6.1.24 – OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KOKH)
The Oklahoma legislature is wrapped up for the session, and it’s up to the Governor to decide what becomes law. There’s more than 350 bills that were signed into law so far this session, and still nearly one hundred that are sitting on the Governor’s desk.
There’s more than 350 bills that were signed into law so far this session, and still nearly one hundred that are sitting on the Governor’s desk.
Both the Speaker of the House and the Senate President Pro Tem of the Senate said they were “pleased” with how the session turned out.
“We delivered the largest tax cut in state history to the grocery tax, provided a transparent budget process, kept a billion dollars in cash free and clear of all the other savings accounts,” Pro Tem Greg Treat said.
“Initiative petition reform, illegal immigration bill, also the prohibition of ranked choice voting, I think those were all significant pieces of legislation,” Speaker Charles McCall said.
The Governor also accomplished many of his priorities, including an update to the criminal code. The bill, largely worked on by Rep. Mike Osburn, reclassifies felonies in different categories based off the severity of the crime and modernizes sentencing.
“We were last place when I was running for Governor in incarceration rates. We incarcerated more men and women than any other state, and so we went about looking at some of our policies and now we’re 40th. We’ve saved the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by locking up people that we’re actually afraid of, not just who we’re mad at,” Governor Stitt said.
There’s also hundreds of bills that didn’t make it to the finish line, including a death penalty moratorium, a state ban on promoting pride events and one of the most highly debated policies this session, the personal income tax cut.
The Governor has time to decide on whether some of the policy bills will become law, but he reaffirmed his promise not to veto the budget bill.