February 19, 2024
Nearly 240 bills passed through House and Senate committees this week as lawmakers work toward the Feb. 29 deadline when measures must be reported from committees of their house of origin or be considered dead for this session.
With FY 2025 revenue estimate up amid tax-cut talk, new budget process takes center stage
But first, the Oklahoma Legislature faces $40 million in FY 2024 supplemental requests
 
Despite hopes that today’s Oklahoma Board of Equalization meeting would put state leaders on the same page about revenue estimates and appropriation possibilities, not even a dozen pages of financial figures in 10-point font could form a clear fiscal picture in what could become another tumultuous legislative session.
 
While Thursday’s final revenue projections yielded a roughly $83 million higher appropriation authority than was estimated in December, legislative negotiations about Oklahoma’s FY 2025 budget remain in the starting blocks, with House and Senate leaders having different interpretations of how much new recurring revenue could be used for state investments and possible tax cuts.
 
“After the certification of these numbers, we’ll be around $337 million (additional recurring revenue over last year) or something like that,” Senate Appropriations and Budget Chairman Roger Thompson (R-Okemah) said immediately after Thursday’s meeting.
 
House Appropriations and Budget Chairman Kevin Wallace (R-Wellston) had a slightly different interpretation an hour later.
 
“The BOE number says it’s definitely more than $337 million,” Wallace said. “We’ve got to get on the same page, and we’ve got to get in the same room to do that, sooner rather than later.”
 
Thompson said he “totally agreed” that the chambers still have to find common figures from which to start their work.
 
Informed that the House and Senate have different interpretations of Thursday’s spreadsheets, Gov. Kevin Stitt furrowed his brow before laughing.
 
“Isn’t it funny we can’t even agree on math in this building?” Stitt asked.
 
Moments earlier, Stitt had chaired the Board of Equalization meeting, which breezed along until a series of questions from Attorney General Gentner Drummond about income tax estimates, comments from Oklahoma Tax Commission leaders and clarifications from Wallace about how costs related to school-choice tax credits will likely climb $50 million annually over the next two years.
 
Ultimately, Drummond cast the lone vote against certifying Thursday’s financial predictions.
 
“The attorney general’s vote is a reflection of his lack of confidence in certain revenue estimates that were provided,” said Phil Bacharach, Drummond’s communications director.
 
Wallace echoed some of those concerns, although he and other legislative leaders acknowledged that conservative revenue estimates are better than having predictions fall short.
 
“There are questions, doubts or concerns of the accuracy of the numbers for the BOE,” Wallace said. “For the last three to four sessions, the estimates seem to me to be very conservative on expected revenues. The word or term that was used by [the Tax Commission] the other day was, we’re giving you a ‘soft’ forecast. Historically, the revenue has been coming in way above the estimates when we’ve closed the books.”
 
‘Working together and agreeing on basic math’
 
With Thursday’s numerical uncertainty forecasting high drama ahead, the two chairmen of the chambers’ budget committees are expected to meet for the first time soon, but new dynamics and old battle scars underscore the complex conversations ahead.
 
Stitt, McCall and Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat are embarking on their sixth year as the decision-making triumvirate in the Oklahoma State Capitol. But while both McCall and Treat are serving their final year in the Legislature owing to term limits, they have articulated different goals and different preferences for the potential of tax cuts. Stitt, meanwhile, has pledged to sign any tax reduction sent to his desk.
 
Now, with today’s final revenue projections drawing questions about accuracy and higher appropriation authority than estimated in December, legislative negotiations about Oklahoma’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget can begin more earnestly between the House and Senate — to the extent the parties want to ramp up the proverbial treadmill.
 
For the 2024 regular session, senators have set forth on a new procedural direction featuring deeper financial dialogue that will be punctuated by a Senate resolution providing their negotiation position and, they claim, unprecedented transparency in a building often defined by opaque actions.
 
In doing so, however, House leaders have expressed frustration with a lack of early-session meetings between budget committee chairmen and overall uncertainty about how — and when — negotiations will be structured.
 
“If the Senate likes their new process, that’s great. In terms of transparency, it’s not transparent to the House because there’s not been any conversations between the Senate and the House about their process or what’s moving through their process,” House Speaker Charles McCall (R-Atoka) said Thursday morning. “There’s going to continue to be more of a process than just what’s taking place in the Senate.”
 
Stitt said he was “pretty pleased” with the fiscal picture painted at Thursday’s Board of Equalization meeting, but he acknowledged lingering concerns about how and when his office will be included in the House and Senate song and dance.
 
“Most Oklahomans out there just going about their daily business, they expect us to be working together and agreeing on basic math,” Stitt said. “Politics gets in the way sometimes because this chamber might want to do something different, or they’ve got a program they want. (…) But sure, we should be talking about these things. We should be having some honest conversations.”
 
Stitt pointed to Thursday’s revised revenue projections as further evidence that it’s time for tax cuts, either in the form of a 0.25 percent reduction in personal income tax rates — which carries a $250 million annualized cost — or the elimination of the state portion of sales tax on groceries, which carries a $400 million price tag.
 
“Our economy is just super strong. Oklahomans are resilient, our business community is great, unemployment is low, we’ve got a huge energy advantage here. Oklahoma is the place to be, and companies are realizing that all over the country,” Stitt said after Thursday’s meeting. “Fortunately, we’ve got continued revenue increase, and that’s a good thing. But I do think we need to be very cautious. We can’t just keep spending. We need to give tax cuts back to the taxpayer.”
 
‘I do remember 2014 when the bottom went out’
 
On the topic of tax cuts, McCall and Wallace have favored the income tax reduction, while Treat reiterated Thursday that he prefers the grocery tax elimination.
 
“With these numbers and the current savings we have, now is the time to cut the grocery tax. Cutting the grocery tax will give Oklahomans immediate relief every time they leave the grocery store and will be more beneficial than any other form of tax cut,” said Treat (R-OKC) in a statement.
 
Thompson has expressed even more caution than Treat about the risk of cutting taxes to the point of reviving revenue problems faced by legislators during the wretched sessions of 2016, 2017 and 2018, which culminated with a significant tax hike to fill budget holes and provide teacher pay raises.
 
Although Drummond was not in elected office a decade ago, he referenced lean times during Thursday’s meeting.
 
“I do remember 2014 when the bottom went out,” Drummond said.
 
In Oklahoma, the state constitution requires either public approval of revenue-raising measures or 75 percent support from both the House and Senate. While Treat, McCall, Wallace and Thompson all leaped through the revenue-raising obstacle course in 2017 and 2018, dozens of current legislators did not.
 
“They’ve come in where there’s a lot of money. They didn’t live through all those long days of trying to raise money with a 75 percent vote because we couldn’t pay our bills,” Thompson said days before Thursday’s Board of Equalization meeting. “They weren’t here whenever we were down to $2 in a savings account, so they didn’t have to make those hard decisions. They didn’t understand it.”
 
Thompson said the personal and corporate income tax cuts approved two years ago by lawmakers are only now being realized, and a pair of smaller tax cuts passed last year still haven’t reached their maximum impact.
 
Thompson said the Senate’s new budget process will be “transformational,” with all members and the public being able to see the upper chamber’s appropriation proposals and consider long-term impacts.
 
“I believe this process is bigger than any one person, and we’ve got our members more engaged in the budget than they have been since I’ve been here. [Each] subcommittee knows their numbers. They know what their liabilities are going to be behind the numbers, and they’re having to make tough choices,” Thompson said.
 
Wallace, however, has expressed confusion over the idea that he and Thompson won’t begin face-to-face negotiations until March at the earliest.
 
“I’m not frustrated. I just keep saying the House is going to continue to run the budget process the way it’s always been done, open and transparent,” Wallace said. “Sometimes there is a technique in sports where, if you think you’re ahead you try to run the clock out. I will say the Senate has used that before thinking that if they stall until the very end people will cave to their position. But that’s not the best thing for the state of Oklahoma, and it’s not going to happen.”
 
Thompson said he intends to meet with Wallace soon to find commonality in the starting numbers. He also said Senate subcommittee chairpersons have been encouraged to converse — not negotiate — with their House counterparts about major policy proposals that carry a price tag.
 
“The illustration that I read a while back that I’m using is, ‘You don’t learn to drive a car by sitting in the parking lot,’” Thompson said. “So we’re going to drive this car, and there are going to be some bumps in the road, and hopefully there are no major accidents. But we are going to learn to drive as we go public with the budget and open discussions everywhere.”
 
Wallace said he’s ready to put his truck into gear.
 
“It feels a lot later in session than the fourth day of the second week,” Wallace said. “There’s a lot of work going on. I mean, I’ve been extremely busy — multiple meetings on major policy issues and not a moment’s break.”
Senate Republican Caucus elects McCortney pro tempore-designate
Senate Majority Floor Leader Greg McCortney was elected the 60th Legislature’s pro tempore-designate during the Senate Republican Caucus’ meeting Monday.
 
Republicans hold a 40 to 8 advantage over Democrats in the Senate. They would need to lose 15 seats in this year’s election cycle to no longer have a majority in the chamber. That means the Republican Caucus’ nominee for the post essentially is assured election in January 2025 when the 60th Legislature begins.
 
McCortney defeated Sen. David Bullard, D-Durant, and Sen. Casey Murdock, R-Felt, in the race for the seat.
 
Treat terms out in November. He was elected in a special election in 2011 to represent Senate District 47 and has been the leader of the Senate since 2019. Treat was reelected Senate president pro tempore in 2021 and 2023.
 
Treat appointed McCortney to the Senate majority floor leader’s post in October 2021 after then-floor leader Kim David began her campaign for the Corporation Commission. As majority floor leader, the second highest post in the Senate, McCortney serves as an ex-officio member of all committees along with Treat.
 
McCortney was elected to the Senate in 2016. He is term limited in 2028. That means he could serve up to two terms as pro tempore.
 
McCortney was a city councilman in Ada and served two terms as mayor.
Erick Harris elected to Edmond’s House District 39 seat
Republican Erick Harris overcame two other opponents Tuesday to win the House District 39 contest in Edmond, unofficial election reports show. Harris’ win keeps the House of Representatives’ Republican Caucus at 81. Democrats currently have 20 seats.
 
Unofficial election results for Oklahoma House District 39 seat
 
  • Erick Harris, Republican: 2,507 (50.3%)
  • Regan Raff, Democrat: 2,246 (45.13%)
  • Richard Prawdzienski, Libertarian: 224 votes (4.5%)
 
With the special general election falling on Feb. 13, the Oklahoma Legislature is in its second week of regular session. Harris will participate in the 2024 session and is expected to be sworn in quickly after results are certified by the State Election Board. He replaces Rep. Ryan Martinez, who resigned in September. Harris will have to run again for a full term in November, should they seek re-election.
 
Harris is the vice president for legal services at United Petroleum Transports. He served as an assistant attorney general from 2014 to 2016. Harris’s campaign website describes him as pro-life and a member of the National Rifle Association. It also states that he “will stand strongly against Joe Biden’s failed policies” and “rejects attempts to redefine gender.
In spite of Gov. Stitt’s call for ‘flat’ budgets, education leaders are seeking more money
Leaders of state agencies connected with education spent more than two hours defending their budget requests to the Oklahoma Senate’s education budget subcommittee on Wednesday and explaining why they’d asked for funding increases when Gov. Kevin Stitt has asked for flat spending.
 
The hearing was held as part of the Senate’s new budget transparency initiative announced earlier this year by Senate President Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City. Executives of state agencies with educational missions appeared, including state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters, state higher education Chancellor Allison Garrett and CareerTech director Brent Haken.
 
As part of their testimony, all agency heads were asked two questions by the subcommittee chair, Sen. Adam Pugh — how much control did the governor have over selecting members of their agency’s governing board (the governor appoints all or a majority of them) and if they wanted to stick to their previously submitted budget requests or to resubmit those requests to abide by Stitt’s call for flat agency budgets.
 
Only one agency director — Dan Whitmarsh, the secretary of the Commissioners of the Land Office — opted for the latter option. Whitmarsh said there are “still some inefficiencies” in the office and “we just want to make sure we’re running our agency as efficiently as we can.”
 
One other agency, the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, already had submitted a budget proposal for less state funding than it received last year. All of the others had asked for increases of various levels.
 
“You are seeing the Senate’s new, transparent budget plan in action,” Pugh said. “I have been empowered in my chairmanship to run these meetings as I see fit, and I am committed to doing these meetings in a public forum. As you saw today, we asked tough questions and want everything to be done in the open.”
 
Budget requests were submitted months ago, before Stitt’s call for flat budgets
 
The agencies submitted their budget requests months ago — long before Stitt’s flat-budget call — and in the weeks before the current legislative session began, presented those requests and answered questions from lawmakers in committee meetings. During those presentations before the Senate education budget subcommittee, Pugh, R-Edmond, warned agency leaders they’d likely be called back to answer further questions. He made good on that promise Wednesday.
 
Under the Senate’s new budget process, subcommittees will do the heavy lifting on setting that body’s budget priorities. Sen. Roger Thompson, R-Okemah, the Senate’s budget chairman, will give each subcommittee chairman a percentage of revenue to allocate. He said Thompson will set the percentage for each area of state government and senators will then vote in open meetings on what the budget for their agencies should look like.
 
Once the agency hearings with subcommittees are complete, Pugh will address the full Senate Appropriations Committee to advocate for the education budget subcommittee’s priorities. Pugh said Wednesday’s meeting was another step in the process.
 
“Government operates best when we can show where our priorities are, while agency leaders explain exactly where tax dollars are being spent,” Pugh said. “As a fiscal conservative, I believe Oklahomans need to know where and how taxpayer dollars are being spent.”
 
With one exception, no agencies make major changes to budget proposals during hearing
 
On Wednesday, other than the Commissioners of the Land Office, no agency leader had any substantive changes to their proposed budgets. Walters, Garrett and Haken — representing the three most prominent agencies ― received the most questions, particularly from Sen. Mary Boren, D-Norman, who continually asked agency heads if their budget requests represented the growth of government or an investment to serve the needs of Oklahomans.
 
Haken, who’s asked for a 26 percent funding increase for the next fiscal year, said CareerTech’s enrollment has grown by 9.5 percent this year, or about 3,000 students. But the agency still has a waiting list of about 7,400 people wanting to enroll. He said Stitt asked CareerTech to develop “a clear plan for growth” and that demand for the agency’s services is growing “more rapidly than we’ve ever seen in history.”
 
Garrett’s agency, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, asked for a 12.2 percent funding increase to $1.126 billion for the upcoming fiscal year. A priority for state regents is addressing what they say is a $1.5 billion backlog of deferred maintenance needs on the campuses of Oklahoma’s 25 state colleges and universities. They’ve asked for $200 million for those needs alone this year and hope the Legislature will make yearly allocations in the near future, as well as for campus security and cybersecurity, Garrett said.
 
State Superintendent Ryan Walters speaks to the media in January at the Oklahoma Capitol.
Walters, as he has in previous budget hearings, said growing the state’s teacher bonus program — which has had issues in its initial rollout — remains a priority, as well as the expansion of a tutoring program across the state. He believes the tutoring program will help address student learning losses stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, when schools across the state were forced into virtual learning for long stretches.
 
In a statement issued after the meeting, Boren noted the CareerTech waiting list as well as testimony by Jennifer McGrail, the executive director of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, known as OCAST.
 
“Our state continues to actively recruit new businesses, employees, and their families to relocate to Oklahoma,” she said. “We’re also working to address workforce shortages by increasing the numbers of higher education and CareerTech graduates, and spurring entrepreneurship in STEM businesses. We need more skilled workers, and yet CareerTech has 7,399 on the waiting list. This is an unmet demand that requires additional investment. Last year, OCAST was only able to fund 20 of 60 grant requests to grow innovative STEM businesses in Oklahoma. That’s 40 missed opportunities for innovation, job development and business growth.
 
“Flat budgets mean we are defunding growth. A business facing an uptick in demand would seize that opportunity by investing more, knowing that investment would pay dividends for years to come. More residents and more students result in increased demand, which is in our state’s best interest to meet. Funding education is not growing government – we’re growing Oklahomans, helping citizens and our state become more prosperous.” 
As Gov. Stitt focuses on tax cuts, Oklahoma faces $25 billion in overdue infrastructure repairs
At Shipley Hall at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College in Miami, employees can’t properly heat and cool the building.
 
At the University of Oklahoma, delayed maintenance on the school’s historic Bizzell Memorial Library already has reached the $11 million price range.
 
In Hominy the failing Dick Conner Correctional Center is at capacity and plagued with maintenance backlogs, mechanical problems and persistent violence. A new prison could cost $1 billion or more to house the state’s increasing inmate population.
 
The millions, and billions, add up.
 
Across the state, records at just a handful of state agencies surveyed by The Oklahoman show more than $25 billion is needed to pay for deferred maintenance and failing infrastructure needs. The list includes highways, parks, prisons and colleges ― and that’s just enough to bring those facilities up to current standards.
 
As Gov. Kevin Stitt and House Speaker Charles McCall are focused on cutting taxes during the current legislative session, including the personal income tax, a growing list of the state’s crumbling and neglected infrastructure has received barely a mention.
 
An investigation by The Oklahoman shows the poor condition of the state’s infrastructure goes back years and sometimes decades. Records show that lawmakers have been warned repeatedly about the consequences if they don’t act. The problems are popping up all over Oklahoma, especially in the state’s smaller towns and cities. 
 
In rural Oklahoma there are 1,100 at-risk bridges that need about $12 billion in repairs.
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Shipley Hall, built in 1921, is not only the oldest building at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College, it is the most utilized class space on campus. College officials have known for years the building’s heating and cooling system is outdated, inefficient and in need of replacement. 
 
NEO President Kyle Stafford estimates updating the building, the college’s top deferred-maintenance priority, will cost about $4.6 million. But the school doesn’t have the money to make the repairs.
 
And with the Legislature’s focus on tax cuts this year, it’s unlikely the college will see relief coming its way.
 
Gov. Kevin Stitt emphasized cutting taxes in his 2024 State of the State address on Feb. 5.
The governor has pushed for a .25% reduction in the state’s personal income tax since last fall. He’s called the Legislature into a special session three times to address tax cuts and, while the House of Representatives has been receptive, the Senate has been cooler to the idea.
 
After Stitt called lawmakers into their third special session in January, Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat said he wanted to see the mid-February report from the Oklahoma State Board of Equalization before making a decision on tax cuts. Treat has repeated that, saying the Senate would “hold its fire” until they had the board’s numbers, but added that the Senate supported continued investments in education.
 
“Chairman (Adam) Pugh (R-Edmond) has talked a lot about deferred maintenance around the state and using some one-time money to fix that,” Treat said. “We will balance (infrastructure) needs through the session. We do have money in one-time cash, carryover from 2022 and 2021. We’ll look at those as they come up.”
 
Even with additional revenue, the state’s infrastructure has, over the past decade, continued to deteriorate. Records show Oklahoma colleges and universities have struggled to maintain aging buildings across the state system’s 25 institutions.
 
NEO is a junior college with 25 buildings, 15 of which were built between 1952 and 1968.“When you have the majority of your buildings built that many years ago, you have a lot of deferred maintenance needs,” said Stafford, the college’s president. “You’re talking classrooms and you’re also talking campus housing that are the major needs.”
 
The small campus, with 1,800 students, has “easily north of $40 million” in deferred maintenance needs, Stafford said, but lacks the resources to address many of those issues.
 
The story is similar at other institutions. Until just a few years ago, OU didn’t have a dedicated line item in its budget for deferred maintenance.
 
“That budget, there had been a ‘zero’ number for deferred maintenance,” OU President Joseph Harroz said. “It was just kind of address crises as they happen.”With a push from OU regent Anita Holloway, the university developed a strategic plan four years ago under which $5 million would be added to the budget each year for deferred maintenance.
 
“We had one year where we had to hold back $2 million from that plan; otherwise, we’ve stuck to it,” Harroz said. “So we’re at $17 (million) heading to $22 million heading toward that $25 million annual goal.”
 
That budget will allow OU to spend $11 million on long-term deferred maintenance issues in historic Bizzell Library on its Norman campus, among other projects. The university said in a statement it has identified $500 million of deferred maintenance that would “sustain the long-term vitality of our campus over the next 20 years.”
 
In Stillwater, Oklahoma State University has about $450 million in deferred maintenance needs “related to educational and general components at its Stillwater campus.”
 
The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education recently told lawmakers the state system has deferred maintenance needs of nearly $1.5 billion, noting “our public college and university campuses are among the state’s largest real estate assets.” State regents have asked the Legislature for $200 million this year to begin addressing those needs.
 
‘Economic sugar high is coming to an end’
 
While lawmakers are quick to acknowledge the state’s deferred maintenance and infrastructure needs, those needs have often taken a back seat in the face of the more politically popular desire for tax cuts.
 
As the back-and-forth between the governor’s office and lawmakers continues, Stitt has doubled down, repeating his call for tax cuts in his state of the state speech. Lawmakers will have until 5 p.m. May 31 to address the issues.
 
“Last year, I called on the Legislature to cut the personal income tax from 4.75% to 3.99%. I’ve called three special sessions to try and give Oklahomans a pay raise,” Stitt said. “Instead, our recurring expenses grew last year by over $1.14 billion dollars. And that doesn’t include one-time expenses or ARPA funding. With record savings and surpluses, I’m asking, ‘if not now, when?’”
 
Shiloh Kantz, director of the Oklahoma Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank, believes state officials will regret cutting taxes when the benefit of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) pandemic relief funding comes to an end. 
 
“ARPA helped us float through the worst of the pandemic years, but also gave lawmakers an artificial sense of security with state revenues,” Kantz said. “The economic sugar high is coming to an end, and we really do need to think about what our future looks like moving forward.” 
 
Kantz said the state needs to start long-range planning and budgeting a reserve of 15% of prior-year spending. Current economic reserves might carry the state through an economic downturn, Kantz said, but they won’t make it any easier to address capital needs. 
 
“We’re no stranger to hard times,” Katz said. “We’ve lived through the Dust Bowl, as well as the boom-and-bust cycle of the petroleum industry. The decade prior to the pandemic was the worst for our state and our fellow Oklahomans. We don’t want to go back to those days and we don’t have to.” 
 
Roads and bridges remain dangerous without more funding
 
A big chunk of the infrastructure backlog consists of roads and bridges, many of which are located in rural areas and small towns across Oklahoma. 
 
At a legislative study session last fall, Transportation Secretary Tim Gatz reported his agency would need to spend $20 billion to address repair and safety issues on its 12,300 miles of state roads. 
 
“The challenge we have is we have 1,100 at-risk bridges we will need to invest in and take care of,” Gatz said. “It’s $12 billion of the $20 billion backlog.” 
 
The state also faces a backlog of two-lane highways that do not have shoulder lanes on either side. The Department of Transportation’s eight-year plan includes 3,800 miles of roadway improvements, including more than 1,100 miles of safety improvements on two-lane highways with deficient or no shoulders. 
 
State Highway 66 is shown west of Anderson Road in Arcadia. The two-lane road has no shoulders for vehicle pull-offs or emergencies. A traffic map from the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments shows the road carries an average of 7.400 vehicles a day.
That leaves 3,900 miles of highways with deficient or no shoulders unfunded and still posing a serious risk for drivers who have no place to pull over in case of breakdowns or other emergencies. 
 
“The highest rate of injury and fatality accidents occur on roads without shoulders,” Gatz said. 
 
Legislative study: ‘We will reduce the number of parks’
 
Along with higher education and transportation, Oklahoma’s tourism and recreation system is facing big increases in upkeep costs.
 
Records show the state’s parks system, over the last decade, shed 13 properties, citing a lack of attendance and revenue generation. A legislative study, published in 2020, found “(park) degradation has occurred over decades and will most likely require at least a decade of proper funding and maintenance to overcome.”
 
Robbers Cave State Park in southeast Oklahoma offers dramatic views and an array of campgrounds, lodges, equestrian camp, ATV trails and yurts. Almost 1 million people visited the park in 2021.
“Oklahoma must face the reality that the infrastructure in and improvements to these parks has seriously degraded over the last few decades,” the report from the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency said.
 
The report concluded the diminished state of Oklahoma’s state parks generally results from a lack of proper maintenance.
 
“Mathematically speaking, we have to shrink the number of assets to increase the funding per asset, which means we cannot afford to grow,” the study’s authors wrote. “If faced with the choice of having the entire system suffer from too little funding or reducing the number of parks, we will reduce the number of parks.”
 
Lawmakers in 2020 authorized a $48.6 million bond issue for park capital improvements. But that amount did not address the full backlog. Without a “significant” increase in funding, the department warned, some parks “will have to be abandoned with no replacement.”
 
The state’s $1 billion in tourism assets require an annual reinvestment of about $40 million in maintenance and repair costs. In addition, the state’s park system manages five dams for flood control and recreational lakes. The estimated replacement costs for those dams is more than $12 million.
 
Allbaugh: State’s prison facilities are ‘pitiful’
 
A few years back, then-Department of Corrections Chief Joe M. Allbaugh pushed for construction of new prisons when he oversaw the state corrections system from 2016 to 2019. Allbaugh visited each of the state’s prisons multiple times, often without advance warning. Then, and now, they were deemed to be dangerous and challenging to staff.
 
“They are all pitiful facilities,” Allbaugh said in a recent interview. “Just think about the maintenance on these old facilities that we have right now. A significant amount of the DOC budget is spent just on plugging holes, patching the roof and keeping them in a condition they can still be run.” 
 
The state’s prison system remains close to capacity despite reforms on sentencing in recent years. The only two actually built by Oklahoma for use as prisons, Granite and the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, date from shortly after statehood. Multiple lock-downs have taken place in recent years due to stabbings, rapes and homicides.
 
Large portions of prison space were closed as conditions worsened, including the original cells built at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary and all of the James Lilly and William S. Key Correctional Centers. Sixteen of the state’s 22 facilities are 95% or more filled. Prisons officials report Dick Conner Correctional Center in Hominy, which Allbaugh described as one of the worst in the state, is 100% occupied.
 
Oklahoma’s prison population continues to increase. The Bureau of Prisons reported that as of Dec. 31, 2022, Oklahoma incarcerated 22,745 people, a 2.3% increase from December 2021. Oklahoma had the country’s fourth-highest incarceration rate in 2022, trailing only behind Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas.
 
A bond issue passed by lawmakers in 2019 provided $116.5 million to address current repair needs. Another $800 million is needed, and that figure does not include Allbaugh’s call for new, efficient prison space, which he says is urgently needed at a time when prison and jail staffing nationwide is at a crisis point.
 
“I tried to talk a couple of governors into building a couple of facilities, more centralized,” Allbaugh said. “A lot of these facilities are scattered across the state. And it’s very hard to fill the demand on the correctional officers’ side. I understand why it was done that way, the political considerations.” 
 
Other states have constructed new facilities which allow for better supervision and offer health and mental health services. In Indiana, the state’s new prison will include separate mental health housing, space for counseling, education and job training ― all functions Allbaugh said are needed in Oklahoma but that are currently lacking due to aging infrastructure and space constraints. 
 
“We should be preparing inmates to return to society with a trade, education, and the ability to read and write,” Allbaugh said. “People get released and they’re frustrated. They can’t find a job, and then they go back to their old life.” 
 
During his tenure as Corrections Department chief, Allbaugh asked lawmakers to provide $813 million for building new prison space. That figure is likely to be much higher six years later due to inflation. Indiana is spending $1.2 billion for its new prison that will result in increased capacity with less staffing. 
 
“Sooner or later, you’re going to have to build new facilities,” Allbaugh said. “Later it will cost you a lot more money.” 
Senate Education Committee discusses prohibiting cell phones on school campuses
The Senate Education Committee was supposed to discuss a Chair Adam Pugh’s proposal for an incentive program for school districts to adopt phone-free campus policies. Instead, committee members discussed whether prohibiting cell phones might be the better approach.

“We could just ban cell phones. We may just get to that,” Pugh, R-Edmond, said when he introduced SB1314  . The bill requires the State Department of Education to create an incentive program for school districts that adopt phone-free campus policies. The bill permits schools districts’ boards of education that adopt a phone-free campus policy that prohibits the use of cell phones by students while on the campus to submit its policy to the State Department of Education, beginning with the 2024-2025 school year. It establishes midyear adjustments in State Aid amounts for schools that adopt the policy. It makes school districts submit a policy to unannounced visits by the State Department of Education’s regional accreditation officers to ensure compliance with the policy. It requires a school district found to be in noncompliance with its policy to repay the State Department of Education the incentive amounts.

“I’m ready to ban cell phones in schools,” said Sen. Julie Daniels, R-Bartlesville. “I don’t believe we need to use tax dollars to incentivize that.” She added, “I’m beyond incentivizing this...I’m just ready to do it.”

Sen. Dave Rader, R-Tulsa, said he, too, was ready to move forward with a ban on cell phones in public schools. “I don’t know why we need to incentivize,” he said.

Rader said during a school tour he saw students staring at their phones and not involved in the lessons or with one another. At bus stops, he said, children stared at their phones and did not talk to one another.

“There are ways to communicate,” Rader said, “that don’t have to be instant.”

Rader concluded his debate by saying, “This is good for our schools. This is good for our students. This is where we should be headed.”

Sen. Kristen Thompson, R-Edmond, said there is a clear correlation between smart phone use and decreased educational attainment, as well as a decline in social skills.

Sen. Micheal Bergstrom, R-Adair said he would vote no because he, too, did not believe schools should be incented to prohibit phones. Sen. Dusty Deevers, R-Elgin, also said he would vote no because the state should not incent what should be a best practice in schools.
Deevers also argued some decision rise above the local level and are universal. This, he said, was one of those issues. “It’s an assertion of wise oversight and best practice.”

Sen. Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, said he intended to vote no, but changed his mind to keep the bill alive. Then, he said, a floor amendment could be adopted that kept only the language that required districts to adopt cell phone free policies.

Vice Chair Ally Seifried, R-Claremore, said she has been surprised to hear from the high school students who serve as pages and have thanked her for highlighting the issue of cell phones on school campuses. Seifried is the author of SB1321, which requires the State Board of Education to establish a three-year pilot program to provide grants to public middle schools and high schools to incentivize phone-free spaces for student learning. The bill received a do pass recommendation from the committee February 6. It is double assigned to the Senate Appropriations Committee and is awaiting consideration in that committee.

“They recognize things are not right,” said Seifried, “and that this is not how it is supposed to be, that you are supposed to look one another in they eye when you communicate. And they need our help.”

“I don’t know how to solve this problem,” said Pugh. “I mean, really, legitimately, my initial reaction was just ban those fill in the blanks. And maybe that’s where we get to.”

Pugh said the issue was complicated by the fact that some curriculum is being made available via cell phones.

“We need to realize that young people communicate differently than we did,” Pugh said, noting he had to ask his future wife out on a date face-to-face rather than by text.

“I think you are convincing me it is within the purview of this committee to say, ‘You just can’t have it in the classroom or on a school campus.’ And we are going to have that conversation,” Pugh said.

Pugh said the bill was discussed by the Senate’s pages during the first week of the session during their mock legislature. “And they passed it, because young people want this stuff out of their lives. They just don’t know how to do it.”

Pugh also noted the role cell phones had played Monday when the Senate Republican Caucus met to elect its pro tempore designate. “This week, frankly, the Senate Republican Caucus was under a lot of pressure,” he said. “The vast majority of the pressure was not face to face communication where we got to actually talk face to face with constituents and explain to them what was happening in this building. It was disgusting, verbal attacks, using social media and text messaging, talking about multiple individuals in our caucus that I guarantee you 99.9 percent of them never met face to face.

“And that is adults modeling disgusting behavior to kids. So, we have to be better and model that to young people,” Pugh said.

When discussing the bill, Rader questioned the bill’s $181 million fiscal impact. “That makes no sense to me,” he said.

Pugh explained the impact was based on the number of schools sites, their sizes and providing grants in specific amounts based on those factors.

Sen. Carri Hicks, D-Oklahoma City, asked about the clawback provision for non-compliance. Pugh said the clawback provision was not intended to be punitive, but it would require the funds to be withdrawn if a district or site deliberately did not comply with the program’s provisions.

An amendment to the bill makes it subject to the availability of funding. The bill received a do pass as amended recommendation with its title stricken. The bill is double assigned to the Senate Appropriations Committee, where it can next be heard.

SB1321 also requires a public school district seeking a grant to establish a phone-free space in a middle school or high school site to apply to the State Board of Education in the manner and on a form prescribed by the board. The bill requires the board to select nine recipients from the applications submitted based on three different school sizes according to average daily membership. It requires the grants to be used to purchase devices or equipment in which students enrolled in a grant recipient school site can store their cell phones during the school day. It permits the State Board of Education, in conjunction with the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, to negotiate and enter into a contract with a vendor to offer a state rate price to grant recipient school sites. It requires school sites awarded grants to adopt a policy regarding emergency use of cell phones by students during the school day. It requires grant recipient school sites, upon completion of the pilot program to submit a report electronically to the State Board of Education. The bill establishes requirements for the report. The bill requires the State of Education to compile the information provided by the recipient schools and to submit it electronically to the Senate president pro tempore, the House speaker and the governor.
Bill increasing distance between schools, jails faces pushback amid Oklahoma County site search
Some Oklahoma County leaders and advocates are speaking out against a bill that would double the minimum distance between correctional facilities and schools, arguing it would rule out downtown Oklahoma City as a potential site for a future county jail.
 
Rep. Jason Lowe, D-Oklahoma City, said the current downtown location of the Oklahoma County jail is ideal for a jail rebuild because of its proximity to courts, bus stops and rehabilitative services.
 
But House Bill 3758 would eliminate the downtown site as an option for the impending new jail, Lowe said during a press conference Wednesday.
 
The bill from Rep. Josh Cantrell, R-Kingston, would increase the mandatory minimum distance from 1,000 feet to 2,000 feet between a school and any location where inmates are housed. It advanced from a committee vote to the House floor this week.
 
The Oklahoma County jail falls within 2,000 feet of John Rex Charter Elementary and Emerson North High School.
 
County voters approved a $260 million bond issue in 2022 to replace the aging, troubled facility, whose 33-year history is pockmarked with inmate escapes, hostage situations, poor living conditions and deaths.
 
Lowe suggested commercial interests are behind the bill because of the potential value the downtown jail property might have if redeveloped.
 
Cantrell said opponents of the bill are intentionally misrepresenting the intent of his legislation.
 
“Creating a buffer zone between new correctional facilities and schools can reduce the likelihood of recently released individuals walking around our children’s schools and playgrounds,” Cantrell said in a statement. “It can also significantly lessen the chance of lockdowns interrupting classes when someone escapes from jail.”
 
The Oklahoma County Board of County Commissioners initially chose a site near the Will Rogers World Airport, but the Federal Aviation Administration nixed the idea.
 
Now, the county commissioners are eying an 89-acre property at 1901 SE Grand Blvd. Leaders of nearby school districts, Crooked Oak and Midwest City-Del City, have opposed the idea.
 
Residents of the neighboring Del City don’t want a jail built there, either, said city Councilperson Claudia Browne.
 
Released inmates won’t have the same access to nearby public services and bus stops that they would have in downtown Oklahoma City, she said. Instead, the area is filled with public parks, neighborhoods and schools that sit just outside the 2,000-foot radius HB 3758 would require.
 
“This is a heavier hand trying to push down a small, little municipality that doesn’t want a jail in their backyard,” Browne said.
Oklahoma bill would restrict teenagers’ access to Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram
A state House panel on Tuesday unanimously advanced legislation that would restrict teenagers’ access to major social media platforms.
 
The House Government Modernization and Technology Committee passed House Bill 3914 that would prevent companies such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and X — formerly known as Twitter — from allowing minors under age 16 to have an account.
 
Children ages 16 or 17 could create an account only if they had consent from a parent or legal guardian. Companies that violate the law could be fined $2,500 for each violation.
 
Rep. Chad Caldwell, R-Enid, the bill’s author, said similar legislation has passed in Ohio, Utah, Arkansas and Louisiana while Congress has looked at addressing the issue on the federal level. Citing First Amendment issues, federal judges in Arkansas and Ohio have blocked the laws.
 
Social media is hurting children’s mental health, Caldwell said, citing statistics about increased anxiety, depression and rates of self-harm among teenage girls.
 
“There’s no question that social media has led to some pretty damaging effects to our kids,” said Caldwell, a father of three. He also expressed concerns about pedophiles contacting children through social media.
 
The legislation would apply to companies that earn more than $100 million in annual gross revenue. Startups and smaller social media companies may not have the tools to verify an account holder’s age, Caldwell said.
 
Rep. Melissa Provenzano, D-Tulsa, expressed concerns about social media companies asking children to upload a copy of a driver’s license or other government-issued ID to verify their age.
 
Caldwell said the bill will evolve as it moves through the legislative process. He said the bill wouldn’t apply to TikTok or online gaming platforms, but he’s open to changing that so long as the measure doesn’t become overly broad or too restrictive.
 
Caldwell said his bill is no different than when lawmakers set age limits for purchasing alcohol and tobacco products.
 
“Every person parents their kids differently, and I’m not trying to come in between that,” he said.
 
Many large social media companies already impose some age restrictions. Facebook, X, Instagram and Snapchat all require their account holders to be 13 years of age or older.
 
The bill passed 11-0 with bipartisan support. It now advances to the full House.
CTE Priority Measures
OkACTE tracks and monitors legislative bills. These bills can vary from CareerTech education policy, common education policy, education funding, teacher pay raise, tax credits, licensing, Ad Valorem, retirement, state employee pay raise, guns, economic development and much more.

Of these bills, we've compiled a listing of CTE Priority Measures linked below.

Visit oklegislature.gov to view entire text of the measures.