Magna Carta News
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
CONTACT:
Damon Gardenhire
Press Secretary
Speaker Todd Hiett
Oklahoma House of Representatives
Capitol: (405) 962.7679
gardenhire@okhouse.gov
Speaker Hiett and Rep. Benge Announce Appointments to
General Conference Committee on Appropriations
OKLAHOMA CITY (April 13, 2005) - Speaker Todd Hiett and House
Appropriations and Budget Chair Chris Benge today announced appointments
to the General Conference Committee on Appropriations, which will
hammer out details of a state budget for the next fiscal year.
"We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, because we're starting from
scratch on the state's budget," said Benge (R-Tulsa). "We're hopeful
that the Senate and Governor Henry will work with us to develop a
fiscally responsible approach. We look forward to working on all
allocations for state agencies, so that we can meet the essential needs
of state government while also providing a permanent tax cut and taking
care of the state's neglected road and bridge needs."
Chairman Benge said the current members of the House A&B committee and
subcommittees would also serve as the House appointments to the GCCA.
"We had hoped to have a general appropriations bill in place that would
have created a framework for next year's budget by providing baseline
funding for all essential state services," said Hiett (R-Kellyville).
Hiett noted that the House twice sent a general appropriations budget to
the Senate. Both plans included record levels for education, a $122
million increase and $2 million more than the Governor had asked for.
The Senate has failed to act on both bills.
Lawmakers will have to act on more than 170 bills. 85 bills out of the
170 total will address the total amount of dollars that each state
agency receives. A separate bill is required for each agency that
details how dollars will be spent.
Benge said that before the GCCA can start on a final budget, the House
and Senate will need to agree on dollar allocations for each
subcommittee of the general conference.
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