Big money: The state will have $13 billion available for the fiscal year 2024 budget, it was announced last week. The Board of Equalization, which consists of the governor. lieutenant governor, attorney general, state treasurer, state superintendent, state auditor and inspector, and state secretary of agriculture, certified the preliminary estimate on which the governor’s budget proposal, to be presented Feb. 6, is based. A final estimate, from which actual appropriations will be determined by the Legislature and the governor, is expected Feb. 15.
The preliminary spending authorization estimate includes $8.9 billion in general revenue, $2.5 billion in restricted or designated funds and $1.3 billion in cash. It also includes about $236 million in unspent COVID-19 relief funds. The report lists total reserves of $3.2 billion, including the constitutional reserve fund. The constitutional reserve, or rainy day fund, is not included in the $13 billion available for appropriation because it can only be tapped in financial emergencies. Approximately $10.2 billion was appropriated for FY 2023, which ends on June 30. Inaugural balls: Bixby native Corey Kent will headline the Tulsa version of Gov. Kevin Stitt’s inaugural ball to be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday in the BOK Center. Tickets to the ball are $200 and can be ordered online through Tuesday from oklahomainaugural.com. Headliners at Stitt’s other inaugural balls are Josh Maloy at Enid’s Stride Events Center on Saturday and Stoney Larue at Oklahoma City’s Cowboy Hall of Fame on Monday. Tickets are $100 for the Enid event. The Oklahoma City event sold out at $250 per person. Rockin’ ‘n Rollin’: He didn’t make the cover, but Tulsa Christian nationalist leader Jackson Lahmeyer was featured by Rolling Stone, and not because of his music. The story portrays Lahmeyer and his Pastors for Trump organization as a major component of former President Donald Trump’s 2024 comeback attempt. Lahmeyer received 26% of the vote against incumbent James Lankford in a GOP U.S. Senate primary last year but has continued cultivating connections with the Christian nationalist wing of the party. In an e-mail to followers, Lahmeyer called the story a “very vicious and unfair hit piece.” But he was quick to get the word out about it and said a similar Washington Post story about him in 2021 caused 60,000 people to go to his web site. Meetings and events: Tina Massey, executive director of Tulsa Family Promise, will speak on ending homelessness to the Heart of the Party, the Tulsa County Chapter of the Oklahoma Federation of Democratic Women, at its 6:30 p.m. meeting on Jan. 9 at Baxter’s Interurban, 717 S. Houston Ave. Bottom lines: Tulsa County Commissioners formally thanked retiring U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe for his work to bring federal infrastructure dollars to the area. … The Oklahoma House and Senate meet Tuesday for what is known as organizational day. House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, and Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, are expected to be formally re-elected to their leadership positions. … The Tax Foundation reports Oklahoma is the first state in the Union to make permanent 100% depreciation allowance for machinery and investments, independent of a federal allowance that is being phased out beginning this year.
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Big money: The state will have $13 billion available for the fiscal year 2024 budget, it was announced last week.
The Board of Equalization, which consists of the governor. lieutenant governor, attorney general, state treasurer, state superintendent, state auditor and inspector, and state secretary of agriculture, certified the preliminary estimate on which the governor’s budget proposal, to be presented Feb. 6, is based.
A final estimate, from which actual appropriations will be determined by the Legislature and the governor, is expected Feb. 15.
The preliminary spending authorization estimate includes $8.9 billion in general revenue, $2.5 billion in restricted or designated funds and $1.3 billion in cash. It also includes about $236 million in unspent COVID-19 relief funds.
The report lists total reserves of $3.2 billion, including the constitutional reserve fund. The constitutional reserve, or rainy day fund, is not included in the $13 billion available for appropriation because it can only be tapped in financial emergencies.
Approximately $10.2 billion was appropriated for FY 2023, which ends on June 30.
Inaugural balls: Bixby native Corey Kent will headline the Tulsa version of Gov. Kevin Stitt’s inaugural ball to be held at 6:30 p.m. Friday in the BOK Center.
Tickets to the ball are $200 and can be ordered online through Tuesday from oklahomainaugural.com.
Headliners at Stitt’s other inaugural balls are Josh Maloy at Enid’s Stride Events Center on Saturday and Stoney Larue at Oklahoma City’s Cowboy Hall of Fame on Monday.
Tickets are $100 for the Enid event. The Oklahoma City event sold out at $250 per person.
Rockin’ ‘n Rollin’: He didn’t make the cover, but Tulsa Christian nationalist leader Jackson Lahmeyer was featured by Rolling Stone, and not because of his music.
The story portrays Lahmeyer and his Pastors for Trump organization as a major component of former President Donald Trump’s 2024 comeback attempt.
Lahmeyer received 26% of the vote against incumbent James Lankford in a GOP U.S. Senate primary last year but has continued cultivating connections with the Christian nationalist wing of the party.
In an e-mail to followers, Lahmeyer called the story a “very vicious and unfair hit piece.” But he was quick to get the word out about it and said a similar Washington Post story about him in 2021 caused 60,000 people to go to his web site.
Meetings and events: Tina Massey, executive director of Tulsa Family Promise, will speak on ending homelessness to the Heart of the Party, the Tulsa County Chapter of the Oklahoma Federation of Democratic Women, at its 6:30 p.m. meeting on Jan. 9 at Baxter’s Interurban, 717 S. Houston Ave.
Bottom lines: Tulsa County Commissioners formally thanked retiring U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe for his work to bring federal infrastructure dollars to the area. … The Oklahoma House and Senate meet Tuesday for what is known as organizational day. House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, and Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, are expected to be formally re-elected to their leadership positions. … The Tax Foundation reports Oklahoma is the first state in the Union to make permanent 100% depreciation allowance for machinery and investments, independent of a federal allowance that is being phased out beginning this year.
Stories by Randy Krehbiel, Andrea Eger, Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton, Kevin Canfield and Barbara Hoberock.
— Randy Krehbiel, Tulsa World
