In the midst of Oklahoma’s budget crisis, Gov. Mary Fallin has adopted a one-time fix to fund the state’s public schools and prisons over the next year. The solution involved dipping into what is known as the state’s “Rainy Day Fund,” reports member station KGOU. Last week the governor signed two supplemental funding bills that would take $78 million dollars from Oklahoma’s constitutionally mandated savings account.
The money will then be applied to the state’s struggling schools and prisons. The funding will help pay for faculty and staff health insurance. Oklahoma lawmakers have stuck to a strategy of slashing tax revenue, even as the state lags behind most of the nation economically.
Fallin said her state needs “to do the tough work to pass a budget this session that contains true, meaningful fiscal reforms the state needs.” There seem to be plenty of rainy days on the horizon, but only so much money in the Rainy Day Fund.
