By the tip of the week, Oklahoma lawmakers are expected to allocate practically all the state’s $1.87 billion in federal coronavirus relief funds once they come again for a special session.
The projects to be funded embrace thousands and thousands for broadband upgrades throughout the state and scores of packages for water infrastructure, workforce improvement and coaching, in addition to well being care and know-how upgrades. The state obtained greater than 1,400 project applications totaling practically $18 billion for its share of the American Rescue Plan Act cash.
Sen. Chuck Hall, R-Perry, vice chairman of the Senate appropriations committee, stated at the same time as many of the cash shall be allotted, the Legislature nonetheless has an oversight perform to make sure that the projects get accomplished proper.
“It’s truly opened my eyes to the needs we have as a state,” Hall stated final week. “We have scratched the surface of what we can do to impact the citizens of Oklahoma, but we still have a lot of work yet to do.”
Lawmakers known as themselves right into a special session in May to take management of the cash and challenge vetting after complaining that Gov. Kevin Stitt was taking too lengthy to act on a number of projects already accredited by the Legislature. Lawmakers final met in special session in June to approve virtually $70 million in spending for nonprofit relief, water projects, nursing schooling and optometry packages.
The state has till the tip of 2024 to allocate the most recent spherical of federal pandemic relief funds. The cash have to be spent by the tip of 2026. Congress handed the American Rescue Plan Act in March 2021.
“We’ve been given the keys to a $1.8 billion checkbook that can make generational change to Oklahoma,” Hall stated.
Broadband upgrades make up the most important class of spending below the state’s plan for the relief funds. Lawmakers plan to spend $382 million on broadband projects, though the small print are but to be finalized, since grants shall be pushed out by way of a brand new state Broadband Office. Another $167.6 million for broadband is coming to the state below a separate federal relief program.
Two of the most important requests by companies for relief funding projects concerned broadband. Flash Networks Group in Norman utilized for $1 billion to construct a statewide broadband community. AT&T Oklahoma utilized for $600 million. (You can search purposes here.)
Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, chairman of the Senate appropriations committee, stated broadband upgrades feed into different state wants together with schooling, well being care and emergency response.
“That’s going to be a big-time change for us moving forward,” Thompson stated final week.
The Oklahoma Water Resources Board stated it recognized greater than $90 billion in wants for water infrastructure upgrades. The state obtained greater than $2 billion in water-related requests below the pandemic relief fund. Cities and counties, which have their very own shares of relief cash to spend, have additionally funded thousands and thousands in water projects.
Lawmakers have allotted about $190 million in water and sewer projects for approval in this week’s special session. They earlier allotted about $95 million in water projects.
“We know that no growth happens without water,” Hall stated. “We absolutely need an investment in water in this state. It affects everything. It affects our lives and our economic development.”
Stitt’s involvement
Stitt hasn’t proven a lot enthusiasm for spending the most recent spherical of pandemic relief funding. His administration was criticized by the state auditor and a legislative oversight panel for some misspending below the CARES Act in 2020 on the outset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Stitt stated in May, he hoped lawmakers wouldn’t use American Rescue Plan funds for projects pushed by special pursuits and lobbyists.
In a news convention Tuesday to renew his name for lawmakers to eradicate the state’s share of the grocery gross sales tax, Stitt once more questioned the relief spending.
“I’ll review all of them, but I just don’t think it’s the right time to spend $2 billion when we won’t at least cut grocery taxes for Oklahomans,” Stitt stated on the steps to the Capitol. “Spending $2 billion for different special interests, different groups around the state, different projects, that doesn’t help a mom or dad going to the grocery store.”
Tax relief, the topic of a separate special session known as by Stitt on the finish of May, is unlikely to move earlier than the November election. Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat stated Tuesday the Senate stays dedicated to its earlier plan to research the difficulty to make “serious strides to a long-term, sustainable plan to responsibly cut and reform taxes in our state.”
The governor didn’t signal a dozen pandemic relief payments after the Legislature accredited them in June. Instead, they turned legislation with out his signature.
This month, Hall stated he was pissed off by the continued gradual tempo of sending cash to projects already accredited by the Legislature.
The governor’s workplace stated the Office of Management and Enterprise Services has been working with state businesses to get grant agreements in place to make sure the state complies with federal pointers.
“Our expectation is that the executive branch will execute as quickly as possible,” Thompson stated at a Sept. 20 assembly of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Pandemic Relief Funding.
Legislation already filed
In May, lawmakers accredited a sequence of payments with placeholder quantities for pandemic relief funding. Those special session payments are in convention committees, which shall be amended with the brand new quantities for accredited projects. That will permit lawmakers to finalize the payments and ship them to the governor.
Lawmakers plan to meet Wednesday to Friday to debate and vote on the most recent spherical of pandemic relief funding payments. Several payments are on the agenda.
The House and Senate have been evaluating projects all through the summer season in 4 separate working teams. Those suggestions have been then voted on by the Joint Committee on Pandemic Relief Funding. Lawmakers whittled down the 1,400 purposes to greater than 60 separate projects.
“We heard from the public, industry representatives and others as the working groups carefully decided which projects to advance,” stated Speaker Pro Tempore Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow. “I am particularly proud that all areas of the state, both rural and urban, are receiving equal benefit with major projects. It is my hope that the results of this process will provide a benefit to our state for generations to come.”
Aside from finalizing allocations from the pandemic relief funding, lawmakers this week are additionally expected to work on particulars round a $250 million fund for rural financial improvement.
Some lawmakers are trying to tie coverage prescriptions to the pandemic relief funding. A committee substitute for House Bill 1007, filed Monday, would cease OU Health from providing gender-affirming care if it will get $39.4 million from the American Rescue Plan Act funds. The uproar over gender-affirming care has been stoked by vocal teams active on social media and on conservative news websites. OU Health’s Oklahoma Children’s Hospital has a youth gender-affirming care program known as Roy G. Biv.
HB 1007 has funding to develop youngsters’s behavioral well being care at OU Health, together with a three-story middle with 72 beds and a neurodevelopmental/autism unit. In a press release, OU Health stated the brand new psychological and behavioral well being facility was by no means supposed to present gender drugs companies. It additionally stated OU Health’s senior management workforce is planning to stop “certain gender medicine services across our facilities.”
“As the state’s flagship academic health system, OU Health remains committed to providing excellent, comprehensive medical care to all patients while following all state and federal laws and regulatory governing bodies,” the assertion stated.
Oklahoma Watch, at oklahomawatch.org, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news group that covers public-policy points dealing with the state.
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