House Leaders Iron Out Specifics, Pass Long-Awaited Budget Bill

It’s the budget we’ve been waiting on for the last four months, the state is appropriating almost $13 billion for 2024. The budget is one step closer to the governor's desk as the legislative session comes to a close.

After the budget presentation was postponed and ultimately canceled yesterday, House members finally took a vote on budget bills today. House leadership said they just needed some more time to iron out specifics and say now the budget is good to go.

“I'd argue it's probably the best budget in state history,” said House Budget Vice-Chair Ryan Martinez (R-Edmond). “I think everybody should be really pleased with the product that we have.”

House republicans celebrated the milestone today, and say it was well worth the wait, but House democrats say there’s still work to be done.

“There have been quite a few revisions up to today so that was frustrating as you're trying to prepare on a $13 billion budget,” said House Democratic Leader, Cyndi Munson (D-OKC).

In the House Joint Appropriations and Budget committee today, only one democrat voted for the main budget bill, Representative Melodye Blancett.

“With as good as this budget is- if you can't vote yes on a budget you'll probably never vote yes on a budget,” said Rep. Martinez.

Representative Martinez has been in all of the budget negotiations between the House and Senate, working to get a comprehensive plan for state dollars to be appropriated for fiscal year 2024. He said the budget includes more money toward mental health, transportation, and record education spending.

“The sheet that we're showing today is around $12.9 billion but it's probably closer to $20 billion with over the top and things like that,” said Rep. Martinez.

Representative Munson said they’re on board with the 6 weeks of paid maternity leave for state employees and increased funding for public schools, but are frustrated that private school tax credits made it into the budget.

“That is not the responsibility of the legislature, it is our responsibility to fund public services,” said Rep. Munson.

Democrats also raised concerns over what they called “changes” in the budget.

“The first versus the one we voted on today- we did see some cuts or some adjustments that were made,” said Rep. Munson.

“I want to be careful on the word reduction, because there weren't actually any reductions,” said Rep. Martinez.

Republicans who worked on the budget over the last four months said they were just working on finalizing numbers and language, and the appropriations weren’t necessarily lower.

“Those funds have not dropped or reduced in any way; it was just represented differently on those documents,” said Rep. Martinez.

After four months of negotiations, republicans are confident in the budget they’re pushing forward. Representative Martinez said both parties and chambers had to give up things they wanted to reach a compromise everybody would be happy with.

“This is about compromise- this is about doing what's overall best for the state, and I think this budget accomplishes that,” said Rep. Martinez.

More than 40 bills all dealing with the budget passed through both the Senate and House committee today. They’ll be heard on the floor tomorrow, and House leadership says they hope to have the budget to the governor by Friday.