The Oklahoma State Capital

As Logan County's rural residents struggle to commute on washed-out roads, a document recently posted to the Oklahoma State Auditor's site reveals that county road district funds were raided last month, after having been initially approved for appropriation during the county commission's September budget meeting.

The document, known as the "Fiscal 2025 Estimate of Needs," shows that on October 8th, the County Excise Board, in a meeting which was not broadcast to the web, appears to have amended the county budget by reducing the road district funds, despite them having being approved during the September 30 meeting of the Logan County Commission.

In their September 30 meeting, county commissioners had initially approved the $14 million budget document—a significant increase over the previous year's budget—after just 45 seconds of public consideration.

The commission's approved version of the budget programmed $450,000 of ad valorem revenue to be set aside and split evenly between the three county road districts. However, the final budget document, as filed with the state, lists two members of the Logan County Excise Board as amending the commissioners' budget document.

The amended budget, signed off on by Excise Board members Chris Evans and Kenneth Davis, enacted a few changes to the 105-page document. Notably, $75,000 was taken from the road district accounts and appears to have been reprogrammed to the Oklahoma State University Extension Office at the Logan County Fairgrounds. Due to this change, that agency benefited from an increase in county appropriations of 60.14%. The new money will allow that agency to hire a new full-time employee.

A third member of the Excise Board, Brian Sterkel, did not sign the document.

The county's online agenda center appears to show an Excise Board agenda for October 8; however, as of the date of this publication, no minutes have been posted. Additionally, video footage of the Excise Board meeting had not been posted to Guthrie News Page, a private service that routinely shares coverage of county commissioner meetings and other civic affairs.

The proper role of the Excise Board in amending county appropriations has been debated, as members of the Excise Board are not elected by the public but are instead unelected appointees.

State law does allow a county Excise Board to amend a county budget proposal after its approval by the county commissioners; however, the Board's decisions to amend are constrained by law.

According to a county training publication issued by Oklahoma State University:

"The Board has the responsibility of reviewing the budget to ensure that mandatory governmental functions are included and adequately funded within the available revenues, and unlawful items are excluded. If an unlawful item is included or a lawful item is not adequately funded, then the county excise board has the authority to revise the budget."

As of the time of publication, it's not clear what legal authority allowed The Board to redirect the funds or what criteria the Board used to justify the reallocation.

The Board's three appointing authorities are the commissioners, who appointed Evans; Logan County District Judge Phillip Corley, who appointed Davis; and the Oklahoma Tax Commission, which appointed Sterkel.

Roads Are a Hot Topic in Logan County

In recent days, the Logan County Emergency Management Office published a lengthy list of road closures in District 1 due to recent rain events. The county’s road woes were also recently highlighted in high-profile news coverage from Oklahoma City television station KFOR. KFOR's reporting included on-the-scene footage from Logan County and featured a montage of similar events that have devastated Logan County's rural roads in recent years.

In August, District 2 Commissioner Charlie Meadows proposed a significant increase in county sales tax rates to supplement district road funds. However, Meadows' proposal was not supported by the other two county commissioners.

The newly approved budget document will guide county spending through June 30, 2025.