OKLAHOMA CITY — Just a month after they adjourned for the year, the Oklahoma Senate returned to the state Capitol last week to correct a problem from the last day of the regular legislative session: a gubernatorial veto.
Last Monday, after more than a half-hour of debate and surrounded by leaders of the state’s tribal nations in the gallery, the Senate voted 34-7 to override Gov. Kevin Stitt’s veto of Senate Bill 26X. The bill extend the state-tribal compacts for tobacco and motor vehicles through Dec. 31, 2024.
Tribal compacts are agreements that provide funding to Oklahoma’s state government, in lieu of taxes. Because the federal government recognized 36 tribes as foreign nations within Oklahoma’s boundaries, those entities cannot be taxed.
Instead, the tribes have agreed to compacts, which sets an amount the tribes will pay to the state instead of a tax. Oklahoma has long-used tribal compacts.
Shortly after the Senate’s vote, Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby told the media outlet NonDoc that he was pleased by the vote.
“It gives us additional time to get this worked out,” Anoatubby said. “I believe that with that additional time we can do that. The conditions that existed before the compacts actually were signed years ago back in the ‘90s, it was pretty volatile. It was a pretty sad situation.”
Tribal compacts, Anoatubby said, changed that.
“We began to work together again,” he said. “It was pretty volatile back then and we certainly would not want to repeat that.”
Anoatubby and other tribal leaders have lobbied lawmakers since the legislative session adjourned in May. Monday afternoon, the governor issued a tersely worded statement, criticizing the vote.
“Despite real concerns for the future of our state, the Senate has chosen to disregard the governor’s compact in favor of compact language the tribes wanted,” the governor’s statement said. “I am trying to protect eastern Oklahoma from turning into a reservation, and I’ve been working to ensure these compacts are the best deal for all 4 million Oklahomans. Unfortunately, the Senate seems to disagree and used an illegitimate process to do so.”
State lawmakers are expected to return to the Capitol on July 31 to finish their veto overrides.