‘Insufficient funds’: ODMHSAS faces payroll default to start Mental Health Awareness Month

The confusing crisis within Oklahoma’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services has left the agency unable to make payroll in the first week of Mental Health Awareness Month, Speaker Kyle Hilbert told House members Thursday evening.

“Very late this afternoon, Majority Leader Mark Lawson received a call from the ODMHSAS legislative liaison stating they have insufficient funds available to make payroll for Wednesday, May 7, and are $23 million short for the remainder of FY 25,” Hilbert (R-Bristow) wrote in an email. “This is the first we have heard from the agency about being unable to make payroll. On 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.”

Hilbert said Commissioner Allie Friesen confirmed that the agency’s payroll period and remaining obligations through June 30 are in jeopardy without a $23 million supplemental appropriation — the latest lurch upward on the rollercoaster of ODMHSAS shortfall estimates. Hilbert has tasked Lawson (R-Sapulpa) with chairing an investigative committee, which has met three times and heard sworn testimony from a half-dozen witnesses, including Friesen, interim CEO Skip Leonard and Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler.

'Insufficient funds': ODMHSAS faces payroll default to start Mental Health Awareness Month