Carolynn Caudill, Oklahoma County Clerk, said today the statutory budget dates need to be changed.  “The current statutory deadline of August 17 for counties to file the county’s annual financial statement and estimate of needs with the Excise Board is unreasonable”, Caudill said.   

The County Assessor starts the process by certifying valuations to the County Clerk, which is usually done sometime during the first or second week in August.  Towns are given until August 22 to file their budgets, cities have until August 27, and schools now have until October 1 thanks to a recent change in the statutes.  

The County Clerk’s Association sent a message dated August 10 to all County Clerks about a committee that has been established to review outdated statutes that need revision.  One of the items under review is the budget due dates found in Title 68 Oklahoma Statutes, Section 3002.  Caudill says she agrees changes need to be made.  “Why should the schools, cities and towns get more time to prepare their budgets than the counties?”  “We all get the valuation numbers at the same time”, Caudill added. 

The handbook entitled “The Budget Process for Oklahoma County Governments” prepared by OSU Extension in cooperation with the State Auditor’s Office even says, “A few statutory dates are sometimes ignored during the budget process because they conflict or do not seem to fit the schedule dictated by the majority of the statutes.” 

Caudill stated those conflicting statutes need to be looked at and changed as well.  There is one statute in Title 68 O.S. Section 3015 that says the excise board is to apportion the millage on or before July 25 each year.  “This is impossible for the excise board to complete when the school budgets aren’t even due until October 1”, Caudill noted.  The Board of County Commissioners in Title 19 O.S. Section 345 “shall keep an account of receipts and expenditures of the county and on the first Monday in July, cause to be made a complete financial report for the preceding year and it is to be published.  “There is not a Board of County Commissioners that is complying with this statute”, Caudill said. 

Caudill stated her office is preparing the county’s annual financial statement and estimate of needs as quickly as possible. She said, “We are doing the same thing we do every year.  It is a complicated document and we need to make sure the document when prepared is complete and accurate.”  Caudill added, “I always strive to comply with the statutes, but it is difficult to do when the date for counties is unreasonable.  This is another reason why Oklahoma County should be a Budget Board county.  We would have had a budget in place by July 1.”  

Caudill praised her employees for doing exceptional work under tremendous pressure this year.  She said, “Much of the cause for confusion this year is that none of the other county officials have been involved with the preparation of a budget under an Excise Board County.  Many of them do not understand the budget process because prior to this year Oklahoma County has been a Budget Board County since 1983.”  Caudill said both she and her Chief Deputy, Mark Mishoe, have budgeting experience in Excise Board counties.  Caudill was previously the County Clerk in Kiowa County and Mark Mishoe was previously the County Clerk in Canadian County. 

In a Budget Board County the county budget is prepared and approved prior to July 1 using estimated numbers.  The Board would then go through a process known as the “September Supplement” to amend the budget with actual end-of-year numbers.  In an Excise Board County the budget is prepared and approved using actual end-of-year numbers.  The timing of the budget process depends on when the County Clerk receives information from others. 

Caudill said, “Over the past five years the county budget has been completed and filed with the Excise Board in the middle of September.”  Records show the Board of County Commissioners filed last year’s budget with the Excise Board on September 14.  Before then the Budget Board filed the budget with the Excise Board on September 15, 2004, September 25, 2003, September 26, 2002 and September 12, 2001.  

Caudill added, “We can speed up the process to meet the statutory dates, but this increases the chance for errors.  To me it makes perfect sense to change the statutes so all of us are working towards the same budgetary deadline.” 

August 17, 2006