Lawmakers sent Stitt about 500 bills this session. He's already signed more than half of them.
But there are two weeks left before the legislature must adjourn per the Oklahoma constitution, and some in the statehouse say members ought to use that time to address remaining policy concerns. Sen. Minority Julia Kirt is among them.
"I just want to point to childcare, especially really concerned about childcare closing and that we're still seeing cuts to who's eligible and those subsidies," Kirt said. "And of course, continue to be really worried about additional educational mandates without smaller class sizes and the veteran teachers that we need to really make that progress."
Kirt says she's also worried about the looming dissolution of Oklahoma's Educational Television Authority (OETA) caused by Stitt's veto of the bill extending its life. As of Friday afternoon, Stitt had vetoed nearly 60 measures, including others with "sunset" provisions extending the life of several professional boards and quasi-governmental agencies, like OETA.
The House voted to override 10 of Stitt's vetoes, but the Senate only took up five of them. Extending OETA is the only override the Senate voted down. Here are some key measures that made it all the way through, some that didn't.
What priorities lawmakers advanced this session
This year, the focus has been on early education outcomes and saving the state money in light of looming federal funding cuts. Lawmakers passed the budget earlier than ever this year, thanks to early cooperation from both chambers and the governor, only for internal politics to disintegrate that teamwork into a chaotic end of the session.
Still, even after the kerfuffle with the Senate over supposed broken agreements and misunderstandings with the House on key issues, House Speaker Kyle Hilbert called Thursday a "great end" to the legislative session.
"We were able to pass, obviously, a historic early budget agreement with some great investments in public education," Hilbert said. "Nearly a quarter billion dollar increase in funding for public schools next year, as well as the strongest early literacy law in the entire country, which I'm very excited about the progress that's going to make."
Senate Bill 1178, by Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond, allocates $26 million to overhaul Oklahoma's literacy policies by implementing an early intervention and third-grade retention system. Stitt signed it late last month, along with several other key measures pushed by republicans.
Among those is House Bill 1484, also known as Rain's Law, by Rep. Ronny Johns, R-Ada, which requires fentanyl education for middle and high school students in all Oklahoma public schools.
When it comes to education, lawmakers also approved measures to add math intervention programs, ban cell phones in classrooms and implement the Donald J. Trump Presidential Fitness Test, among others.
Lawmakers are also proposing several state questions, which voters can expect to see on the ballot starting with the August 25 primary runoffs.
What key efforts failed this session
Among the major failed efforts this year was a push by Republicans in both chambers to take language expanding eligibility for Medicaid out of the constitution, where voters enshrined it in 2020, and insert it into state statute.
The idea was that lawmakers would be able to tweak the language to save the state money as federal policies on who pays for the program shift. Critics say it's really an effort to gut who's eligible for Medicaid and reverse the will of the people.
The measure saw several iterations, with provisions to include a state question in August asking voters to reverse their own decision. Every version of the bill failed in the last few chaotic days of the session. Paxton said he worries what that means for Oklahoma's tax dollars.
"Very disappointed we did not get a Medicaid state question on any ballot this year," Paxton said. "The state is facing a little bit of a financial cliff and it's unknown. You know, the Medicaid expansion really hit this year when the health care authority came in and gave us basically almost a $500 million increased cost this year. We settled at $250 million."
That's a recurring amount, which Paxton said makes future allocations precarious as costs continue to rise.
There are also several veto overrides the House voted on that the Senate didn't even touch. One that's worrying some members of the legislature is House Bill 3320, which would have extended the sunset of 39 state boards, commissions and programs to permanence.
Sunset provisions allow lawmakers to revisit the usefulness of programs and commissions they create and decide whether to continue them.
Hilbert says many of the sunsetted entities benefit from a provision keeping them alive through next year. He and Paxton both said next year's legislature can look at reviving them.
"If you read the statute, they expire on July 1st," Hilbert said. "But of course they have a year of wind down, and so that'll be conversations that I am certain are going to be held with whomever the next governor is…because legislation could be considered next year."
Sen. Kirt said that's quite a gamble to make during an election year because there's no guarantee it'll be a priority for lawmakers.
"I know they have a one-year wind-down period, but it's going to be precarious," Kirt said, explaining her disappointment with OETA's extension failing. "It wasn't just OETA. There were also some others … some very functional boards like the construction industry boards."
An example is the State Optometry Licensing Board, which determines whether new optometrists should be licensed in accordance with state requirements. That board survived, but dozens of other similar ones didn't.
"It should be a surprise to no one that I am for smaller government," Stitt wrote in his veto message of HB 3320. It's his main argument against extending sunsets, in the name of minimizing government bureaucracy. He's called for consolidating many of the boards and commissions into one state agency.
Kirt disagrees with his outlook.
"I think we'd have to be realistic about what part of it is administrative work versus what part takes expertise," she said. "I want optometrists judging whether someone is doing optometry wrong. I want someone who's a dentist judging whether a dentist is being fraudulent in their care. I don't want some bureaucrat doing that."
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
