House agency performance reviews and budget request hearings are underway at the Capitol.
This past week, the Appropriations & Budget Judiciary Subcommittee heard from the six entities under its purview. These include the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, the office of the Attorney General, the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System, the District Attorneys Council, the Administrative Office of the Courts and the Council on Judicial Complaints.
Each body got about an hour to submit information on how they used current fiscal year funds and to present budget requests for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1. They also answered questions from committee members.
According to the Budget Transparency Portal on our House website, okhouse.gov, these entities together received appropriations totaling almost $274 million for fiscal year 2025. They’ve requested almost $357 million in additional funding for FY26.
And this is just one of 10 A&B subcommittees. In the coming week, A&B Education, Natural Resources, Human Services, Transportation, Health and Public Safety will meet. Several subcommittees, such as Education and Natural Resources, will meet over several days to give ample time to the multiple entities that will come before them.
At the end of the month, the six agencies that receive the most in state funding will appear in the Housechambertoanswerquestions of the full A&B Committee and other House members that wish to attend.
These meetings are all open to the public to attend in person or view on the House website. To view a meeting online, go to okhouse.gov. At the top of the website, select news & media, then live proceedings. You will see upcoming meetings, or you can select a calendar preview on the left side of the page to see previous meetings.
This is just one of our efforts for full budget transparency. The HouseBudgetTransparencyPortal is another very valuable resource that gives a detailed look at each agency’s budget request and the amount of change from previous fiscal years. You can look at budget balance sheets for this and prior fiscal years or documents and charts compiled by House fiscal staff. Hopefully this will satisfy any desire to know more about the state budget and how taxpayer dollars are being spent Remember, if I can help you with anything, please do not hesitate to reach out: (405) 557-7383 or Josh. Cantrell@OKHouse.gov.
Josh Cantrell serves District 49 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. His district includes Love County and parts of Carter and Marshall counties.