DPS Discusses Potential Furloughs

As the governor and legislative leaders continue to disagree over how to spend more than $140 million in available money from last fiscal year, agencies across the state feel the clock ticking. The Department of Public Safety announced earlier this week there was the possibility of having to dole out 23-day furloughs for more than 1,500 employees, including 811 highway patrol troopers and roughly 750 civilian employees.

“It's kind of deceiving. That's almost five 40-hour work weeks without pay,” OHP spokesperson Trooper Dwight Durant said on Friday.

Durant said the longer talks between Gov. Mary Fallin and legislative leadership are drawn out the less time they have to fit in furloughs, which could put an even larger strain on operations.

“We are already thin and then you throw that in there and it's going to be, we are going to be really short-handed,” Durant said.

Durant said he did not have a comment on what should be done with the $140 million. The department recently asked for $12 million in supplemental money just to make ends meet.

In a statement, Secretary of Finance Preston Doerflinger said, “pressing needs like those faced by DPS are part of the reason the governor initiated special session talks when the $140 million available to return to agencies was confirmed. Without a special session, that $140 million gets returned equally to all agencies and DPS sees just $1.9 million of it when that agency needs at least $12 million to maintain services.”

Howevver, DPS isn't alone in feeling the budgetary squeeze. The Department of Human Services (DHS) began this fiscal year $103 million in the hole and is waiting to hear from Fallin about what's going to be done the available money. A spokesperson for DHS said they went into FY2017 believing there would be supplemental money available.

“If we don't get that money, those supplemental funds, we'll be in dire consequences.”

Fallin and legislative leaders are hammering out a deal on how to spend the available money. The governor said nearly two months ago she wants to put it towards teacher pay raises in an effort to present a secondary plan to the one-cent sales tax increase that will be on the ballot in Nov. A spokesperson for the governor, Michael McNutt, said Fallin is set to meet with legislative leadership next week.

But for the first time, Doerflinger said, "Some of the permanent teacher pay raise proposals my office is preparing for the governor may use the $140 million and some may not. The best case scenario is we reach agreement with the legislature on a teacher pay package using none or just some of the $140 million."