State savings deposits and more money returned to taxpayers highlight the Fiscal Year 2023 state budget agreement, which also funds law enforcement at record levels, eliminates the developmentally disabled services waiting list, fights federal overreach, and makes investments in economic development.

The FY 2023 legislatively-appropriated budget is $9.7 billion, which is 9.7%, or $858.9 million, more than FY 2022.

The largest area of the budget continues to be education, at $4.2 billion, or 44%. In the agreement, public K-12 schools continue to be funded at the highest level in state history, $3.2 billion, on top of billions of dollars in federal pandemic aid for schools and surging local property tax revenues in many school districts.

Higher education receives $873 million, including a $60.6 million, or 7%, state appropriation increase, the largest increase to colleges and universities in recent history. Health and human services is the second largest area of investment, at $2.8 billion, or 29%, of the appropriated budget, followed by transportation at 8% and public safety at 7%. The  budget represents about a third of the total state operating budget, which also includes off-the-top tax apportionments to specific purposes, federal funding and more.

The Legislature did not spend its full appropriations authority  to reserve more funds for savings and avoid overspending. Thanks to this practice and record state revenues, savings are projected to increase to $2.6 billion next year – the highest level in state history.

To help Oklahomans offset historic inflation, the budget returns $181 million to taxpayers in the form of one-time rebates of $75 for individuals and $150 for families, to be paid in December. It also makes vehicle purchases more affordable beginning July 1, 2022 by reinstating the 1.25% sales tax exemption on vehicle sales that was rescinded in 2017, returning $188 million to taxpayers.

The budget grants 30% pay raises to Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers, valued at $14.2 million, and Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agents, valued at $5.3 million. The budget also increases funding for law enforcement training and academies, fighting crimes against children and officer mental health support.

The budget sends another $10 million, on top of $10 million last session, to the Office of the Attorney General to fight federal overreach by asserting Oklahoma’s powers as a state under the U.S. Constitution to overturn or block unconstitutional federal policies.

For the first time in state history, sufficient funding to eliminate the developmentally disabled waiting list at the Department of Human Services is contained in the budget. The $32.5 million increase for the waiting list – the largest single-year increase in state history – will provide critical services to more than 5,000 developmentally disabled Oklahomans who have requested but are not yet receiving state services.

The budget reserves nearly $1 billion for economic development contingent upon Oklahoma being awarded Project Ocean, which would receive nearly $700 million under the Large-scale Economic Activity Development Act (LEAD Act) while another $250 million would retrofit areas in Oklahoma such as industrial parks to help recruit similar economic development projects in the future.