A state budget agreement could still be an uphill battle despite the special summit next week

Oklahoma House Speaker Charles McCall says his chamber "is ready to wrap things up" on a budget agreement with the state Senate, but his counterpart across the Capitol believes the negotiation process is likely to last considerably longer than McCall hopes.

The two legislative leaders spoke to reporters Thursday, a day after Gov. Kevin Stitt proposed an unusual budget summit conference in an effort to forge an agreement between the two chambers. Both McCall and Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat embraced Stitt’s idea of the meeting on Monday, but the comments of the two men just minutes apart seemed to show they’re miles apart.

McCall suggested an agreement could be reached as soon as Monday. Told that, Treat said, “No. That’s not going to happen. We’re not going to have a forced deadline on it.”

The governor sent an email late Wednesday afternoon to McCall and Treat suggesting Monday’s meeting. "As session is coming to a close, it’s important that we get together to finalize a budget. Both of your transparency efforts have been very encouraging this session," the governor wrote.

Stitt also said he would "invite the media in an effort to continue your transparency efforts."

Two hours later, shortly after 6 p.m., Treat replied to the governor — copying every member of the Legislature on his response.

"Governor, thank you for the invite. I look forward to the opportunity. The budget will not be complete this week, so I and the Senate team will be there at 2," he wrote. "Please know that you are welcome to use the Senate Assembly Room to better accommodate members of the legislature, public and the media to be able to observe and so it can be live-streamed, closed captioned and archived. My staff will be more than happy to assist in getting the word out to the media and the public."

Treat's email noted he had informed the Senate chair and vice chair of appropriations, the floor leader, and every member of the Legislature, Republicans and Democrats alike, about the Monday conference, "because I hope this is a productive and insightful meeting."

Treat, R-Oklahoma City, said Thursday that Stitt didn’t accept his offer of holding the meeting in the Senate Assembly Room, instead opting to hold the meeting in his own large conference room, which seats fewer people.

“We’re going to go in earnestly at 2 p.m. on Monday,” Treat said. “I’ll take as many people as he’ll allow me to take from the Senate, in order to allow us to have the most robust dialogue.”

Deadline approaching on a multitude of budget issues

With less than 30 days remaining until the end of the second session of the 59th Oklahoma Legislature, members are beginning to feel the crunch of the budget-writing process. House and Senate budget negotiators continue to wrangle over how to spend the roughly $13 billion available. Key issues include whether or not to cut the personal income tax, how to rewrite state funding policy and following through on efforts to make the entire budget process more transparent.

What seemed to be a smoothly moving process earlier this session hit several snags this week, including the abrupt removal of Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, this week as the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and chief budget negotiator. Treat named Sen. Chuck Hall, R-Perry, as the new committee chair.

Treat praised Thompson’s work but said, “You have to make decisions that put us in the best position for transparency and I felt like there was a clear need to change after last week. The first 11 weeks of session were pretty flawless as far as transparency … Last week, week 12, we went dark and a lot of decisions were arrived at without honoring the process. I blame that on the House of Representatives for forcing that to happen. But it’s unacceptable. We are absolutely wed to the process of transparency.”

McCall said Thompson and Rep. Kevin Wallace, R-Wellston, who is the chair of the House Appropriations Committee, had met last week concerning budget issues.

The change from Thompson to Hall seemed to indicate a reset of budget negotiations for the Senate. Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, the chair of that body’s education budget subcommittee, said during a meeting Thursday, “There were numbers that were agreed to and those numbers will not be honored.”

Two other issues commanding the attention of legislators include the violent weekend storms that will call for significant state disaster assistance and the distraction of a controversial Republican bill to arrest and remove immigrants recaching Oklahoma without proper documentation. The immigration bill sailed through both the House and Senate with big majorities and was signed by Stitt to a chorus of objections from Democrats, Hispanic leaders and churches.

Time, it seems, is running out for state lawmakers.

What are priorities for Monday's summit meeting?

Coloring Monday's summit meeting will be a terse and difficult relationship between the governor and Treat − a political fight that goes back several years and which came to an apex this year over Treat's refusal to hear legislation that would cut the personal income tax. Treat has said he favors keeping more money in the state's reserve accounts ― and that was before the recent tornado damage.

"I know both chambers are working diligently to come to agreement on budget numbers, and will once again reiterate my priority to pass an income tax cut for all four million Oklahomans," Stitt wrote in his email to Treat and McCall. "I hope that continues to be a topic of conversation in your negotiations."

McCall, R-Atoka, reiterated on Thursday his desire for an income tax cut, saying it was more important to him than perhaps raising salaries of government employees.

“I think the tax cut feeds into a lot of different things,” he said. “It certainly feeds into an agreement on state employee pay raises. I think it also feeds into a judiciary pay raise this year. As I’ve said before, I think the balanced approach ― I think we have the money to do everything, but the people of the state of Oklahoma, in my opinion, have to get a tax cut before we … allow an increase of wages in government.”

McCall hinted at impatience with the Senate’s budget process, saying, “I don’t know who’s in charge of the Senate,” and later adding, “in many ways, it feels like we’re in the first few weeks of session” when it comes to budget negotiations.

“But we are in the final hours of the session. We are in the final straightaway. We’re running up against the time clock. We need to start moving forward.”

The 2024 legislative session adjourns at 5 p.m. May 31.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma House, Senate budget debate continues as Monday summit nears