Lawmakers Working on Rainy Day Fund Agreement

By Dave Jordan, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY – With the state still struggling to close a massive budget gap, legislative leaders and Governor Henry are struggling to decide just how much of the Rainy Day Fund must be spent.

House and Senate leaders want to use about $229 million of the Rainy Day Fund to fix the budget gap. Governor Brad Henry wants to use about $485 million. There is an estimated $600 million in the Rainy Day Fund.

Both Governor Henry and Senate Pro Tem Glenn Coffee met behind closed doors to discuss their differences over the Rainy Day Fund. Both men have indicated an agreement is close at hand over how much to spend.

"The speaker and the pro tem held the position they didn't want to spend more than $225 million and we held the position that we should spend more," said Governor Henry. "The people, when they enacted the Rainy Day Fund, envisioned just this kind of emergency and the Rainy Day Fund is there to smooth things out."

Senate Pro Tem Glenn Coffee admits the bad budget must be dealt with in a conservative manner rather than passing this fiscal crisis over to the next administration.

"They're still going to have to make some tough decisions. So I have consistently said we need to save as much of the Rainy Day Fund as practical," Coffee said.

Even though there has been a recent uptick in the state's revenue collections thanks to the taxes from the oil and gas industry, the legislature will have less money to spend this year. The Board of Equalization is slated to approve a $5.4 billion budget which is about $1.2 billion less than last year. State officials blame the losses on lower-than-expected gas and oil revenues and the bad global economy.

"We have a relatively new legislature and even if they are all veterans, we haven't seen this before, this type of situation. It's very unique," said State Treasurer Scott Meacham.

State agencies saw their budgets slashed every month by 5 percent or 10 percent this fiscal year. That is likely to continue into next year, according to Meacham.

Because of this, lawmakers are determined to work through the Rainy Day Fund issue in a bipartisan fashion.

"I understand their difficulty. They understand my position. We will work it out. We'll build a consensus," Henry said.