OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Department of Public Safety has requested a budget of $220 million that includes additional funds for Real ID, communications infrastructure, information technology fees, more employees at driver’s license bureaus, a pay hike for dispatchers, and an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper training academy.
According to the state Secretary of Public Safety, the DPS’ current budget for Fiscal Year 2020 is $184.3 million. That figure is $500,000 less than the $184.8 million initial budget workplan adopted at the outset of FY 2019 and $8.3 million less than the DPS’ $192.6 million total budget of expenditures in FY 2018, an agency funding history compiled by the state Senate fiscal staff shows.
The Department of Public Safety budget consists of appropriations from the state Legislature, interagency funds, several revolving funds, and other revenue sources, such as state and federal asset forfeiture funds and federal matching funds.
APPROPRIATIONS UP BUT STAFFING DOWN
For three consecutive years, legislative appropriations to the DPS have increased but full-time-equivalent (FTE) staffing has decreased slightly, records indicate.
The agency’s appropriation from the Legislature for FY 2020 was $104.37 million, 6.9% more than the FY ’19 appropriation and 10% higher than the FY ’18 appropriation, ledgers of the state Senate fiscal staff reflect. During that same period, the agency’s FTE headcount slipped by 13, to 1,424 in FY 2020, according to the Secretary of Public Safety.
DPS Commissioner John Scully wants more money to hire additional employees at the state driver’s license bureaus, and to keep some of those offices open for longer hours, particularly because of the looming rollout of Real ID.
REAL ID LICENSES SLATED TO BE ISSUED NEXT YEAR
During a recent joint meeting of House and Senate budget writers, Scully told the legislators that the most complaints he receives are about driver’s license bureaus.
He also said he anticipates long lines next year when the DPS begins issuing Real IDs at all 33 DPS locations where driving exams for operator and commercial licenses are administered, and at the 248 tag agencies across the state. Real
ID licenses are scheduled to be issued between April 30 and the end of August 2020. Approximately 650,000 Oklahomans will need Real ID licenses.
Real ID is a specification for driver’s licenses mandated by the United States Real ID Act of 2005 in response to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. It is a security measure intended to make driver’s licenses more difficult to forge.
The initial deadline for implementation nationwide was 2011, but Oklahoma legislators balked and the state was granted several extensions. Oklahoma is one of three states that have not yet complied with the Real ID mandate; the new deadline for compliance is Sept. 18, 2020.
The state reportedly has spent about $11 million on Real ID and could spend an additional $10 million next year to produce state identification cards that meet the federal law guidelines.
$$ REQUESTED FOR OHP ACADEMY, DISPATCHERS PAY RAISE, IT FEES
The commissioner also requested more money for another Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper training academy. The DPS has had to forego an OHP academy more than once in recent years, including 2019, because of state budget issues.
For example, since the DPS couldn’t afford to sponsor one, the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority pledged $5 million to underwrite an OHP academy in 2018 to train approximately 30 new cadets to replace troopers who left because of retirement or attrition. At that time the OHP had 790 troopers, fewer than it had in 1990, then-Public Safety Commissioner Michael C. Thompson lamented. The $5 million covered the costs of training and equipping the troopers and paid for their salaries and benefits for the first year, Thompson said.
Scully also wants to give OHP dispatchers a 10% pay raise because their salaries are far below the regional average, he told the legislators.
The proposed DPS budget includes $1.1 million for communications infrastructure upgrades, a state House of Representatives fiscal analyst said.
And Scully said his agency needs $1.7 million to pay the information technology fees assessed by the state Office of Management and Enterprise Services. IT services for state agencies were consolidated within OMES during the administration of former Gov. Mary Fallin.
The Second Regular Session of the 57th Oklahoma Legislature is scheduled to convene at noon Feb. 3, 2020.