Oklahoma Watch (https://oklahomawatch.org/category/government/)
Gov. Kevin Stitt used his first State of the State address to call for an additional pay raise for teachers, a more modernized state government and greater control over state agency leaders’ employment.
What was absent, however, might be as important as what was included.
Attorneys in Oklahoma’s opioid lawsuit have bragged that they slept on cots in their offices and went through millions of pages of evidence. But one private attorney in the case, a former legislative leader, stands to make $5.6 million in the recent settlement against a drugmaker despite having no obvious role documented in court filings.
For more than a decade, state lawmakers have sought various ways to curb contingency fees for private attorneys who contract with the state, as well as make the costs more transparent. But none have passed.
A strategic plan laying out one-year and four-year goals for Gov. Kevin Stitt’s administration, obtained by Oklahoma Watch, includes securing gubernatorial control of all state agencies and boards, changing the educational system and launching an initiative aimed at social issues.
Native American tribes across the country were left out of a major part of a new federal tax incentive for opportunity zones, with their governments unable to pool investments to support projects in some of the nation’s poorest areas.
Gov. Kevin Stitt’s nominee for secretary of veterans affairs and the military has withdrawn his name from consideration. His consulting company, Check-6, faces lawsuits alleging he underpaid veterans who work for him by misclassifying them as contractors.
Gov. Kevin Stitt’s financial disclosure form shows varied holdings in real estate, banking and energy across multiple states. Stitt is the first governor since Robert S. Kerr to come directly to the office from a private company without having held public office first.
Gov. Kevin Stitt’s choice for secretary of veterans affairs and the military has been accused of shortchanging veterans who work for his consulting company, according to a federal lawsuit in Louisiana.
Three former legislators who left office in November are now lobbyists, embodying a practice that state ethics officials have unsuccessfully tried to ban in the face of opposition from the Legislature.
Time is running out for efforts to have a bipartisan, citizen-led commission redraw Oklahoma’s legislative and congressional boundaries – a move that would take the process out of the hands of the Legislature.
Opposition to proposed Ethics Commission rules to require disclosure of who’s behind grassroots lobbying efforts united groups on the right and left. The commission discussed but declined to take up the proposed rules, effectively killing the measure.
