State employees: Budget needs to be lawmaker's only priority

OKLAHOMA CITY (KOKH) — Wednesday, the Oklahoma Board of Equalization certified a state budget deficit of at least $629 million for the coming year.

In reality, the state secretary of finance said the budget deficit will be more like $868 million.

These are the number lawmakers will have to tackle when they get back to work for the new session in February.

The Oklahoma Public Employees Association says the budget should be the priority in that session.

Lawmaker usually don't tackle the budget until the final weeks of work.

"Nothing else our lawmakers will do is as important as finding recurring revenue sources to save state services and improve state employee pay. We're facing another budget shortfall that, if not addressed, will decimate state services," said OPEA Executive Director Sterling Zearley.

He said lawmakers need to find a way to bring more money in, like creating new taxes.

The OPEA members are those who work for state agencies. They have seen up-close the effects of large budget cuts.

This year, Oklahoma lost more than $1 billion, mostly the economic impact of the drop in oil prices.

OPEA's communications director Tom Dunnin said state employees are concerned for their jobs, but they're also concerned for fellow Oklahomans.

"You talk to people at DHS who's case loads have continued to rise, they don't have coworkers anymore in a lot of places, they're going to cut more staff and so the ability for someone to go in and apply for services could be impacted. We'll see that there are fewer troopers on the road," he said.

He said it will be hard for agencies to cut anything else on top of what they are already working with.

The OPEA said it also thinks the good workers left, will start to leave agencies to find higher paying jobs, if the state budget is not improved.

"State employees tell us daily that they could make more doing other work but stay on the job because they believe what they do is important to their fellow Oklahomans," Zearley said. "Now, many are leaving state agencies because their workload has skyrocketed and their take-home pay has shrunk."