TRANSCRIPT
Announcer: Capitol Insider sponsored by the Oklahoma State Medical Association. Physicians dedicated to providing and increasing access to health care for all Oklahomans. More on the vision and mission of OSMA at okmed.org.
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, we close out 2025 with our top stories of the year, and this time a total of 11 as heard on Capitol Insider. Today we'll discuss stories 11 through 6, and on January 2nd we'll announce our top five. So, ready to go?
Shawn Ashley: I'm ready!
Dick Pryor: All right, here we go. Number eleven: The simultaneous House and Senate leadership changes.
Shawn Ashley: Never in the history of the state have the same two men led the House and Senate through three legislatures, but that was the case from 2019 into early 2025. But in 2025, we saw representative Kyle Hilbert, a Republican from Bristow, elected House Speaker, succeeding former Speaker Charles McCall. We also saw Senator Lonnie Paxton, a Republican from Tuttle, replace Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, who had held that post from 2019. Now, in addition to the six regular sessions over which McCall and Treat presided, they also oversaw 11 special sessions. We haven't seen any special sessions so far with Hilbert and Paxton.
Dick Pryor: Story number ten: The unusual number of bills that went into effect without the signature of Governor Kevin Stitt.
Shawn Ashley: 305. That's not only unusual, but it's a record and a record that will be hard to break. A bill becomes a law without the governor's signature when the governor neither signs nor vetoes a bill while the legislature is in session. Stitt told me in May he was signing only bills he thought would move Oklahoma forward. If a bill didn't do that and didn't move the state backwards, Stitt said he was allowing them to become law without his signature and he did that three hundred and five times.
Dick Pryor: Number nine is closely associated with that and it's Governor Stitt's governance by executive orders.
Shawn Ashley: Governor Stitt issued at least a half dozen executive orders in 2025 that directed a variety of agencies to do certain things and in some cases told them how to do that. A January executive order, for example, addressed colleges and universities and their implementation of new name, image, and likeness procedures, NIL. In April, he directed every state agency to report how many state employee positions had been converted to contract work as part of an effort to get a handle on state spending. And in the summer, Stitt issued his Make Oklahoma Healthy Again executive order that affected the State Department of Education, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Environmental Quality, and of course, the Department of Health.
Dick Pryor: Top story number eight: Oklahoma Business Courts ruled unconstitutional.
Shawn Ashley: Governor Stitt had called on the legislature for several years to create business courts - specialized courts that would be overseen by judges with experience and knowledge in complex business matters. In 2024, he made laying the groundwork for business courts a requirement for not vetoing the next fiscal year's budget. And lawmakers went along with him. In 2025, actually creating the courts was part of that year's budget agreement. But the legislature and the governor violated the Oklahoma Constitution in creating the courts, the Supreme Court ruled in October. Specifically, the court said, the Constitution lists the types of courts the legislature can create, and business courts were not among them.
Dick Pryor: Story number seven: Governor Stitt's state tax cut plan passes in what he called an “amazing session.”
Shawn Ashley: It must've been an amazing session for a major tax cut to be only the seventh most important story of the year. And Stitt began the 2025 session asking lawmakers for a half and a path, a one-half percentage point reduction of the individual income tax rate and a plan to eventually reduce the tax to zero. He didn't exactly get that, but he got a lot. Lawmakers approved a quarter of a percentage point reduction along with the elimination of some of the lower tax brackets and a plan to reduce the rate to zero over a number of years, if revenue grows sufficiently to offset the reduction of lowering the rate.
Dick Pryor: And story number six: Upheaval at the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.
Shawn Ashley: First, the agency told lawmakers it would face a budget shortfall and not be able to fund all of its programs. Then it said it would not even have enough money to make payroll through the fiscal year. At a series of hearings, legislators were left frustrated as staff members from Mental Health passed what must have been the only buck they had left. They were unable to explain how big or how small the agency shortfall was and how much money it needed to make it in the coming fiscal year. Things reached a peak at the end of the legislative session when too many lawmakers indicated they had lost confidence in Commissioner Allie Friesen's ability to effectively run the agency. And that led the state legislature to fire her.
Dick Pryor: All right, thank you, Shawn.
Shawn Ashley: You're very welcome.
Dick Pryor: So that's the start of our top stories of the year. On January 2nd and 5th, our top stories of the year countdown continues with numbers five through one. Until next time, with Shawn Ashley, I'm Dick Pryor. Happy holidays, everyone!
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