OKLAHOMA CITY – School vouchers. Teacher pay. A fundamental discussion about what to do with excess revenue.
Tax cuts. Abortion.
The state’s savings account.
The first session of the 59th Oklahoma Legislature begins early next year and state lawmakers will have many issues to address before the end of the session in May. Many of those issues will be echoes from last year’s session.
The 2022 session saw a raft of legislation addressing social issues, intense debates over tribal sovereignty, an ongoing effort to change tax policy and a surprisingly strong Oklahoma economy.
And, by the end of the session, Republican lawmakers and Gov. Kevin Stitt weren’t getting along that well.
November’s election changed that.
Stitt’s massive win across the state – along with that of his education secretary Ryan Walters – showed that both the governor and Walters will have a major role to play in policy discussions, said Oklahoma City political consultant Pat McFerron.
The Stitt-Walters partnership could prove powerful.
“I think they will work well together,” McFerron said. “It’s hard to look at the election results and think differently.”
The partnership could lead to a renewed push for a voucher program and other educational policy changes. Voucher programs, he said, are probably more popular in rural parts of the state than in urban areas.
“There are a lot of folks there that wish their local church could start a school and do some things,” he said. “I also think that kids are moving to the cities because they have other options. They don’t want their kids or their grandkids in those rural schools.”
In addition to school policy, McFerron said he expects lawmakers to “have a fundamental discussion about tax cuts, spending and the state’s savings account.”
“I think it’s going to be a battle,” McFerron said.
Progressives say they hope lawmakers will do more to help the average Oklahoman. A web posting by the Oklahoma Policy Institute – a left-leaning think tank – urged lawmakers to increase the state’s minimum wage “to reflect the actual cost that Oklahomans face just to survive.”
Instead of focusing on cultural war issues, the organization said, lawmakers should reexamine issues such as the affordability of childcare for working families by improving tax cuts.
For his part, McFerron believes that lawmakers haven’t heard the last of policy debates about divisive issues like critical race theory. “I don’t think the CRT battles are completely over, depending on how you define those,” he said.
Expect debates on other social issues, such as abortion, too.
While a majority of the nation saw a major push back against lawmakers who supported strong anti-abortion legislation, some change could be on the horizon in Oklahoma. During the one debate between Stitt and his Democratic opponent Joy Hofmeister, Stitt said he would sign legislation that provided abortion exceptions in the cases, of rape and incest.
At the same time progressives and moderates raised concerns that Oklahoma’s strong anti-abortion law could also lead to legislation that outlawed birth control. McFerron said he would not be surprised to see some Republicans move to address that issue by passing legislation that protected birth control.
“To me, this is one of the big issues that Republican have,” McFerron said. “Where are they going to be on this issue? I think you might see some other Republicans trying to pass some different protections. I think you might see some Republicans take proactive measures to make sure that (a birth control ban) doesn’t happen.”
With tribal sovereignty and the debate over the U.S. Supreme Court’s McGirt decision continuing, McFerron said the November election put Stitt in a much stronger political position. And though the state’s five largest tribes jointly endorsed Stitt’s opponent, McFerron said he expects a more productive relationship between tribal leaders and incoming Attorney General Gentner Drummond.
“I think that relationship will go back to more of the way it was with (former AG) Hunter,” he said.
Still, even with a supermajority in both houses of the Legislature, most political observers expect another effort to reduce the state’s tax on groceries, more scrutiny of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority and a bigger effort to reign in land purchases by foreign entities.
Oklahoma lawmakers will return to the Capitol in February. The First Session of the 59th Oklahoma Legislature begins Feb. 6, 2023.