Call or email your House of Representative member now and tell them to VOTE NO ON THE PROPOSED BUDGET. You must do this today. They budget could be voted on as early as tomorrow and it is bad for state agencies.
The budget is especially bad for DHS employees and clients. DHS will be forced to:
- Lay off between 200 and 500 additional staff across the state, including child welfare staff
- Close county offices
- Take no new day care assistance clients
- Stop investigating financial exploitation of elders
- Reduce Adult Day Care by 25 percent.
- Cut Advantage Program rates.
- Have two week delays in distributing SNAP, TANF and other benefits
Politicians say they increased DHS’ budget and other agency budgets but actually they reduced it by not restoring the cuts that they had to take in 2016. This forces agencies to make tough cuts when they have already been cut in past years.
This is not just a DHS issue. Other agencies are in the same boat. The Department of Corrections got no additional funding and they have overcrowded prisons, high employee turnover and outdated facilities. Department of Public Safety also took a considerable reduction as did Rehabilitative Services, Veterans Affairs and Department of Environmental Quality. We have not yet seen their
Lawmakers had an opportunity to prevent these cuts by passing new revenue measures during the session. They failed to raise sufficient revenue and are relying on bonds and rainy day money to stop the bleeding today. They are not planning for the future and they are not fixing today’s problems with this budget.
State employees, retirees and service consumers must stand united and tell the house of representative members to VOTE NO on the proposed budget. This is an election year. We must tell them how important our state services are. Do it today! If you need to find your house of representatives member go to www.okhouse.gov.
