The Enid News and Eagle, Enid, OK

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April 2, 2009

Possible budget cuts: Local educators await word

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By Bridget Nash Staff Writer

Local educators are awaiting more word on appropriations after a state Senate leader raised the possibility of budget cuts this fiscal year.

Sen. Jim Halligan, chairman of the Senate appropriations subcommittee on education, on Wednesday asked Oklahoma education officials how the education system would handle a 1 percent cut in this year’s appropriations and a 5 percent to 10 percent cut in next year’s budget.

“We operate very thinly, so any drop of funding ... impacts us pretty significantly,” said Mike Woods, superintendent of Drummond Public Schools.

State officials are uncertain how $2.6 million in federal stimulus will work into the budget, Halligan said. Lawmakers are trying to craft a fiscal year 2010 budget and expect to have as much as $900 million less to spend.

State Treasurer Scott Meacham said Thursday despite a big drop in tax collections in February he does not expect a revenue shortfall this year. Meacham said the state still has about a $250 million cushion to meet monthly allocations to agencies for the rest of the fiscal year ending June 30.

He said the revenue situation could change and more will be known when officials get new tax collection figures next week.

State School Superintendent Sandy Garrett said a 1 percent cut between now and the end of the fiscal year, June 30, would be “very devastating” and could possibly affect personnel.

“We’re doing all the conservative things we can do,” Woods said.

Woods said Drummond school officials are waiting until budget decisions are final before making any kind of changes.

“If a position comes open, we don’t fill it,” he said.

Enid Public Schools Superintendent Shawn Hime said he doesn’t believe there will be cuts in this year’s budget.

“The odds of the cuts for this year are fairly slim,” he said.

Hime said the budget for the remainder of this fiscal year is based on collections and there is a cushion that will help schools receive all of their funding this year.

“Nothing is official yet,” Woods said. “They haven’t got the budget finished.”

Hime said he is not as confident about next fiscal year’s budget.

“The idea of a cut next year is a very real scenario,” he said.

Hime said even a 1 percent cut in the EPS budget would be more than $500,000 — a significant hit.

The job of schools now is to evaluate each program, he said, and when education officials were asked how they would handle a budget cut, they took the opportunity to prioritize school programs.

Hime also said education is not the only agency that received the question of how they would handle cuts.

“They did it for all state agencies,” he said.

Hime said the Legislature is trying to prioritize all state agency funding in case of a budget shortfall.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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