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As you may have seen in the news, the House and Senate are working on finalizing the budget for Fiscal Year 2025. Every year, the Legislature has until the last Friday in May to send the governor a general appropriations bill for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

The legislatively appropriated budget takes months to prepare and is based on input from dozens of public legislative budget hearings from fall through spring, the governor's executive budget proposal shared publicly at the start of session, and hundreds of publicly available agency budget requests.

The House's budget process is comprehensive and transparent, providing enough time for the public to learn about how taxpayer dollars are allocated and spent. Each member of the House is assigned to an Appropriations & Budget subcommittee, which conducts public meetings annually to review the budget performance of each state agency, board, or commission under their responsibility.

Currently, we are at a crossroads with the Senate regarding the FY25 budget. For some context, last year's education package included longevity-based pay raises for teachers, but an error in the drafting of the State Department of Education's FY24 budget bill left out the payment method. ‎The Senate's proposal to order SDE to transfer money from the funding formula to ‎schools off the funding formula could be illegal and lead to lawsuits. ‎

The House asked the Senate two weeks ago to fix the issue, but Senate leadership has ‎announced they will not consider House appropriations bills until they receive our drafted ‎FY25 budget spreadsheet. ‎However, the Legislature needs to fix the FY24 budget before proceeding with the FY25 ‎budget. ‎

I have a great deal of respect for the Senate's new budgeting process. It appears to be a genuine attempt to improve transparency when creating the budget. I also believe in what we are doing in the House. Our approach ensures that all of our members have access and the ability to contribute to the budgeting process.

Over the next few weeks, both chambers will share their proposals, and the budget will be refined into a final product. I will keep you updated on the budget in the upcoming weeks.

It is such an honor and privilege to represent you at the State Capitol. I want to encourage any constituent with questions or concerns regarding legislation to reach out to my office at (405) 557-7358 or at john.kane@okhouse.gov.

John Kane, a Republican, serves House District 11 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, which covers Tulsa and Washington counties.