Legislature faces budget problems.

Saturday, November 16th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- When 25 newly elected lawmakers join lame-duck members of the Oklahoma Legislature for a special session on Monday, they will be inheriting a $291 million budget shortfall.

Freshman lawmakers and those re-elected in the Nov. 5 general election face a daunting task to balance the state's budget amid a deepening revenue shortfall that veteran legislators say is as bad or worse than the oil bust of the 1980s.

The Office of State Finance earlier this week reduced allocations to state agencies an average of 6.5 percent for the fiscal year that began July 1 to reflect lower than expected tax collections.

Cuts to public education alone will total $158.1 million.

"This is the absolute deepest (cut) that I recall ever in the history of the budget in Oklahoma," said state Superintendent of Schools Sandy Garrett.
The 48th Oklahoma Legislature will convene one last time to appropriate emergency funds to avoid the unpaid furlough of state prison guards to help offset an $18.7 million cut in the agency's budget. Officials said furloughing guards could jeopardize public safety.

Members of the 49th Legislature, including 17 new House members and eight new members of the Senate, will be sworn in the next day.

Outgoing lawmakers are being recalled to avoid procedural rules that would require the new Legislature to convene for at least five days. The special session is expected to last just one day.

District 18 Rep. Lloyd Fields, D-McAlester, said lawmakers are expected to appropriate $9.8 million to the Department of Corrections to prevent the unpaid furlough of more than 4,800 prison guards and other corrections workers.

Accompanying Fields at Monday's special session will be the man who succeeds him, Democrat Terry Harrison of McAlester.

"He's got to make some hard decisions in cuts in state agencies across the board," said Fields, a four-term state representative who ran unsuccessfully for labor commissioner in the general election.

Fields and other veteran lawmakers said it is important for new legislators to understand the state's budget woes before the regular session convenes in February.

"It is a serious situation," said Rep. Loyd Benson, D-Frederick, a former speaker of the House who did not seek re-election after 16 years.

"You've got to be vigilant about the issues and make sure that you're prioritizing every dollar that you're going to spend," Benson said.

Rep. Randall Erwin, a five-term lawmaker who is seeking the chairmanship of the powerful House Appropriations and Budget Committee, will be among the returning incumbents.

"I'm willing to look at anything that will be a cost-saving measure where we will get the same level of services," Erwin, D-Neshoba.

The Oklahoma Public Employees Association, a union of state
workers, requested the special session to address a funding crisis it said posed a threat to the public as well as corrections workers.

"State employees understand that there is a limited amount of resources," said Gary Jones, OPEA executive director. "But we also know that we have an obligation to keep the employees and the people that we work for safe," Jones said.

Jones said an increase in state taxes is one of the long-term solutions the new Legislature will have to address. He said Oklahoma ranks 50th among the states in the amount it spends on government.

"We do not have the revenue base to meet the important services that the people of Oklahoma need," he said. Fields, whose district includes the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, a maximum security prison, said the security of the state's prisons and inmates who are confined there placed its funding crisis at the top of a very long list.

The OPEA said inmate assaults on prison guards and other inmates have increased over the years as the number of unfilled positions climbed. Currently, more than 16 percent of all Corrections Department positions are vacant. Many nonuniform workers have been ordered to perform guard duty, said OPEA spokesman Trish Fracier.

But the Corrections Department is not the only state agency feeling the pinch of the state's revenue shortfall. At the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System, which provides attorneys for defendants who cannot afford to hire their own, 27 positions are being eliminated effective Dec. 31, reducing the
staff to about 140. Although some positions are vacant, 11 OIDS employees are losing their jobs.

Funding problems are so critical that a state judge found OIDS director James Bednar in indirect contempt of court last month when the agency could not provide attorneys for two defendants in Kay County.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals delayed the case. Bednar said his agency has lost more than $2.1 million through budget cuts and reduced appropriations since January.

Lawmakers said they are sympathetic to the plight of OIDS but are powerless to act.

"I understand their lament and share their worry and concern," said Senate President Pro Tem designate Cal Hobson, D-Lexington. "But for the rest of our challenged agencies we simply have to wait till February."

While the old Legislature will be back at the Capitol for one last bailout, it will be up to the new one to find permanent solutions to the state's budget crisis.

"It's not going to make everybody happy," Fields said. "You're going to make somebody mad."