by Bailey Ashbaker, Senior Policy Analyst and Engagement Specialist, and Jessica Dietrich, Director of Government Relations and Public Policy
State Legislative Updates
Budget negotiations seem to be drawing to a close, just in the nick of time as the Legislature’s May 31 deadline to adjourn sine die swiftly approaches. Last week, House and Senate leaders reported reaching an agreement on the Fiscal Year 2025 budget, and even scheduled sessions on Memorial Day to tie up loose strings before the end of the week. On 5/28/2023, the budget bill SB 1125 passed off the Senate floor. The current fiscal year appropriation is $12.47 billion, according to Senate estimates.
Below is a high-level overview of the current budget agreement:
- $27.6 million for CareerTech to address its waitlist and admit more students.
- $25 million in additional funding into the school funding formula.
- $1.5 million to support educational initiatives that increase awareness about the Oklahoma City bombing and its impact.
- $30 million for the Oklahoma Health Care Authority to increase long-term care provider rates.
- $18.5 million in additional funding for the Department of Mental Health to address children’s mental health needs.
- $15 million additional funding for Choosing Childbirth, to provide services to pregnant women.
- $45.5 million to increase reimbursement rates for developmental disability service providers.
- $3 million in new funding to get roughly 300 additional individuals developmental disability services.
- $10 million in additional funding to help victims of domestic violence.
- $2.5 million for DPS academy to train more Highway Patrol troopers.
Governor Stitt has supported the current proposals, promising not to veto the Legislature’s fiscal year 2025 budget if budget negotiators meet certain requirements. The Governor’s previously proposed elimination of the individual income tax was not among these requirements and gave appropriators much more wiggle room to work with. For a more in-depth look at the proposed FY 2025 budget, we’ve linked the Senate and House budget documents.
Farm Bill
The House Agriculture Committee held its markup of the Farm Bill late last week. While there are a few positive SNAP-related policies in the version considered by the committee, there is one significant policy issue regarding the regular update of the Thrifty Food Plan, which serves as the basis for calculating SNAP benefits.
The current House version of the Farm Bill requires that future updates to the Thrifty Food Plan be cost-neutral, effectively eliminating the cost adjustment of benefits to reflect current dietary guidelines. However, the annual SNAP cost of living adjustment would remain. When Congress passed the 2018 Farm Bill, it implemented a review and update of the Thrifty Food Plan every five years. The first significant update to the Thrifty Food Plan occurred in 2021 and increased the average SNAP benefit per person per day from $4.25 to $5.45. Prior to the 2021 update, the Thrifty Food Plan had only been adjusted for inflation since the 1970s. This means that the basis for SNAP benefits assumed that Americans’ diets and nutrition should be the same today as they were in the 1970s.
Proponents of the cost-neutral Thrifty Food Plan policy included in the House version of the Farm Bill say that this policy helps control future spending, wanting to avoid seeing another large jump in SNAP spending like what happened in 2021 following the first Thrifty Food Plan update in roughly 50 years. However, the lack of regular adjustment of the Thrifty Food Plan over the last 50 years is what led to such a large jump in SNAP spending, and if future updates continue every five years, the adjustments should be much smaller comparatively. HFO opposes the limiting of future updates to the Thrifty Food Plan.
The path forward on the Thrifty Food Plan policy is murky, as it is not likely to pass in the Senate. HFO will continue to advocate for this and many other policy priorities that can be addressed through the Farm Bill. Keep an eye out for future updates and action alerts so we can ensure food security programs are protected in the coming Farm Bill.
Federal Budget
Congress has begun work on the FY 2025 budget, which must be passed by September 30, 2024. One promising policy in the mix is the Child Tax Credit (CTC). During the height of the pandemic, the CTC was temporarily expanded by Congress, helping lift millions of children out of poverty. The CTC expansion currently being considered by Congress would benefit roughly 232,000 Oklahoma children in the first year alone. To help ensure this impactful policy is passed by Congress, contact our US Senators, Senator Lankford and Senator Mullin, and ask them to support the expansion of the Child Tax Credit.
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