Battle brews over budget negotiations for Oklahoma lawmakers

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KOKH) — The battle over the state's budget is brewing at the Capitol.

The Senate and the House of Representatives can't seem to come to an agreement on just about anything in terms of the numbers.

Passing a budget is the only constitutional mandate lawmakers have.

But as always, negotiations come with a lot of disagreement.

"This has been the wildest budget process I've been apart of in 12 years," Rep. Jon Echols, the Floor Leader of the House of Representatives said.

It's just the start of negotiations, but there's already gridlock on 23rd and Lincoln.

“The Senate budget team was given the House budget team's initial numbers," Rep. Echols said.

While the House handed over their numbers, they didn't let the Senate publish them for everyone to see.

“We have to be able to share their numbers. We can’t be told these are not public. This is the state budget for Oklahoma. Oklahomans deserve to know what we’re talking about," Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat said.

The Senate has a new budget process this year, publicly sharing all their numbers and promising to share the House's.

“We’re absolutely committed to making sure we keep the process transparent the entire way through," Pro Tem Treat said.

But just because the Senate changed their process, doesn't mean the House will too.

“Stop playing games because you think we’re not following some rule that you decided for your caucus that you didn’t ask our caucus to follow," Rep. Echols said.

There's arguments over transparency, numbers and even the timing of where the budget process is at.

“It’s an unnecessary delay," the Pro Tem said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Echols said they're "way above schedule," on the budgeting process.

While the two chambers can't see eye to eye, the Senate is cancelling all their budget meetings hearing House bills and the House is scrapping and replacing Senate bills with their own language, which is a tactic called bill shucking.