EDMOND — Options are few to avert a state funding disaster. Golden opportunities to invest in Oklahoma’s future were lost when revenues were high. Without vision we failed to build a “best” education system, improve workforce development, shrink government bureaucracy with efficiencies, fund the EDGE Fund, create useful incentives for new business and form alliances with powerful tribes. Instead we spent all of each annual budget, ignoring pleas to remove the cap and save more in the Rainy Day Fund. Betting our economy on short-term expenditures, we now have no net and are in a serious downward spiral.

There are no sources for additional revenues. There is no magic rebound coming in revenues. Economic recovery is uncertain. High unemployment chills any good news. Growth will be slow and businesses are doing more with less. State government must follow suit. The repercussions from draconian cuts may now only be prevented by another federal stimulus. It will take years to make up ground and programs and services eliminated may not come back. For those unaffected, Oklahoma’s fiscal crisis is worse than you know.

Worrisome, legislative debate centers only upon dramatic and immediate funding cuts. Many Republicans believe deep cuts are the only option. Applying this narrow formula for reductions we better carefully consider the long-term impact to programs. Significant cuts in education, for example, may be irreversible. Even now only two states spend less educating their children.

Other draconian budget cuts will damage the government’s ability to meet even core service demands. As usual, those hurt need help the most. For example, the state’s only facility for mentally impaired children in Norman is programmed for closure. This is a recipe for disaster. There are only 40 beds available statewide for these troubled youth. What happens when these children are returned to their families and communities? Also planned is the closure of the Norman Alcohol Detention and Treatment Center and the Bill Willis Mental Health Treatment Center in Tahlequah. More shut downs will follow.

Unfortunately, term limits reduced experience at the Capitol. Without governing through similar cycles many legislators see only one way out — slashing budgets and disregarding consequences. Dismally, Oklahoma is next to last in health indicators, ahead only of Mississippi. How much further behind other states must we fall before our elected leadership says “enough is enough?” We immediately need a two-pronged approach tackling the current crisis while working on serious reforms in government including sharing of services, consolidations, attrition and diversification.

The Rainy Day Fund will be tapped. Of $its 600 million, the amount available to the governor and Legislature is about $225 million, and not enough. The federal stimulus has delayed the inevitable but the remaining $600 million must be used by 2011 or lost to other states. When the Rainy Day Fund and stimulus reserve are gone, there are no remaining funds. Without doubt we will head into a financial abyss.

The facts of this debacle are unquestionable. Apparently we have been asleep at the switch. We repeat many of the same mistakes from the ’80s when Oklahoma suffered through a depression. The shortfalls should have come as no surprise. Already the deficit is more than $600 million. By June 30, it will top $1 billion, nearly 12 percent of the fiscal year 2010 state budget. So far the Legislature has borrowed more than $155 million from other accounts to limit monthly reductions to 5 percent. This on top of 7 percent across-the-board cuts already made. The borrowing disguises a real monthly revenue failure averaging nearly 25 percent. This money must be repaid in full by June 2010 from the Rainy Day Fund.

It is time for unprecedented leadership from the governor and the very well-paid Legislature. The problems are systemic, real and likely only to get worse without implementing tough choices. Spending on “wish list” facilities and projects during good times distracted Oklahomans from seeing the need for investment in true priorities such as education, health care, job creation and infrastructure.

Our leaders need our help and input. I suggest the immediate creation of a blue ribbon task force of former legislators and importantly state, business, education and tribal leaders to review and recommend sweeping reforms in Oklahoma’s governmental structure.

To succeed, the task force must ask state employees to do even more with less, reduce agencies’ size through attrition, combine similar functions, lock up fewer non-violent offenders and repeal numerous and wasteful tax credits. They alone account for more than $1 billion in lost revenue with negligible impact on economic development. The notable exception is the Quality Jobs Act.

Businesses adopt lean operating principles in tough times to survive. The state has to do the same. Our Congressional delegation must recognize the seriousness of this problem and support more federal stimulus help. Without meaningful action we will go over the cliff. We are in dire straits.



PHIL G. BUSEY SR., an Edmond resident, is chairman and CEO of The Busey Group of Companies.