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. At long last, the 2025 Oklahoma legislative session is over. The end came Friday morning on the final day the Constitution allows lawmakers to be in session. Shawn, the last 48-hour period of the session was mind-boggling, and to say the least unusual. It started on Wednesday with action and inaction by Governor Kevin Stitt.
Shawn Ashley: On Wednesday, Governor Stitt announced he had signed House Bill 2764, the tax cut bill. It eliminates the bottom three income tax brackets, reduces the top rate by one quarter point, and includes the path to zero, something Stitt had advocated. Now the tax cut was one part of the budget agreement announced earlier in the month by Stitt and legislative leaders. Stitt did not sign House Bill 2766, the general appropriations bill, and most of the other bills that implement the budget agreement. Instead, he allowed them to become law absent his signature. It was the third time Stitt has not signed the general appropriations bill and allowed it to become law without his signature
Dick Pryor: Then Thursday, the odd twists and turns exploded. Walk us through, in the time we have, what happened next.
Shawn Ashley: Legislative leaders met Thursday morning with Governor Stitt to give him a heads up about some of the veto overrides they intended to take up. Stitt had vetoed 68 bills. Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton said Stitt even agreed with some of the planned overrides. But in a video posted late Thursday morning on X, formerly Twitter, Stitt took issue with the lawmakers’ veto override efforts. He said, “just because a person has an R by their name when they're running, you've got to know how they're voting. Today is a telltale sign. Do they believe in freedoms and limited government, or do they believe in bigger government and whatever the lobbyist crowd wants around this building?” Now that was too much for legislative leaders who then allowed their members to put any veto they could get the votes to override up for a vote. And in the end, lawmakers overrode 48 of Stitt's vetoes.
Dick Pryor: That's a lot. Did the veto overrides go smoothly?
Shawn Ashley: For the most part, yes, but things got off to a very rough start Thursday afternoon when the Senate took up the override of House Bill 2769, which amends a number of provisions related to the Oklahoma National Guard. The bill was two votes short of the number required to override the veto, and that vote remained open for some time. Paxton said various discussions were taking place with members to get them to override the bill's veto and one hour became two hours, he said. And two hours stretched into four, he added, until five hours had passed and the motion finally received the 32 votes necessary to override the veto.
Dick Pryor: But wait, there's more. Next was something we believe was unprecedented in Oklahoma history: the removal of an agency head by the legislature.
Shawn Ashley: That's right. The House and the Senate passed a concurrent resolution that says the legislature has lost confidence in Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Commissioner Alli Friesen, Stitt's appointee to lead that agency. And the legislature exercised a provision of state law that allows them to remove the commissioner with a two-thirds vote in each chamber. Under Friesen’s leadership, the agency has faced financial difficulty and lawmakers expressed concern that if she was allowed to continue in that post, things would not get better. Her termination was effective immediately.
Dick Pryor: As unusual as that move was, there was an even stranger back story that played out over several hours.
Shawn Ashley: In a statement shared with reporters, Stitt suggested Senate Health and Human Services Chair Paul Rosino and House Majority Floor Leader Josh West, who presented the resolution to their chambers, and their families, particularly Rosino and his wife, might somehow benefit from Friesen's termination. Rosino's wife is a part-time employee at the department. Pro Tem Paxton said the statement was so offensive he originally thought it was a fake. Now, Senator Shane Jett raised that issue on the Senate floor. He and Stitt were sharply rebuked by senators from both sides of the aisle. “Policy disputes,” they said, “should be settled by policy makers and their families should not be targets of criticism, particularly not by other elected officials.” The sentiment was shared in the House, where Speaker Pro Tem Anthony Moore suggested Stitt was “wholly unfit to lead the state of Oklahoma after making a comment like that.”
Dick Pryor: And after all of that, the session ended. And that's all we can talk about today, but there's a lot more to say about this legislative session. Thank you, Shawn.
Shawn Ashley: You're very welcome.
Dick Pryor: And that is Capitol Insider. Until next time, with Shawn Ashley, I'm Dick Pryor.
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