TRANSCRIPT
Announcer: Capitol Insider sponsored by United for Oklahoma - tribal nations building unity and economic strength to benefit all Oklahomans. More at unitedforoklahoma.com. Oklahoma Thrives Together.
Dick Pryor: This is Capitol Insider - where each week we take you inside politics, policy and government in Oklahoma. I'm Dick Pryor with Quorum call publisher Shawn Ashley. In the final two weeks of this year we're going to reveal our top ten stories of 2024 as heard on Capitol Insider. Shawn, today we'll discuss stories ten through six. And in the final week of 2024, we'll announce our top five. So, you ready?
Shawn Ashley: I'm ready.
Dick Pryor: Here we go. Number ten, the legislature's open budget process.
Shawn Ashley: It was about one year ago that Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat told us he had plans to make the budget process more transparent. That led to a series of open and livestreamed budget negotiation meetings between the Senate and the House, where other lawmakers, the public and the press got to go through what were usually closed doors and watch the two sides sometimes, along with Governor Kevin Stitt, haggle over the fiscal year 2025 budget. In late May, the Senate, House and Stitt agreed to and ultimately passed a $12.5 billion budget for the current fiscal year.
Dick Pryor: Number nine, and this one is one that was a few years coming. The legislature prioritizes state agency deferred maintenance projects.
Shawn Ashley: That's right. And early in the legislative session, we talked about how proposals to address deferred maintenance might be the surprise issue of the 2024 session. Lawmakers ultimately approved a plan that provides $350 million for the deferred maintenance program for the current fiscal year, with 45% dedicated to state government buildings, 45% to the State Regents for Higher Education and 10% to Tourism and Recreation Department’s state parks system. And this program is set up to provide ongoing funding for agencies’ deferred maintenance needs in future years.
Dick Pryor: Number eight on our top ten list - legal challenges to the governor's cabinet appointments.
Shawn Ashley: In an opinion requested by Senator Mary Boren, a Norman Democrat, Attorney General Gentner Drummond ruled in February that Governor Stitt's then-Secretary of Transportation, Tim Gatz, could not also serve as an agency director. Stitt took the issue to district court but lost when an Oklahoma County district judge ruled the governor's cabinet secretaries are state office holders, subject to the prohibition on dual office holding. Now, Stitt has found a way around that decision. He no longer appoints agency directors as cabinet secretaries but names them “chief advisers” instead. So, as he noted several times over the summer, he can continue to receive their advice in their areas of expertise. Gatz, for example, is Stitt’s chief transportation advisor.
Dick Pryor: Number seven on our list - evolving state tribal relations, which can more specifically be called Stitt-tribal relations.
Shawn Ashley: Governor Stitt's relations with the tribe seemed to improve in 2024, and that was evidenced by a series of cigarette tax and motor tax compacts Stitt and the tribes were able to negotiate. The most recent, the Motor Vehicle Tax Compact with the Cherokee Nation, recently received approval of its tribal council and is expected to be considered by the Joint Committee on State-Tribal Relations December 30th. Now it's worth noting that those compacts would have expired at the end of 2023 had the legislature not passed two bills that permitted them to be extended. And Stitt initially vetoed those bills, but the legislature overrode the vetoes during one of the 2023 special sessions.
Dick Pryor: And number six is something we haven't seen in Oklahoma in a long, long time. The longtime speaker of the House Charles McCall and the Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat both leave office at the same time.
Shawn Ashley: McCall has been speaker since 2017 and Treat served as pro tem since 2019 and never in history have the same two men led the House and the Senate through three legislatures. I suspect both their accomplishments, as well as their well-known battles, will be remembered for a long time in Oklahoma political circles.
Dick Pryor: So that's the start of our top ten. Thanks, Shawn.
Shawn Ashley: You're very welcome.
Dick Pryor: On December 27th and 30th, our top ten stories of the year countdown resumes with numbers five through one. Until then, with Shawn Ashley, I'm Dick Pryor. Happy holidays, everyone!
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