Stillwater News Press
By Tom Dugger
May 1, 2021
Work continues on the state budget as we head into the final month of the legislative session. Ongoing negotiations will ultimately determine how the budget pie will look for Fiscal Year 2022.
While we don’t yet know what the final numbers will look like, we can look at a snapshot of the current budget year and how the budget sits right now. For budget year, FY’21, I can tell you that the total state appropriations were $7.8 billion. The lion’s share of those dollars, 51 percent, went to education. Twenty percent went to health and social services, while human services and public safety and judiciary received 11 percent each. Natural resources and regulatory services received two percent, and general government and transportation received five percent.
Remember that in addition to state appropriations to the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, the agency also receives earmarked funds, which are dollars that are set aside for specific purposes that do not go through the appropriations process. This special earmarked money was the result of legislation approved in 2006 called the Rebuilding Oklahoma Access and Driver Safety Fund. It’s used for construction, maintenance and the planning of state highways, farm-to-market roads, county highways and bridges. The apportionment to the ROADS Fund has been increased multiple times since then, and its current level of $575 million was established in FY’13, helping address long neglected transportation needs due to inadequate funding.
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