Annual Meeting Recap + Legislative Wrap-Up

Annual Meeting Recap

The State Chamber of Oklahoma elected a new Chairman and welcomed several new members to the Board of Directors at its annual meeting this week at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

Steve Hahn, President of AT&T Mid States, was unanimously elected to serve as the 2019-2020 Chairman. Mark Funke, outgoing Chairman of the Board, presented Hahn with the chairman’s gavel.

“I am very excited that Steve will lead our efforts at the State Chamber,” said Fred Morgan, President and CEO of the State Chamber of Oklahoma. “We spent the 2019 legislative session laying a solid foundation for our members and businesses in Oklahoma. Steve is exactly the leader we need to build upon that foundation.”

Each year, the State Chamber gives the Champion of Free Enterprise awards to members who have demonstrated extraordinary commitment to advancing Oklahoma’s business climate and competitiveness. The Chairman’s Award recipient was Kevin Lassahn, Vice President and General Manager, Valero Ardmore Refinery. The Outstanding Company Award was given to Hobby Lobby, and the Moore Chamber of Commerce was honored as the Local Partner of the Year.

Rick Grundman, Vice President of Government Affairs & Community Relations with ONE Gas, Inc., received the OK2030 Leadership Award for his commitment to OK2030 and the business community’s efforts by serving as co-chair of the OK2030 Advisory Council.

In addition, members of the State Chamber also elected the following new members to serve on the 2019-2020 Board of Directors:

William Brown, Senior Vice President of Boeing Programs, Tulsa & Wichita, Kan.
Patti Davis, President, Oklahoma Hospital Association, Oklahoma City
Frank Franzese, President of IT, Transport & Telecom, Dobson Technologies, Oklahoma City
Chad Nance, Vice President of Operations, Nance Precast Concrete Products, Piedmont, Okla.
Patti Neuhold, President Select, University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, Okla.
Lisa Powell, Executive Director, Enid Regional Development Alliance, Enid, Okla.

Other new members to the board include:

Byron Bighorse, CEO, Osage Casinos, Tulsa
Robert L. Bush, Interim President & CEO, CommunityCare HMO, Inc., Tulsa
Peter Salatich, Regional Director Government Affairs, Anheuser-Busch Companies, Oklahoma City
Becky Samples, Vice President Insurance Marketing & Communications, Oklahoma Farm Bureau Insurance, Oklahoma City
R. Scott Vaughn, President & CEO, Global Health, Inc., Tulsa
Daniel Wyatt, Interim President & CEO, Enviro Systems, Inc., Seminole, Okla.

Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce & Workforce Development, Sean Kouplen, also joined the board as an ex-officio member.

The State Chamber’s annual meeting was held before a record-breaking crowd and featured a keynote address from Kim Lear, a researcher at the forefront of cutting-edge studies to uncover cultural shifts that revolutionize how organizations engage employees and consumers.

2019 Legislative Wrap-Up

As we wrote in The Journal Record, this legislation session was one of the most positive and productive in the books. We've listed the highlights below, but you can download our full wrap-up here.

Return on Investment

BLOCKED $3 BILLION IN NEW TAXES

We defeated nearly 20 bills that would have raised taxes in Oklahoma to the tune of $3 billion. These bills included eliminating exemptions, a severance tax on aggregates, and combined corporate reporting.

PREVENTED COSTLY MANDATES ON BUSINESS

We blocked bills that allowed municipalities to set their own minimum wage for Oklahoma’s 901,000 hourly paid workers. We stopped legislation that allowed for licensure of health care facilities that charge higher prices for routine care and permitted the use of out-of-network providers. In addition, we blocked bills that forced businesses to offer paid family leave for roughly 1.3 million private Oklahoma employees and removed the pre-emption that allows the Legislature to set the state’s minimum wage.

PROTECTED SUCCESSFUL PROGRAMS AND REFORMS

We suppressed bills taxing capital gains. We also eliminated legislation that reduced the years of experience requirements within the new teacher licensure career ladder certificates and abolished the state’s annual school site report cards for all 1,802 public schools in Oklahoma.

Stopping Job Killers

As the voice for Oklahoma businesses, the State Chamber works thousands of bills each year that impact Oklahoma companies. Click here for a list of the job-killing bills we helped defeat this year.