Gov. Mary Fallin issued an executive order Monday imposing a moratorium on hiring and pay raises for state workers.
New state workers can still be hired as long as it’s approved in writing by the statewide elected official or cabinet secretary who manages the particular agency, and they have to explain why this is necessary.
“We want to make sure that each of these positions that are being filled or given pay raises, that they receive the scrutiny of a cabinet secretary,” Fallin said. “That doesn’t mean they can’t be given. It just means that someone is going to have an extra layer of look to make sure it’s truly necessary.”
The Journal Record’s managing editor Adam Brooks and reporter Brian Brus say the announcement has raised questions among the state’s political leaders and think tank analysts, including why the governor’s office didn’t say exactly how much money this proposal would save. “I’m kind of shocked,” Oklahoma Democratic Party Chairman Wallace Collins said, referring to the state’s secretary of finance, administration and revenue. “The horse is already out of the barn and now we’re going to try to lock the door? What about giving a raise of $64,000 less than a year ago to Preston Doerflinger? We’ve got teachers and guards down at the prisons who haven’t had raises in years. That doesn’t make sense to me.” David Blatt, executive director of the Oklahoma Policy Institute, said he was puzzled about why the budget problem wasn’t mentioned in Fallin’s recent State of the State speech. “It suggests that we are moving into really difficult budget times,” Blatt said. “It’s a little unusual that this announcement would be made a week after she announced the budget overview. It leaves me to wonder whether this signals the budget outlook is even worse than what was anticipated a week ago.”
Fallin said she based her decision on the projected revenue shortfall of about $300 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1 – a number that could continue to grow.
“We do anticipate that once we continue to move into the fiscal year – from January 1 on – that we will see a little bit more of a decline in our revenue sources that are coming in, because the oil industry is finally catching up with some job layoffs in the state,” Fallin said.
And that number could double.
On Thursday House Appropriations and Budget Committee chairman Earl Sears (R-Bartlesville) said Oklahoma's budget hole for the upcoming year will nearly double due to low energy prices and the resulting layoffs of oil and natural gas workers. The new fiscal year begins July 1.
House Democratic Leader Scott Inman says the shortfall will total almost $600 million.
“We’re in a dire situation. The future, the next several years, look very, very bleak,” Inman said Thursday. “When you consider the fact that when the price of oil was over $100 a barrel, and other states were investing in their core functions of government like education, health care, and public safety, Oklahoma was cutting budgets.”
Inman said his Democratic caucus wouldn't support Fallin's proposal to shore up the budget gap by using the state's revolving funds, and called for tapping the state's Rainy Day Fund in order to prevent cuts to K-12 common education.
“When you’ve got a public education system that’s seen over 45,000 new students enter the system, but yet we’re still basically $170 million below funding where they were in 2008, you’re at a crisis level,” Inman said.
State treasurer Ken Miller said last week collections on gross production taxes on oil and natural gas are down by 12.4 percent from last year, and 22.6 percent compared to a month ago. Energy companies have been shedding employees, which is going to cause a ripple effect through the economy due to lower income tax collections, as well as decreased consumer spending. Brooks says all this means there’s still a tremendous amount of uncertainty among state agency heads.
“They're worried a little bit about whether it will slow the process for positions that can still get hired, such as troopers and child welfare workers,” Brooks says. “But nobody really knows yet what it's going to look like.”
The Oklahoma Board of Equalization meets February 17 to offer and updated estimate of how much state revenue will be available for appropriation.
Oklahoma’s Union Membership Shifting To More Untraditional Makeup
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says the percentage of workers in unions has dropped nationwide from 12.5 percent in 2004 to 11.3 percent in 2013.
In Oklahoma, union membership has ebbed and flowed. Ten years ago it was at 6 percent, up to 7.5 percent in 2013, and now it's back to 6 percent.
Brooks says union membership is union membership is changing because people are moving into construction rather than manufacturing. And even there, there’s been a change.
"It used to be you had a factory floor where you had everybody doing the same job, making about the same amount of money,” Brooks says. “There's more specialization now, so people don't feel the same need for group representation. And there's also just been a change in the culture that managers and companies say they're more willing to listen to workers now so they don't need that big voice when they all come together.”
Oklahoma’s AFL-CIO president Jimmy Curry says some jobs are leaving the country altogether.
“We also lost 100 jobs in Ponca City to an acquisition by Johnson Controls; they’re shipping some of their work to Mexico,” he said. Curry said Oklahoma’s labor laws in general are still stacked against workers. He said the struggle for representation is also increasing in tribal-controlled parts of the state as casino workers try to organize, while the nations claim sovereignty.
Brooks says even though many public employees are unionized in Oklahoma, the relationships are solid, with the adversarial relationship that characterizes other major cities on the East Coast.
------------------------------------------------------------
The Business Intelligence Report is a collaborative news project between KGOU and The Journal Record.
As a community-supported news organization, KGOU relies on contributions from readers and listeners to fulfill its mission of public service to Oklahoma and beyond. Donate online, or by contacting our Membership department.
The Journal Record is a multi-faceted media company specializing in business, legislative and legal news. Print and online content is available via subscription.
