Governor calls Legislature into second special session
OKLAHOMA CITY – Republican Governor Kevin Stitt threw the Oklahoma Legislature a curve ball last Thursday afternoon, vetoing three budget bills and saying he would call the Legislature into a second special session on June 13.
Stitt made the announcement during a terse 30-minute press conference at the State Capitol.
During his press conference, the governor criticized portions of the FY 2023 budget, saying it was not a true budget agreement.
“A budget agreement requires negotiation, consensus,” said the governor. “Negotiations did not happen with this year’s budget.”
Stitt said his office was excluded from negotiations, adding that Secretary of State Brian Bingman, a former Republican Pro Tempore of the Oklahoma Senate, was also kicked out of budget negotiations.
Stitt said he received the finalized version of the budget for the first time on May 16, at 8:45 p.m. just hours after it was made public. Because of the exclusion, the governor said would let the rest of the budget go into effect without this signature.
Stitt said some parts of the budget made sense, but other sections – the governor called them back room deals between lobbyists and the Legislature – were not in the state’s best interest. He said he would line-item veto remove sections in the budget which included a pay increase for private prisons and “an unnecessary $360,000 expense for printing attorney general opinions which is no longer required by the law.”
In addition, Stitt said he would veto House Bills 4473 and 4474. Those bills would provide $75 “inflation relief” checks to individual taxpayers and $150 checks to couples who filed jointly. Stitt said the funds would do little to help people and would be taxed at the federal level, reducing the amount families would receive.
“Instead of a tax cut on groceries Oklahomans got $75 inflation checks that won’t be sent out until December,” he said. “And, by the way, it’s federally taxed so you don’t even get to keep the full amount.”
Oklahomans, Stitt said, would be forced to send about $19 of their rebate check back to Washington, D.C. “That’s $56, that’s not even enough to fill up your gas tank right now,” he said. “That’s not real relief. It’s a political gimmick during an election year.”
Stitt said he would also veto Senate Bill 1075, which would reduce the tax on motor vehicle purchases.
In addition to the vetoes, the governor said he would call the Legislature into a second special session to address tax reform and eliminate the grocery sales tax.
“Oklahoma is one of just 13 states that taxes groceries, and it most affects the people who can least afford it. Our strong fiscal discipline over the years has given us the ability to eliminate this tax and now is the right time to do it,” he said.
Both Republican and Democrat legislative leaders had already filed measures this year that would have eliminated the state’s portion of the grocery sales tax.
A plan by Democrats would reduce the sales tax over the next two years, eliminating it by July 1 of 2024. A proposal by Senate Republicans would eliminate the state’s portion – 4 percent – of the sales tax while allowing cities and counties to continue to collect the remaining 4 percent.
The governor’s call for a special session could overlap the current special session Republican legislative leaders called last week. That session, House Speaker Charles McCall said, would address how to spend about $1.8 billion in American Recovery Plan Act funds.
McCall (R-Atoka) said that special session would incorporate the public’s wishes for ARPA spending and “keep the train on the track.”