A series of state agencies met Tuesday with the Senate Appropriation Subcommittee on General Government and Transportation seeking increases or decreases in their budgets, maintaining their facilities to hiring on additional staff.
The Military Department requested an increase from the $11,868,249 it received in fiscal year 2015 to $15,753,000. The department primarily focused their budget priorities for the new year on maintaining its armories across the state, increasing the facilities’ maintenance budget, and increasing the energy budget.
Major General Myles L. Deering, in his last budget meeting representing the Military Department, said that by remodeling and fixing the state’s older and outdated armories and National Guard readiness centers, such as the facilities located in Ada, Norman and Edmond, they will extend the life of the armories by more than 25 years and save taxpayers over $125 million that it would cost to rebuild them completely.
Other agencies that presented their budgets were the Oklahoma Ethics Commission, the State Auditor, the Oklahoma State Treasurer, and the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
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