| A group of senators is calling for a change in the way the legislature oversees the state agencies which they fund annually. Senators Roger Thompson & AJ Griffin are just two senators who are frustrated at how agencies avoid actually doing several core services so that they can leverage the failure for increased funding in the next budget 'go round'. One detrimental result of the current process is that the legislature has often increased funding far beyond the needed levels just to acquire assurances that a particular function will get accomplished. Those Oklahomans who have been trying to call in to state agency offices in the past 8 years will tell us that it's mostly impossible to get real state workers to answer the phones at all. But the legislature has not been able to get funding designated to alleviate that failure. In the same way, the Dept. of Public Safety has deliberately caused waiting times of over 2 hours at many motor vehicle testing facilities, because it leads voters to pressure the legislature to hike the overall agency budget. But even when that trick does prevail in the legislature's budgeting, we sometimes see that the problem remains unchanged. |  |
Randy Ellis wrote this excerpt for the Oklahoman..
 Some of the legislative sponsors of the line item proposal. The Oklahoma Legislature once again would be required to approve line-item budgets for Oklahoma's largest state agencies under a bill proposed by a group of seven Republican state senators. All but one state agency that each receive more than $100 million in state funds would be required to obtain legislative approval of their line item budgets under Senate Bill 875. The lone exception would be the State Regents for Higher Education, which was appropriated $810 million last year, but would be exempt from the line-item process because Oklahoma's constitution gives state regents budgeting authority over state colleges and universities. "Almost every door that we knock, almost every town hall that we have, constituents are asking us the question, 'Where does the money go?'" said state Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, principal author of Senate Bill 875. Thompson said he believes lawmakers need to have a greater say in how state agencies spend taxpayers' funds, since lawmakers represent the interests of all Oklahomans and the people who elected them, while agency officials tend to hear more from consumers of their services. Thompson cited a decision by DHS administrators to make cuts in a senior meals program in response to budget cuts as an instance where more legislative input might have resulted in a different decision. "The last thing I want to see cut is the senior meals programs, and we've seen that happen," Thompson said. |
