Liberal Democrats and Republican leaders joined forces to override a series of budget bill vetoes by Gov. Kevin Stitt and enact a controversial new budget.

Stitt said he was excluded from the budget process, which was crafted by GOP leaders and it sets the stage for GOP-led tax increases in 2021.

“This budget was created behind closed doors, without meaningful input or consultation from the Executive Branch,” Stitt said. “This proposed budget does not reflect the values of Oklahoma nor the clear directive voters gave elected officials at the ballot box of living within our means and making hard decisions when times get tough.

“Instead, Senate Bill 1922 reflects misguided policies that conservative republicans have spent the past decade reversing. It is propped up with one-time funds that will not be available for Fiscal Year 2022.

“As governor, I was elected to manage the Executive Branch, which includes managing expenses and right-sizing agencies. This budget is going to back the state into a financial corner, which leaves us with very few options in FY 2022 – we will either have to raise taxes or implement draconian cuts. As governor, I am here to protect the taxpayer – not harm them.”

Stitt said the new budget raids money set aside for the teacher, police and firefighter pension funds. It uses one-time money instead of making cuts to mitigate the budget shortfall due to the coronavirus and falling energy prices.

“These bills would take tens of millions of dollars away from teachers, law enforcement officers, and firefighters to fund district costs, and it would bring our funding ratio back down to where it was in 2014,” Stitt said.

“While I understand the importance of a balanced budget, it is fiscally irresponsible to do so at the expense of the solvency of these pension systems. I will not play a part in harming Oklahoma’s dedicated teachers and emergency responders.”

Cutting road funding is an invitation for the Department of Transportation to borrow perhaps tens of millions of dollars in bonds, according to Stitt.

“We disagree with the Governor’s stated justification for the veto, which is that he believes the budget should include more cuts,” said Senate Democrat Leader Kay Floyd, D-Oklahoma City.

“Senate Democrats did support an override of the Governor’s veto of HB 2743, which transfers $180 million from the ROADS Fund to public education. We do not believe this is a sustainable funding source for our public schools; however, we were able to support this override because the funding is backfilled by bonds the Oklahoma Department of Transportation is authorized to issue.”

This was the first time in Oklahoma history that legislative leaders overrode this many vetoes of budget bills by a governor of the same party.

With the help of the Democrats, Republican leaders got two-thirds majorities on Senate Bill 1922 — the $7.7 billion budget proposal — and House Bills 2741, 2742 and 2743. 

Every House Republican voted to override the SB 1922 veto.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Senator Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, said the huge budget maintains  the significant teacher pay raises passed over the last two years. The House bills draw more than $300 million from money set aside for pension funds and highways to common education.

The bills don’t take existing money from the pension funds but they stall efforts to fully fund those accounts – an effort that was previously championed by Republican leaders until this session.

It siphons $180 million from a special highway fund and would trigger more state borrowing to maintain the state’s infrastructure.

“We have made great progress shoring up our retirement systems in the last few years, and now is not the time to undo that progress,” Stitt said.

“As Governor, my goal is for Oklahoma to become a Top Ten State. This includes becoming Top Ten in infrastructure, specifically in roads and bridges. House Bill 2743 would force ODOT to unnecessarily take on additional debt through the use of bonds. Because of the State’s dedication to the ODOT plan, we are now up to 13th in bridges and improving our roads. I understand and agree with the use of bonds in limited circumstances. However, I cannot support the use of bonds to plug budget holes.”

“The Legislature stood united to override the deep cuts these disappointing vetoes would have caused to our shared priority of public education,” said  House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka. “While we did not take it lightly, we strongly agreed the Legislature’s coequal constitutional powers had to be exercised to correct and override the governor on this matter.”

House Bills 2741, 2742, 2743 and Senate Bill 1922 are now law.

Lawmakers voted Friday to approve an unfunded increase in state workers’ retirement benefits.

Since no money is budgeted for that, it will drain some money already in those funds, thereby reducing current workers’ future retirement security.

House Bill 3350 provides a 4 percent “cost of living adjustment” (COLA) to most retired state government workers.

Under HB 3350, those who have been retired for less than two years would get no increase in benefit payments.

Those retired for two to five years would see a 2 percent increase, and those retired for five years or more would get a 4 percent increase.

It is estimated that 85 percent of state government retirees will receive the 4 percent increase.