement
Senate President Glenn Coffee made a very appropriate joke yesterday during a press conference announcing a budget agreement.
The broadcast press room was packed with cameras and reporters. The media had come to the Capitol expecting to hear news of furloughs of trooper and corrections officers. The press conference was delayed by an hour. Lawmakers were able to come to an agreement to end the budget standoff that jeopardized funding for the Department of Public Safety and the Department of Corrections.
Coffee joked the press conference was like a “Cecil B. DeMille production.” Lights, camera, action.
Senate Republican and Democrat leaders spent two days daring the other side to blink. Democrats on Monday voted against the emergency provision that would have allowed about $30 million to be sent to several agencies for the 2011 budget year. Without 32 votes on the emergency provision, the money would not be available until the next budget year. Democrats wanted $2.5 million to fund meals for seniors for the rest of the year, a program that was cut in November. Republicans said Democrats holding agencies hostage and putting public safety at risk.
The tension was high. Troopers and corrections officers filled the Senate gallery Wednesday afternoon. Earlier in the day, members of the AARP filled the gallery, some carrying paper plates –which has become the symbol for the cuts to the program’s woes.
But as the agreement was announced, Coffee and Senate Minority Leader Charlie Laster, D-Shawnee, joked with each other and promised to work together. The agreement includes a pledge to ” good faith effort to work together” at finding money for the senior nutrition program in 2011 — a budget that’s still be hashed out. No additional funding was given to the senior nutrition for the current budget year, which ends June 30.
Laster said folks who administer the program said they’d rather be assured funding for a full year in 2011, rather than receive partial funding for this year. Community groups and churches have already stepped in to help keep the program going.
So the agreement boils down to this:
- Senate leaders have agreed to find “fair funding” for senior nutrition.
- They want to move the meal program from DHS oversight to another agency. State funds in DHS’s budget are often intermingled with federal funds. When state money is cut, federal funds –usually a $3 to $1 match follow.
- And no additional funding for this year.
At least one senator wasn’t ready to hold hands in agreement. Sen. Judy Eason McIntyre, D-Tulsa, voted against two emergency measures. She said she could not support a solution that didn’t include funding for the current budget year.
Sen. Kenneth Corn, D-Poteau, who has been a vocal advocate of funding for senior nutrition said Democrats plan to hold Senate leaders to their agreement.
“We would have like to have the funding,” Corn said. “They’ve made a commitment to fairly fund the program. If they don’t we’ll use everything in our legislative toolbox to get the money for next year.”
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