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Adjutant General seeks $85.5 million bonding plan for deferred maintenance and proposes reestablishing State Guard
Summary
Adjutant General Major General Mancino told lawmakers the Oklahoma National Guard needs an $85.5 million bond program to accelerate deferred maintenance across armories and readiness facilities and recommended a $2.4 million estimate to reestablish a state guard for retention and in‑state missions.
Major General Mancino, Adjutant General of the Oklahoma National Guard, presented a budget overview that emphasized recruitment, readiness and deferred maintenance needs and included two substantive proposals: a bond-funded program to accelerate $85.5 million of maintenance across facilities, and initial funding to reestablish an Oklahoma State Guard.
Mancino asked the committee to consider a financing approach that accelerates deferred maintenance by leveraging existing, recurring state maintenance allocations and converting them into a bond program or Legacy Capital Fund appropriation to address a backlog of armory and readiness-center repairs. He framed the $85,500,000 figure as a multi-year bond program that would be funded from money the Guard already spends on annual maintenance; "I just want to redirect that to this program," Mancino said, arguing that bonding would permit a structured, faster response to long-standing deficiencies without raising the agency’s ongoing appropriated budget.
Mancino also outlined the proposed reestablishment of an Oklahoma State Guard, noting it would be a separate force from the federally organized National Guard and would answer to the governor and state authorities. The general described the proposal as a tool to retain experienced retiring guardsmen in a state-role capacity and to provide a state-level force-multiplier for civil defense tasks such as disaster response, medical augmentation and drone operations. He estimated an initial implementation figure of $2,400,000 as a budget placeholder while the executive branch and the Legislature negotiate structure and scope.
Other items in the presentation included the Sooner Job Challenge program (a Thunderbird Challenge youth program with a $1.5 million ask and an anticipated federal match of about $4.5 million), development of a counter‑UAS school and range at Camp Gruber to prepare for small unmanned-aircraft system threats, construction and armory repairs at locations including Bartlesville and Ponca City, and continuing support for a new Oklahoma National Guard Museum project already under way.
Mancino said the Guard has made recruiting gains and that retention is now a focus; he highlighted existing tuition‑assistance programs and the state-level recruiting investment paid to the Regents for Higher Education. He told senators the Guard is seeking to leverage federal partnerships where possible and to minimize new appropriations by matching state funds with federal resources.
Ending: Mancino asked the committee to consider the proposed bond approach to accelerate deferred maintenance and to allow the Guard and the executive to refine the scope and cost for the proposed State Guard; he said the proposals are subject to his continued coordination with the governor and the Legislature.
