{"id":746425,"date":"2025-05-02T11:50:19","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T16:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/?p=746425"},"modified":"2025-05-02T11:50:22","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T16:50:22","slug":"mental-health-agency-warns-of-payroll-issues-amid-cash-crunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2025\/05\/02\/mental-health-agency-warns-of-payroll-issues-amid-cash-crunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Health Agency Warns of Payroll Issues Amid Cash Crunch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Leaders at Oklahoma\u2019s mental health agency have told lawmakers the cash crunch is so severe, the agency may have trouble meeting its payroll obligations this month.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, which is under four legislative or executive investigations or audits, said on Thursday afternoon its latest budget shortfall for the current fiscal year has now reached $23 million. The shortfall has varied widely in the past few months, from a high of $63.7 million to as low as $6.2 million at the end of last week.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The agency told legislative leaders earlier this week that it has insufficient funds to make payroll on May 7. A special House committee investigating the budget issues is expected to meet again on Monday.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is the first time we have heard from the agency about being unable to make payroll,\u201d House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, told House members in an email Thursday evening. \u201cOn March 31, in a meeting in my conference room, I specifically asked if there would be any cash flow issues before the end of May and was assured there would not be.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a statement Friday, Mental Health Commissioner Allie Friesen said the agency continues to navigate a difficult but necessary period of operational and fiscal reform.\u00a0Gov. Kevin Stitt appointed Friesen as commissioner in January 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are working closely with state leadership and the governor&#8217;s office to ensure continuity of services and stability for our workforce while addressing long-standing structural issues that have impacted the agency,\u201d Friesen said in a written statement.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The typical monthly payroll is about $12.5 million, including benefits, agency spokeswoman Maria Chaverri said Friday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>House Hearings Probe Finances<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Officials with the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency testified Monday before the House committee and said the mental health agency had filed 12 budget revisions for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne of our key observations is that the agency\u2019s budget on paper does not correspond with how they actually spend money,\u201d said Regina Birchum, LOFT\u2019s executive director. \u201cThat is why it\u2019s been so difficult, quite frankly, to get to a number. The agency built a budget and they have a series of account codes for which they\u2019re budgeting funds for specific purposes. It appears to be just on paper. In practice, there\u2019s a high degree of fungibility in the agency.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The agency, the state\u2019s fourth-largest by number of employees, has a dual mission of offering direct mental health patient care and supervising hundreds of third-party vendors who provide behavioral health services.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Birchum said the mental health agency has 195 separate accounts for various agency expenditures. LOFT\u2019s review found 115 of those accounts were over budget, which meant they had more money expended from the account than was initially budgeted. Another 66 accounts were under budget.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhat this tells us is the agency is not true-ing up its actual expenditures with its budget,\u201d Birchum said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The mental health agency does not have a revolving fund, which would allow it the flexibility to carry over money from one fiscal year to the next, she said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe agency has stated this is intentional; they believe every extra dollar they have should go out to providers,\u201d Birchum said. \u201cBut we would note that the agency in practice has been having a revolving fund by over-encumbering funds to different account codes. I suspect the reason an agency might do something like that is to give themselves budget flexibility.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Legislature asked LOFT on March 6 to undertake a review of the mental health agency\u2019s finances to get to the bottom of the current fiscal year budget crunch and get an idea for what the agency might need for the fiscal year 2026 budget. The House formed its select committee on April 15.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Birchum, whose office is working on a full report, offered highlights at Monday\u2019s hearing. Top leaders at the mental health agency previously testified at two earlier hearings of the House select committee. Lawmakers on the committee have been frustrated by the agency\u2019s evolving explanations for the shortfall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the legislative investigations, Stitt in March asked State Auditor and Inspector Cindy Byrd for a special audit of the mental health agency. Last month, Stitt said his own office would appoint a special investigator into the mental health agency\u2019s financial problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"645\" height=\"645\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Paul-Monies.jpg?resize=645%2C645&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-700535\" style=\"width:161px;height:161px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Paul-Monies.jpg?w=645&amp;ssl=1 645w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Paul-Monies.jpg?resize=336%2C336&amp;ssl=1 336w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Paul-Monies.jpg?resize=140%2C140&amp;ssl=1 140w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Paul-Monies.jpg?resize=400%2C400&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Paul-Monies.jpg?resize=200%2C200&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Paul-Monies.jpg?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Paul-Monies.jpg?resize=100%2C100&amp;ssl=1 100w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/oklahomawatch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Paul-Monies.jpg?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 645px) 100vw, 645px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><em>Paul Monies has been a reporter with Oklahoma Watch since 2017 and covers state agencies and public health. Contact him at (571) 319-3289 or <\/em><a href=\"mailto:pmonies@oklahomawatch.org\"><em>pmonies@oklahomawatch.org<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em> <em>Follow him on Twitter @pmonies.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:10px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\t<div\n\t\tclass=\"wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles  wpnbha is-grid columns-3 colgap-1 show-image image-aligntop ts-3 is-3 is-landscape \"\n\t\tstyle=\"\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t<div data-posts data-current-post-id=\"754196\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-section-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<span>MORE FROM PAUL MONIES <\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t<article data-post-id=\"754081\"\n\t\tclass=\"tag-charles-mccall tag-elections tag-gop tag-gov-kevin-stitt tag-jeff-starling tag-lobbying tag-mike-mazzei tag-oklahoma-gov-kevin-stitt tag-oklahoma-news tag-politics tag-rep-jim-shaw tag-turnpikes category-elections category-politics type-post post-has-image\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure 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-->\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Oklahoma\u2019s mental health agency faces an evolving budget shortfall and may miss payroll, agency leaders told lawmakers this week. Legislative hearings have uncovered poor budgeting practices and spending inconsistencies. Multiple investigations are underway as the agency works with state leaders to stabilize finances and maintain services. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2625189,"featured_media":746427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"gigafact_has_fact_brief":false,"gigafact_remote_fact_brief_post_id":0,"gigafact_remote_sync_timestamp":"","gigafact_remote_sync_status":"","gigafact_remote_sync_response":"","gigafact_has_been_published":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"everlit_article_id":"","everlit_hide_embed":false,"everlit_embed_size":"","everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_article_id":"","_everlit_hide_embed":false,"_everlit_embed_size":"","_everlit_generation_settings":[],"_everlit_content_hash":"","_everlit_metadata_hash":"","_newspack_byline_active":false,"_newspack_byline":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[46,59],"tags":[20822,476,8036,18927,218,6082,20525],"series":[],"coauthors":[397],"class_list":["post-746425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-mental-health","tag-allie-friesen","tag-gov-kevin-stitt","tag-kyle-hilbert","tag-loft","tag-mental-health","tag-public-money","tag-regina-birchum","entry"],"fact_brief":null,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mental Health Agency Warns of Payroll Issues Amid Cash Crunch - Oklahoma Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2025\/05\/02\/mental-health-agency-warns-of-payroll-issues-amid-cash-crunch\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mental Health Agency Warns of Payroll Issues Amid Cash Crunch - Oklahoma Watch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Oklahoma\u2019s mental health agency faces an evolving budget shortfall and may miss payroll, agency leaders told lawmakers this week. Legislative hearings have uncovered poor budgeting practices and spending inconsistencies. 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