Future of budget deal in doubt

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The future of the current version of a quickly passed omnibus budget bill is bleak, a spokesman for Gov. Brad Henry's chief budget negotiator said Monday.

"The FY 2008 budget will not be what is currently in House Bill 1234," said Tim Allen, Oklahoma Treasurer Scott Meacham's spokesman. "There will have to be changes made."

And while Meacham -- the governor's cabinet secretary for revenue and finance -- Henry and Rep. Danny Morgan held a press conference Monday to discuss their concerns about the proposal, Henry spokesman Paul Sund confirmed the governor will sign the bill's supplemental appropriations for the departments of education and corrections.

"The governor will defenitely sign the education supplemental and the corrections supplemental," Sund said. "He'll sign the education supplemental so school districts can get money needed for the teachers' pay raise, and he'll sign the corrections supplemental because the state's prisons need the money."

However, Henry said he would "closely look at" the remainder of the bill, including sections which cover the state's $7 billion 2008 budget.

"My staff and I will begin a line-by-line review of the 49-page, omnibus bill and pass final judgment when the review is completed," Henry said.

The governor has until Wednesday to take action on the proposal.

Last week, Henry and Meacham complained that they were left out of budget negotiations. "I'm deeply disappointed in the way budget negotiations were conducted and the manner in which the vast majority of the 149-member Legislature and the executive branch were denied input in the process," Henry said.

However, on Monday, House Speaker Lance Cargill, R-Harrah, denied that Henry or Meacham were excluded from budget hearings.

"We started budget meetings in January," Cargill said. "Those were open committee hearings. That's inaccurate (for the Gov. and Meacham to say) they weren't included."

Earlier this year, Cargill said, he wrote a letter to Henry inviting him to conduct weekly meetings with legislative leaders.

"I wrote Gov. Henry a hand-written letter and invited him to have weekly meetings with legislative leaders," Cargill said. "The governor declined those meetings, saying he only wanted to meet as needed. It's very ironic for him to now say we excluded him."

Yet while Cargill urged Henry to sign the full proposal and described the budget as "a positive achievement for the state" he did leave room for negotiation.

"This bill isn't set in stone," Cargill said Monday afternoon. "We still have a reconciliation process. This is just a safety net. It's not the final product or end game of the Legislature."

Sill, both Henry and Meacham described the current proposal as "flawed."

"The flaws in this process and the $7 billion budget bill have been well documented by the executive branch and members of the House Democratic Caucus," the governor said.

Cargill countered, saying HB 1234 is "a historic measure" which represents "the first time the state has met" its "fund education first" deadline.

"The only substantive claims made by the state treasurer have been refuted point by point," Cargill said. "For example, the Stars program, that's wrong. That program is an ongoing program."

Last week, Meacham said the bill didn't fully pay for a $3,000 pay increase for teachers, and only gave the Department of Corrections enough supplemental revenue to operate for another 30 days. Meacham said he urged Henry to veto "almost all" of the bill's 2008 general appropriations budget.

Should that happen, Cargill said, House leaders "would have to look" at the governor's action. "A veto would certainly not be in best interest of the state," Cargill said. "This bill was done in a bipartisan fashion."

Henry, Cargill said, also would have a hard time sustaining his veto.

"We're pleased that a majority of the House Democratic caucus voted for the measure," he said. "I think it's very difficult for those who voted for the budget to turn and now flip-flop because the governor told them to.