OKLAHOMA STATE SENATE / From the desk of Sen. Jessica Garvin
The 2023 legislative session is complete, and we accomplished so much thanks to historic revenues and fiscal prudence in recent years that have left the state with record savings and one-time funds.
While it wasn’t the smoothest session, we ended up passing a nearly $13 billion state budget that will support our 60-plus state agencies and the many vital services they provide for Oklahomans.
As always, education was the main focus with the Department of Education getting almost $4 billion, which is a nearly 25% funding increase over the current fiscal year.
We approved tiered teacher salary increases, ranging from $3,000 to $6,000 based on their years of experience. Teachers will also now receive six weeks of paid maternity leave and then can use their personal leave to stay home up to the 12 weeks with their baby as allowed by federal law. Major investments are also being made to boost reading skills, improve school safety and provide additional support to schools that don’t benefit from the same levels of property taxes as other districts.
I’msoproudofmycolleaguesfortheirsupportofpro-familyreformslike providingmaternityleaveforteachersandstateemployees,aswellascreating achildcarecenterforstateemployeesintheCapitolcomplex,which is where several of our state agencies are housed. Major investments will also be made in health and mental health care, economic and workforce development, and to further shrink the disability waiting list.
Agriculture also got some much-needed funding to build a state veterinary hospital,providecrucialdroughtandwildfirerelief,andaddressother needs.Wealsosupportedadditionalfundingforvictimsofdomesticviolence, human trafficking, abuse, and homelessness.
The last $56 million of our state’s federal ARPA funding was also allocated to continue expanding broadband services statewide, supporting nonprofits working to address hunger and other critical issues, updating water and wastewater infrastructure, and strengthening workforce development. There are so many more accomplishments from this session to share, and I’ll be talking about those in the coming weeks.
As I close, I want to thank our two outstanding interns from this session, Aiden Scott and Carson McMahon. These two were such a tremendous help in our office and we appreciate their help so much.
Aiden will be a senior at Oklahoma University this coming semester where he’s majoring in political science. He’s also taking the bar exam this summer and is getting married next month. Congratulations Aiden!
Carson is a senior at the University of Central Oklahoma where he is also majoring in political science and taking the bar exam this summer. I’m elated that he has agreed to return next session to help us during the second session of the 59th Legislature.
I also want to again thank all of our local students who paged for our office this session. Your help was greatly appreciated, and I hope you learned so much about the legislative process and how state government works. We’ve already started taking applications for next year, so if you know a high school junior or senior who might be interested, please contact our office.
If you have any questions or concerns on legislative matters, please write to Senator Jessica Garvin, State Capitol, 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd. Room 237, Oklahoma City, OK, 73105, email me at Jessica.Garvin@oksenate. gov or call 405-521-5522.
