Steve Lewis served as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1989-1990. He currently practices law in Tulsa and represents clients at the Capitol.
By: Steve Lewis
July 7, 2025 // Updated: July 7, 2025
Last week, Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, announced that senators had requested 90 interim studies to be conducted while the legislature is out of session. In the Senate, interim studies are assigned to various standing committees, and the… Read more [More...]
By: Steve Lewis
June 30, 2025 // Updated: July 3, 2025
It didn’t take long for a challenge to Gov. Kevin Stitt’s new business courts to be filed in the Oklahoma Supreme Court. The lawsuit, filed last week, asked the court to declare the law — which is scheduled to go… Read more [More...]
By: Steve Lewis
June 23, 2025 // Updated: June 23, 2025
It may be time for the legislature to take another look at pretrial release reform in Oklahoma. Cash bail bonds are typically based primarily on the charges filed and include little, if any, evidence-based assessment of flight risk or danger… Read more [More...]
By: Steve Lewis
June 16, 2025 // Updated: June 16, 2025
A new law passed this session will establish stringent new reporting requirements for any employee, contractor, volunteer, or third party “working in or around” (1) a state-run juvenile facility, (2) a private contractor or group home under the supervision of… Read more [More...]
By: Steve Lewis
June 10, 2025 // Updated: June 10, 2025
One of the more positive results of the leveraging between policy and budget issues at the end of the legislative session was the passage of SB 1168, which deals with the perplexing issue of sovereign immunity [More...]
By: Steve Lewis
June 3, 2025 // Updated: June 3, 2025
During contentious budget negotiations between the House and Senate at the end of the 2024 session, Gov. Kevin Stitt seized the opportunity to make a deal with legislators not to veto the general appropriations bill — if lawmakers agreed to… Read more [More...]
By: Steve Lewis
May 28, 2025 // Updated: May 28, 2025
It is almost certain those running our state are making a serious mistake with the $340 million tax cut passed by the legislature last week. The best evidence of that is the debate made by the chairman of the Senate… Read more [More...]
By: Steve Lewis
May 19, 2025 // Updated: May 19, 2025
The state budget for the next fiscal year was announced last week, setting the stage for the legislature to complete its work by the constitutionally mandated deadline: the last Friday in May. The budget process relied on an unprecedented level… Read more [More...]
By: Steve Lewis
May 13, 2025 // Updated: May 13, 2025
A lot of good things happen in state government that most of us citizens have never heard about. We tend to hear about some bill being introduced in the legislature that we think (or know) is downright stupid or the… Read more [More...]
By: Steve Lewis
May 5, 2025 // Updated: May 5, 2025
While the legislature was plowing its way through multiple bills toward this week’s deadline for floor passage of bills originating in the opposite chamber, issues of private religious faith in the public sector worked their way toward a conclusion. It has been a cardinal rule that public funding of private schools is prohibited by the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. [More...]