Budget & Tax

A look at Oklahoma mental-health spending

August 7, 2024

Curtis Shelton

We are now one month into fiscal year 2025, in which the state government is operating with the new budget that was passed at the end of the 2024 legislative session. In our continuing blog series on spending trends at the 10 largest state agencies we have arrived at number seven on the list, the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS). As a reminder, those agencies are:

1. Department of Education
2. Oklahoma Health Care Authority
3. Regents for Higher Education
4. Department of Transportation
5. Department of Human Services
6. Department of Corrections
7. Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services
8. Department of Career and Technology Education
9. Department of Public Safety
10. Office of Management and Enterprise Services

ODMHSAS received $387 million in appropriations in the most recent budget. Since 2003, the department has seen its appropriation grow by 60 percent when adjusted for inflation to current dollars. As you can see in the graph below, ODMHSAS saw a large bump in appropriation between 2012 and 2013. That was due to the transfer of behavioral health from the Oklahoma Health Care Authority to ODMHSAS. The total of the transfer was $118 million.

Sources: Oklahoma Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports; Oklahoma House of Representatives Fiscal Summary; SB1125 Fiscal Summary; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI Inflation Calculator