Sen. Darcy Jech

Neither House Majority Leader Mike Sanders nor Sen. Darcy Jech were happy with the way the budgetary standoff with Gov. Kevin Stitt played out last week, but both said their votes to override were the right response to Stitt’s vetoes.

“It’s unfortunate, but I think the Governor was operating under the wrong information,” Sanders said Thursday.

“We made cuts in the budget, we saved money, but we avoided what would have been close to a 16-17% budget cut if we allowed his veto to stand,” he said.

“I’m a little bit embarrassed by it,” Jech said. “I don’t like the way it looks when differences are played out in front of the camera instead of resolving them behind closed doors.

“That’s where it should happen, in my opinion.”

The sequence of events marked the first time in memory that any governor has had four budget vetoes overriden in the same day, much less by a Legislature controlled by the governor’s own party.

“This is the third time I’ve voted to override a governor’s veto– Henry, Fallin and now Stitt,” Sanders said. “The first two were very close votes, but this decision was bipartisan, quick and not even close.”

In fact, every single Republican member of the House voted to override Stitt’s veto of one of the four budgetary measures.

Sanders and other members of Republican leadership were particularly dismayed by what they said was incorrect information released by the Governor concerning the budget that was hammered out.

“He’s gotten bad information – it’s inaccurate,” Sanders said.

“We’re not raiding the pension funds or the state roads funds.”

Sanders said the budget agreement approved by Houses did not take any existing money out of pension funds but reducing the state’s contribution this year and next.

“We also included a provision that the state’s contribution will be repaid in two years, along with 5% interest,” he said. “This allows us to preserve the gains we’ve made in the past few years in education and teacher salaries.”

He also said the approved budget won’t result in any interruption in the Department of Transportation’s Eight Year Revolving Roads and Bridges Improvement Plan.

Sanders said that Stitt’s comment that his office has been shut out of budget talks also is false.

“He hasn’t attended any budget meetings and his secretary of finance walked out of a meeting,” Sanders aaid.

“With all due respect to the Governor – I like the guy, he’s a friend, I voted for him –I think he needs to come to the Legislature and fix this.”

Jech said that the whole situation send the wrong impression to the public.

“It may appear from the outside that we don’t see eyeto-eye on anything, but for the most part we agree with the Governor’s office 99% of the time,” he said.

“I respect the Governor and I respect the office. He comes from a background where he’s a very successful in business and he’s used to making decisions and implementing them immediately. The slow pace of government and the hoops that have to be jumped through can be frustrating from that standpoint.

“Like it or not, this whole thing is about compromise –between the bodies, across the aisles – no one gets everything they want.”