OPEA

STATE SERVICES, JOBS IN JEOPARDY; OPEA CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE LEGISLATIVE ACTION AND CUTS TO PRIVATE VENDORS

OKLAHOMA CITY (October 16, 2009) – As a result of the state’s continuing revenue decline, OPEA is stopping short of calling for a special session, but urging legislators to convene meetings of the Appropriation Sub Committees.

“These sub committees have the responsibility during the regular session to recommend and appropriate money to state agencies,” said OPEA Policy and Research Director Trish Frazier. “Yet when the agencies are in serious financial trouble, only one sub committee (the House and Senate Sub Committee on Public Safety) seems even slightly interested in how their agencies are doing.

“Every sub committee should be coming back to the Capitol, and getting briefings from their agency heads so they can get a full understanding on how the agencies are handling the cuts and what services are in jeopardy.  With a shortfall this serious, regular hearings would provide accountability and transparency to critical decisions that are being made on the state’s budget,” Frazier said. 

OPEA also continues to call for cuts to private vendors.  “State agencies are struggling to provide essential services,” Frazier said.  “Some agencies have taken OPEA’s advice and made contractors share in the cuts, while other agencies have essentially scoffed at the suggestions and actually increased their private contracts.”

The Office of Juvenile Affairs and the Department of Corrections have cut private contractors by five percent.  The Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, however, has exempted their vendors from cuts and in some cases increased private contracts, while state-operated programs were closed.

While state agencies are being cut, the demand for services has sky rocketed.  According to the Oklahoma Policy Institute, the number of food stamp participants increased by 92,076 in one year.  At the same time Medicaid increased by 50,604 and the Women, Infants, and the Children (WIC) program by 8,171. Unemployment claims were 47,591 compared to 17,287 one year ago.

“According to the State Treasurer, we will probably continue to see monthly cuts of five percent through the rest of the fiscal year.  That’s why OPEA believes so strongly in the need for regular sub committee hearings, and also the need for private contractors to share in the burden. 

“We are all in this together,” Frazier said.  “If state agencies and employees are feeling the strain of budget cuts and increased work loads, then those contractors who make money off the state should also feel the strain.  And our elected leaders need to be back at the Capitol making sure their agencies are able to function and serve the people of Oklahoma.”

Oklahoma Public Employees Association (www.opea.org) is a non-profit labor organization that has represented the interests of state employees at the Capitol in Oklahoma since 1975.

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