OKLAHOMA CITY – State Sen. Lonnie Paxton, the Pro Tempore of the Senate, only has two years left in his career as an Oklahoma state legislator.
By June 2028, Paxton’s name will be on the list of former state senators. He won’t be worried about the next election, and he won’t spend his days going from one meeting to another.
Come June 2028, retirement starts. But until then, Paxton plans on being busy.
With the statewide election in November and the First Session of the 61st Oklahoma Legislature less than six months away, Paxton won’t be goofing off a lot this fall. He’s making plans for the 2027 legislative session, and he says the issues next year are big ones. He’s not worried about all the work expected and how much time the next session will take.
Paxton is analyzing what he expects to be the big issues for the next legislative session – one of which he expects to be about foster children.
Paxton said he was interested in foster children and the challenges they face as he learned more about the issue, which has generated a lot of attention the past couple of years.
“You know this year, because of what I found out last year, we were able to successfully extend the foster kids’ age from 18 to 21 when the state participates in their upbringing,” he said. “So, we are kind of trying to create a better environment, give them better opportunities. Because before we passed that law, those kids at 18 years old just cut off from the state benefits of being a foster kid. And we found that over 40% of those kids, by the time they were 21, had some type of a negative interaction with not just the judicial system, but the incarceration part of our judicial system. And so, that’s a horrible outcome.”
Foster kids, he said, have “been compared to everybody else, had a pretty tough upbringing.”
“And so, they just need another chance,” he said. “We extended to 21 years old, and now I’m kind of digging in some more. And probably once the new governor gets here. I’m gonna visit with whoever that’s going to be and see what we can do to continue to build opportunities for that crowd.”
Senate Bill 1806, a bipartisan law signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt on May 22, 2026, extended voluntary foster care support and services up to age 21. Before the law changed, services were stopped at the age of 18.
Under the measure, young adults can voluntarily remain in or opt back into the foster care system. The measure extends Medicaid coverage, the monthly stipend payments, and access to a dedicated caseworker through Oklahoma Human Services. To qualify, participants must work at least 80 hours a month, pursue secondary/ vocational education, or document a medical condition preventing work.
Paxton said he’s met and spoken with several foster kids to better understand their issues and see what can be done to help them.
“They’re good kids,” he said. “It’s just been every time they try to get up, somebody knocked them back down.”
In addition to extending services, Paxton said he too more programs like Oklahoma City’s Pivot – a group of tiny homes designed to young people who need help.
“I went on a tour last year,” he said. “I had heard of it but had never been there. It’s like 50- or 60-something tiny homes. It’s a tiny home community north of the state Capitol, and a lot of volunteer work goes into it. But it’s a place for those young people.”
The facility, Paxton said, is a great place for a lot of these foster kids to live.
“And what it is, it’s a community where they each have their own individual homes. They must pay rent. They must have a job,” he said. “They have to be pursuing their education. They also have to be in counseling, along with the people in that community to help get them ready. You’re pivoting from one part of life to the next.”
Paxton said he wanted to learn more about how they’re doing the program and its cost and see if it can’t be replicated across the state.
“When I asked the director of that place, you know, ‘Are you looking for new tenants, or is there?’ And she was, ‘Oh, no, there’s a waiting list,’” he said. “When a spot opens up, somebody else goes in. So, it’s a place that is needed. It’s kind of somewhat independent living, but with lots of guardrails.”
And officials said what’s neat about it is the kids that follow. It’s kind of somewhat independent living, but with guardrails, he said.
“Programs that do what they’re supposed to do,” he said. “Where they work, they pay their rent on time. When they leave, all the rent that they pay, they get back to go start their life with a down payment on the house.”
Paxton would also like to see a separate agency to address children’s issues.
Last year, state Sen. Paul Rossino, R-Oklahoma City, had a bill to start looking at the process of taking all the child services out of the Department of Human Services.
“The Department of Human Services is a massive agency, and we feel like there are way too many times kids are getting lost in the process. As a result, kids are getting hurt or killed because they’re not being monitored well enough by the state,” Paxton said. “There’s a lot of bad situations those kids are in.
“I like Senator Rosino’s approach. A lot of other states have broken all the challenges away from the Department of Human Services, where children have their own agency,” he said. “It’s much easier to pivot and function and address the need. I hope Senator Rosino introduces that again, and we continue to look at that and see if it’s something that we can do.”
Still, expanded services for children isn’t the pro tempore’s only concern. There’s also state tax policy.
Once the state elects a new governor this fall, Paxton said legislative leaders will sit down with the governor and talk about taxes.
“They kind of have different things that they talk about when it comes to tax policy and how they’re planning on implementing it and what they’re wanting to do,” he said.
Every political campaign brings talk about lowering taxes, he said.
“We always certainly want to find a way to do that,” he said. “But what’s the right way to do that? I think a lot of that’s going to depend on when the new governor comes in.”
In addition, Paxton said he could see the need for updating the tax system.
“Oklahoma’s tax brackets were set up a long time ago,” he said. “It was like so much of a percent of the first $3,000, and then so much percent of the next $2,000 to eliminate three of those income tax brackets. And when you do it when you bottom up like that, it saves every single taxpayer.”
In addition, lawmakers need to continue their efforts to upgrade the state’s roads and bridges and improve other state infrastructure, such as water systems.
“We probably need to find a way to increase the funding that’s going to our eight-year plan on roads. At the very least, make sure we keep funding it fully,” he said. “And then there’s always communities that have the needs for water and sewer infrastructure that’s outdated. We need to work with the Water Resources Board for that.”
And while there are many issues that need to be addressed, Paxton said he’s also hopeful that the deep, far-right politics will fade so lawmakers can work better together.
“We’re going to have good policies introduced, and whoever wants to help us make those happen, make them better,” he said. “If there’s ideas that support it, you know, ideas that are presented by members, and there’s people that want to help improve, I don’t care who they are, they can help improve our policies and make them better.”
The goal, he said, was for everyone to work together.
“I’m just, I’m hoping that what happened the last two years is kind of more the rearview mirror, and we’re looking out the windshield, finding what can we do next,” he said. “You know, there’s lots of things out there.”
Paxton and the 148 other state lawmakers will return to the state Capitol early next year for a one-day organizational session. The 61st Legislative Session will begin in February 2027. ___
M. Scott Carter is an award-winning political and investigative reporter with more than 40 years’ experience covering federal and state government and politics in Oklahoma. He can be reached at scott.carter@swoknews.com.