Governor Kevin Stitt is using his veto pen to retaliate against the State Senate to force passage of his education and private school funding plan and tax cuts.
TRANSCRIPT
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Dick Pryor: This is Capitol Insider - taking you inside politics, policy and government in Oklahoma. I'm Dick Pryor with Quorum Call publisher Shawn Ashley. Shawn, the calendar is turning into the final month of the 2023 regular legislative session. Lawmakers must finish their work by May 26th, but it looks like open warfare has broken out at the Capitol.
Shawn Ashley: It certainly does. And it really all began Wednesday night when Governor Kevin Stitt vetoed 20 Senate bills. His veto message for each bill was the same. Stitt said he would continue to veto any and all legislation authored by senators who have not supported his school choice tax credit, common education funding and tax cut plans. The governor even reiterated that position at a press conference Friday when he said, “I have a hard time continuing to go along to get along with all these side projects and this and that until I get parental choice, until I get tax cuts for all Oklahomans.” In a press conference Thursday, House Speaker Charles McCall joined the governor in calling for the Senate to go along with the governor's school choice, education funding and tax cut plans and said he supported the governor's decision to veto Senate bills until a deal was reached on those proposals.
Now, the governor's action, of course, was not received well in the Senate. Late Thursday night, the Senate Rules Committee rejected Governor Stitt's nominees to be secretary of commerce and secretary of health and mental health. Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat told reporters before the committee even acted, “we're going to reject those nominees as long as the governor continues to make vetoes about trying to bully us. We're going to show him that we're going to stand up to bullies.” Now, the Senate passed a new school choice and education funding plan Thursday night and sent it to the House for possible consideration. It provides a tax credit for private school and home school expenses based on a sliding income scale. In other words, the lower a family's household income, the higher the credit will be, and the higher their income, the lower the credit. But Stitt and McCall have expressed opposition to an income cap on tax credit proposals. The plan also includes a larger teacher pay raise than previously discussed and additional funding through the Common Education State Ed funding formula.
The House has previously offered a smaller teacher pay raise and prefers to see money distributed to school districts outside the funding formula and with a limit so that rural schools receive a larger share of the funds. Now, Stitt seemed to downplay his role in the kerfuffle a bit Friday. “It's the end of April here in this building,” the governor said. And he added, “sometimes pressure has to mount a little bit, and it happens every single year.” But I'll say in my more than 20 years in the capitol, I've never seen the top blow off like this.
Dick Pryor: And I have not either. One House bill Stitt vetoed would extend the life of the OETA – the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority. Unless the legislature overrides that veto, OETA would have to begin winding down July 1st and would sunset - cease to exist - in a year. Why is he doing that?
Shawn Ashley: Stitt wrote in his veto message, “although the OETA may have played a principal role in the provision of educational television services at one time, today the OETA's long term strategic value is at best unclear, if not outright imagined.” Asked about that veto Friday, Stitt said, “that to me is an outdated system. It may have had its place in 1957. Why are we spending taxpayer dollars to prop up OETA?”, he asked. “It makes no sense to me.” And he also said some of the programing on OETA supported LGBTQ issues and voices. “Why am I using taxpayer dollars to prop that up? I don't think we need that, and I'm glad to veto that bill.”
Dick Pryor: Shawn, given the turmoil at the Capitol right now, what are you watching for in the week ahead?
Shawn Ashley: Well, lawmakers will continue to hear bills that have made it through the legislative process thus far. Probably the big news will come on Monday when Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters is scheduled to appear before the House Appropriations and Budget Committee. He rejected an invitation earlier in the session to appear before the House A&B’s Subcommittee on Education. He's expected to talk about the State Department of Education's budget and various initiatives he and the state board have launched. It looks to be an interesting hearing.
Dick Pryor: Yes. It's getting wild at the Capitol. Thank you, Shawn.
Shawn Ashley: You're very welcome.
Dick Pryor: And that's Capitol Insider. For more information, go to quorumcall.online. You can find audio and transcripts at kgou.org and listen to Capitol Insider where you get your podcasts. Until next time, with Shawn Ashley, I'm Dick Pryor.
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