During his address, Gov. Stitt gave outlined his top priorities for the year. Here are the highlights.

Six takeaways from Gov. Kevin Stitt’s State of the State speech
1. Rainy Day Fund
Gov. Stitt is calling on legislators to pass a bill by Sen. Joe Newhouse, R-Broken Arrow, that would double the capacity of the state’s Rainy Day Fund to $2 billion.

The fund currently sits at just over $1 billion after the governor directed last year that an additional $200,000 million would go into state reserve accounts.

Raising the cap on the state’s Rainy Day Fund would require approval of the people through a state question.

2. Education
Gov. Stitt is looking to increase the tax credit cap for the Oklahoma Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship, which he hopes will encourage more individuals and businesses to contribute to non-profits providing scholarships. He wants to raise the cap from $5 million to $30 million.

He also plans to bring in a national nonprofit called Jobs for America’s Graduates, which focuses on addressing dropout rates.

No teacher pay raise is included in Stitt’s proposed budget, but Stitt supports efforts to allow more local dollars into the education funding formula and legislation that would make it easier for the State Board of Education to issue teaching certificates.

3. State agency reform
Gov. Stitt is proposing the consolidation of a handful of state agencies.

He wants the Department of Corrections to absorb the Pardon and Parole Board.

Invoking the upcoming 25th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, Stitt called for merging the Office of Emergency Management and the Oklahoma Office of Homeland Security.

Stitt also wants to create one central health care agency by 2022, which would require the consolidation of several health care agencies.

“Let’s partner together to fully integrate, by the year 2022, the functions of the State Department of Health, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, the Department of Mental Health, and others, as well as all of the state’s licensing boards that deal with health,” he said.

The governor also talked about eliminating some of the duplicative efforts of the Department of Transportation and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority by combining some of the agency’s functions.

“Some will cry that consolidation is disruptive,” Stitt said. “Let me be clear - it will be for political insiders and those that find comfort in big bureaucracy. But it is what we need to do.”

4. Gaming compacts dispute
With some tribal leaders in the House chamber to watch the State of the State speech, the governor called for the Legislature to approve possibly using some state reserves to fund education while the state awaits a court decision on tribal gaming revenue.

Roughly $130 million annually in gaming revenue goes to fund education.

But Stitt and Oklahoma’s Native American tribes are in the midst of a clash over how much gaming revenue should go to the state. Until a federal court can rule in the dispute, Stitt has asked that all 2020 gaming revenue, including the portion that would go to the state, be held in a trust the neither side can touch.

Stitt envisions the state reserve funds filling in, if necessary, while the gaming revenue is at question.

During his speech, Stitt also doubled down on his stance that the state’s tribal-gaming compacts did not automatically renew this year. The tribes believe the compacts automatically renewed on Jan. 1.

 “Unfortunately, we have an expired model gaming compact, a compact in which notable tribes have previously called ‘dated’ and ‘unsuitable’ for current and future business,” he said.

5. Health care
Gov. Stitt emphasized his recently announced plan to expand Medicaid using a new Trump administration block grant option.

Stitt’s plan would require work requirements and moderate premiums to be paid by users. The governor said 180,000 Oklahomans would gain coverage under what he is calling SoonerCare 2.0. He encouraged legislators to fund the roughly $150 million of the state’s share of the expansion.

Stitt also said within the next few months, state health care agencies will take steps to create a statewide Health Information Exchange to “protect Oklahomans’ health records while ensuring these records are portable and accessible at all times.”

6. Cutting red tape
Following in the footsteps of President Donald Trump, Gov. Stitt announced he will file an executive order Monday directing state agencies to cut two regulations for every new regulation.

Trump implemented a similar order when he first took office in 2016.