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February 9, 2010

So It Begins

Rep. Chuck Hoskins

Tuesday Feb. 9, 2010 — “It is the job that is never started that takes longest to finish.”

— J.R.R. Tolkien



One thing is clear after the first week of the legislation session; House members face a daunting task in dealing with the state budget. Collections for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 budget passed last May have fallen $729 million short of estimates and revenue projections for FY 2011 indicate there will be $1.3 billion less than the amount approved in the initial FY 2010 budget.

To deal with the current situation, a FY 2010 budget agreement endorsed by the Governor and legislative leaders would utilize targeted spending cuts and the use of Rainy Day and stimulus funding.

The agreement would include an infusion of $33 million to the Health Care Authority, which administers Medicaid; $7.2 million to the Department of Corrections to address inmate growth and prevent furloughs of corrections officers; and $80 million to Common and Higher Education holding them to a smaller 4 percent total cut in appropriations.

This plan attempts to spread out the reserve funds in a responsible way, while attempting to minimize cuts in core services.

Governor Henry addressed the Legislature early in the week in his annual State of the State Address and laid out some of the tough choices that lie ahead as we grapple with the present economic challenge in state government.

Included in the Governor’s FY11 budget are some controversial proposals. One is the elimination of the Rural Economic Action Plan (REAP) which helps pay for a portion of projects in rural communities such as street repairs, infrastructure improvements and rural fire departments. As you can imagine, this proposal has generated significant opposition from rural lawmakers including me.

The Governor has also proposed numerous agency consolidations, including the placement of the JM Davis Arms and Historical Museum and the Will Rogers Memorial Commission under the Oklahoma Historical Society which would eliminate the local control of both agencies which concerns me and other local legislators greatly.

Another proposal would allow for the taxing of internet purchases made through out-of-state store-fronts (taxes are already collected on vendors operating store-fronts within Oklahoma). Indeed, many more proposals will be carefully weighed and considered as we work to build the state’s budget in light of revenue shortfalls.

The famous author J.R.R. Tolkien reminds us of the importance in getting a job started. As a member to the House Appropriations and Budget Committee, I intend to be a strong advocate for our rural Oklahoma values of thrift, prudence and fairness as we consider the budgetary priorities of our state.

In the weeks ahead, I look forward to sharing information with you in this space which is provided as a public service. I appreciate the Publisher’s commitment to shining a light on the work of our government.

Thank you for the honor of representing you at the State Capitol. As always, I welcome your questions or comments about any area of state government. You may contact me calling 1-800-522-8502; emailing chuck.hoskin@okhouse.gov; or writing Representative Chuck Hoskin, State Capitol Building, 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd. Room 509, Oklahoma City, OK 73105.

n Chuck Hoskins is state respresentative for District 6.

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