Budget summit highlights divisions, priorities between Legislature and governor's office

Even though Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt’s unusual summit conference didn’t produce a budget agreement, this week’s meeting did have two benefits:

• The Legislature and the governor’s office agreed to earmark $45 million for emergency management, following the barrage of tornadoes that have hit the state.

• The leaders of the House and the Senate and the governor all sat in the same room and talked about money.

Otherwise, as Senate Pro Tempore Greg Treat put it, the leadership session was “pretty much a press conference for tax cuts.”

The meeting, hosted by Stitt, was supposed to kick-start a state budget process that had stalled. This year, lawmakers have about $13.1 billion to spend for FY 25. Monday’s meeting was also rare for its open, freewheeling nature involving the governor and legislative leaders.

Before this year, state lawmakers usually held closed-door meetings on the budget, and little was known about the final package until just before it came up for a vote. Because the Legislature does almost all of the heavy lifting in writing the budget, many governors are sidelined until just before final decisions about the budget are made.

This year, however, Treat upended a number of those traditions.

Just after the session started, the Republican leader announced a push for transparency that opened the budget up to more oversight, involvement and scrutiny. House leaders, following Treat’s efforts, then launched an online budget portal, which illustrated the differences between House and Senate proposals. That portal, House Budget Chair Kevin Wallace said, is updated every Friday.

How the push for transparency has impacted budget talks in the Oklahoma Legislature

The push for budget transparency also has been a "good news/bad news" thing in the Legislature.

What was once a quiet, closely held process has changed. Complicating the issue, in early May, Treat dismissed his long-time budget chairman, Sen. Roger Thompson, because Thompson was cutting budget deals with Wallace, his counterpart in the House, and not involving the full Senate's budget subcommittees in the process. Treat said Thompson had been pushed by House leaders to cut budget deals in order to get a final bill finished sooner.

However, that change in leadership slowed the pace of the budget negotiations.

Frustrated, Stitt emailed both Treat and House Speaker Charles McCall inviting them to a meeting on the budget. The governor’s email said the meeting would be open to the public and the press.

Treat replied to the governor saying he would attend and forwarded the email to every member of the Legislature.

Tensions over an income tax cut

But Stitt’s agenda for the summit conference included something other than getting the budget moving. The governor was hoping — with help from McCall and Wallace — to push Treat toward approval of a reduction of the state's personal income tax.

And Treat was not amused.

For months, the Senate leader has repeatedly said the Senate would not hear another tax cut bill this session. Treat said he was concerned that it would be difficult to adequately fund government and pay for a second tax cut after earlier approval of eliminating the state tax on groceries.

But Stitt, McCall and Wallace pushed ahead.

More: Lawmakers agree to $45 million for emergency management during Monday budget 'summit'

Stitt said the big picture from the governor’s standpoint was to have no deficit spending and an income tax cut. “I believe it’s important for Oklahomans,” the governor said. “If we’re going to spend savings. If we are going to invest in a lot of things, then we should be able to give Oklahomans a tax cut.”

Wallace, the House budget chair, said he, too, wanted to talk about an income tax cut.

"An income tax cut?” he said, directing the question at Treat.

Treat continued to say no. “We have been very clear that we cut taxes over $400 million starting with the grocery tax cut,” Treat said. “If you want to talk about that, it’s going to take up the rest of the time. I think we need to talk about recurring revenue.”

Where the Oklahoma House and Senate remain divided on the budget

Though Monday's meeting showed many areas where the Senate and the House were in agreement, there were several areas that underscored the divisions between the two bodies.

For example, education funding.

While McCall said the House was "open to any discussion on education," Wallace attempted to tie funding in some educational areas to an agreement on a tax cut.

"I say the same thing to you that I said to your subcommittee chair and your former chair," Wallace said. "You want to put more money in education, I can get there (so) let's talk about a tax cut."

Treat responded, asking about funding for the higher education system. "So the Regents for Higher Education, I see we're all in agreement on the Inspire to Teach (program) at $8.5 million?"

"Sure," Wallace said. "You wanna talk about a tax cut or not?"

Visibly frustrated, Treat's response was frank — and terse. "Is this a press conference or is this a budget negotiation?" he said.

"It's a budget," Wallace answered.

The back and forth between legislative leaders continued until the group recessed the meeting — briefly. A short time later, after the group reconvened, Treat said he welcomed members of the House to join the Senate's subcommittee meetings.

"I hear your frustration with us going back to our subcommittees," Treat said. "If your members want to join our members in subcommittee in some type of joint committee process, as long as it's public, we will make sure our subcommittee chairs accommodate that."

House Majority Leader Jon Echols said subcommittee members should reach out to one another to address the issues they are trying to fund. Wallace said he was frustrated "because I feel like I'm rehashing these numbers for the third time."

A short time later, the summit recessed for the day. But the group is scheduled to return for a second round of public negotiations Thursday in the governor's meeting room. The Legislature has until 5 p.m. May 31 to finish its work.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Gov. Kevin Stitt's budget summit highlighted divisions and priorities