Published: October 26, 2009 02:47 pm      

Oklahoma state workers protest furloughs

OKLAHOMA CITY — As state agencies continue to grapple with budget cuts amid plunging state revenues, about a dozen Pardon and Parole Board employees picketed in front of the Capitol on Monday, their third furlough day in as many months.

The entire agency, which employs about 35 workers, was shut down Monday, and a recorded message at the headquarters said the closure was due to state budget cuts.

"I have to be able to support my family," said James McGee, a parole board investigator with four children, including one who is in college. "Here I am off work for a day, but there's still work to do.

"It's just waiting for me when I get back."

The employees held signs on the south lawn of the state Capitol and waved to passing motorists.

The Pardon and Parole Board is one of three state agencies — along with the Office of Juvenile Affairs and the Corporation Commission — that have started furloughing workers.

Oklahoma tax revenue plummeted 30 percent last month compared to the amount the state collected in September 2008. Much of the loss was in gross production taxes on oil and natural gas. In response, state officials cut agency budgets by 5 percent for the third consecutive month.

Preliminary reports for September showed general revenue fund collections totaled nearly $434 million — almost $187 million, or 30.1 percent, less than last September. The total also is almost $179 million, or 29.2 percent, less than what the state expected.

During the first three months of the fiscal year that began July 1, the state collected about $1.1 billion in tax revenue. That's about $462 million less than it collected during the same three months last year.

The budget cuts are particularly problematic for agencies like the Pardon and Parole Board, which spends most of its budget on personnel, said Mark Beutler, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Public Employees Association.

"I think 90-plus percent of their budget goes to personnel costs, and there's not a lot to cut when they're asked to cut 5 percent," Beutler said. "There's only so much you can cut without starting to cut employees, and once you do that, it begins to affect the citizens of Oklahoma."