For Immediate
Release: May 26, 2004
President Pro Tempore Cal Hobson
Legislature Completes Budget Work Early
Oklahoma lawmakers essentially completed
the Fiscal Year 2005 state budget with the passage of the
final bills out of the General Conference Committee on Appropriations
Tuesday – three days before the constitutionally mandated
adjournment of the Second Session of the 49th Oklahoma Legislature.
“There are a couple of bills that still have to be
heard on the floor of both House and Senate but the budget
is finished. We have fulfilled our constitutional duty with
time to spare,” said Senate Appropriations Chairman
Mike Morgan.
“This is just another example of the orderly fashion
in which we have gone about our work this year and one more
reason why I rank this session as the most successful in
my 26 years in the Legislature,” said Senate President
Pro Tempore Cal Hobson.
Hobson, who was first elected to the House of Representatives
in 1978 and joined the State Senate in 1990, is the former
chairman of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee
and former vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
“I have always said that completing the state budget
is 90 percent of the work we do here. This year, with the
able leadership of Chairman Morgan in the Senate and Chairman
Mitchell in the House that work was completed ahead of schedule
and without major logjams in the final week of the session,”
Hobson said.
Representative Billy Mitchell, D-Lindsay, is the chairman
of the House Appropriations and Budget Committee.
Morgan credited the early bipartisan passage of a General
Appropriations bill for setting the tone for an orderly
completion of the FY 2005 budget.
“Last year we were still working out budgetary disagreements
with the constitutional clock ticking down in the final
hours of the final day of the session. We’ve avoided
that this year and I think the spirit of cooperation began
with the GA bill and the way that members of both parties
and the governor supported it,” Morgan said.
The FY 2005 budget totals $5.3 billion, a $246.3 million
or 4.8 percent increase over the FY 2004 budget written
by the Legislature last year.
It includes an increase of nearly $100 million for education.
Funding for public schools was increased $58.7 million or
3 percent, including funds to cover 100 percent of the cost
of individual health insurance premiums for state teachers.
Higher education funding was boosted $34.2 million or 4.3
percent and Career Technology Education was increased by
$6 million or 5.1 percent
Additionally, the budget funds a pay raise for state employees,
the first such pay increase since 2000. Also included in
the FY 2005 budget is $5 million for Governor Brad Henry’s
limited voluntary relocation plan for the Tar Creek Superfund
Site in northeastern Oklahoma.
Hobson said the involvement in the budgetary process of
Governor Brad Henry was also invaluable in continuing the
momentum created in the budget process that began with the
General Appropriations Bill.
“We are fortunate to have an energetic young governor
who has a far-reaching vision for our state who has proven
in his first two years to be a formidable force in shaping
the future of our state,” Hobson said.
For
more information contact:
President Pro Tempore's Office -
(405) 521-5605
