(Cushing, Okla.) It’s a wrap! Legislators spoke at the final Legislative Luncheon recently, but don’t worry – they’ll be back. Legislative Luncheons are held as a way for legislators to update the community about what’s going on at the Capitol while the Oklahoma House of Representatives and Senate are in session.
Representative Lee Denney and Senator Jim Halligan spoke about balancing the budget and how “hectic” it was toward the end of the session. “The process was a little messy,” Halligan said. “And I have a lot of apprehension whether some of the funds are going to come through.”
Halligan referred to the fact it is an election year and many of those making budget decisions will not be back because they have “termed out.”
Denney agreed, noting that they were able to balance the budget in spite of the shortage of funds.
“We tried to keep cut backs down to a minimum in the four core areas – education, public safety, roads and bridges and health and human services,” Denney said. “Roads and bridges had the least cuts – natural resources received the deepest cuts at 14 – 16 percent.”
Halligan commented that it was a “miracle” that higher ed, common ed, and tech only received a three percent cut and health and human services a one percent cut.
In closing, Denney urged voters to educate themselves not only on the candidates in November’s election, but the state questions.
“It’s going to be overwhelming,” she said, holding up the two page long list. “And this is the condensed version.”
Denney said the questions could be found by visiting the Oklahoma Secretary of the State website www.sos.ok.gov
or click here:www.sos.ok.gov/gov/proposed_questions.aspx to go directly to the state questions
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