Use of State Dollars to Replace Federal Funds during Federal Shutdown

Oct. 15, 2013

TO: State agency directors and finance officers
FROM: Preston L. Doerflinger, Office of Management and Enterprise Services Director, Secretary of Finance, Administration and Information Technology
SUBJECT: Use of state dollars to replace federal funds during federal shutdown

Unless there is an explicit, mandatory guarantee of federal reimbursement, state agencies SHOULD NOT APPLY STATE RESOURCES in place of federal funds that are unavailable during the federal government shutdown. Avoiding such actions is imperative to safeguarding required state operational obligations and the State of Oklahoma’s fiscal status.

Governor Fallin has been personally notified by the White House that there is no guarantee that the federal government will reimburse states for temporarily funding discretionary federal programs with state dollars during the federal government shutdown. Similarly, there is also no guarantee that additional state resources will be available to reimburse agencies for such expenses. Therefore, we request that state agencies take no actions to continue federally-funded programs during the federal government shutdown that could cause permanent loss of any state funds now or in the future.

If your agency has applied state resources in place of unavailable federal funds with no guarantee of federal reimbursement, please immediately provide your assigned OMES budget analyst with a full accounting of how, where and why those state resources were applied.

If your agency faces extraordinary circumstances that may cause critical services to the public to be affected in ways that could cause undue harm to the life and safety of individuals, please discuss the situation with OMES budget officials so we can effectively communicate your concerns with the state’s Congressional delegation and other federal officials.

We recognize the complications the federal government shutdown is causing and we are sympathetic to the situation. It is our desire to partner with agencies to appropriately manage the situation the best the state can with its limited resources. In doing so, we must keep in mind that the federal government bears primary responsibility to remedy the situation and that states should avoid at all costs the major financial burden of assuming federal responsibilities with no guarantee of reimbursement.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter and your diligence in addressing issues related to the federal government shutdown.

Respectfully,

Preston L. Doerflinger, Director
Secretary of Finance, Administration and Information Technology

• ShutdownMemo_Doerflinger_10152013.pdf