Gov. Mary Fallin last week signed Oklahoma’s Fiscal Year 2018 state budget into law.
As KGOU reports, Fallin signed the $6.8 billion budget that keeps funding flat for 16 state agencies, including the Department of Education and the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, and cuts funding for all other state agencies by an average of 4 percent.
The budget also includes a 3 percent increase in the gross production tax on oil and gas companies for certain wells drilled between 2011 and 2015, a $1.50-per-pack cigarette fee and a 1.25 percent sales tax on motor vehicles.
In a press release Wednesday, Fallin said the plan prevents the government from shutting down.
“We still need to do more to address structural imbalances in the state’s budget, fix problematic tax policies and make available more recurring and stable revenue,” Fallin said.
The budget could be challenged by state courts as unconstitutional, however, because it includes funding measures that lawmakers passed in the last week of the session.
