Author: Steve Lewis

Rethinking pretrial detention in Oklahoma (Capitol Update)

Sen. Mark Mann, D-Oklahoma City, has requested an interim study entitled “Does Oklahoma have the Resources Necessary to Implement Criminal Pretrial Supervision Requirement?” The Senate, unlike the House, does not publish the specifics of interim study requests. However, from the… Read more [More...]

Senate Public Safety Committee gets new leadership (Capitol Update)

The first Senate chairmanship change for the upcoming legislative session occurred last week when Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, named Sen. Warren Hamilton, R-McCurtain, chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee. Sen. Spencer Kern, R-Duncan, was named the… Read more [More...]

The problem with Oklahoma’s plan for a tax-free future (Capitol Update)

Another step toward Gov. Kevin Stitt’s goal of eliminating the state income tax largely went unnoticed this session. Although more complicated than his earlier flat-budget mantra, this move is, in my view, just as damaging. At the beginning of the… Read more [More...]

What Oklahoma House members want to study this interim (Capitol Update)

The deadline for House of Representatives members to request interim studies was last Friday, and the House has now published those requests. In the House, studies must be approved by the Speaker, which is expected to happen before July 24th.… Read more [More...]

What the State Equalization Board meeting tells us about Oklahoma’s budget (Capitol Update)

Reports of the June 15 State Equalization Board meeting remind me of a few things about state financing that we don’t often think about. The board met to adjust the Fiscal Year 2027 revenue estimate, reflecting actions taken by the… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma ranks 48th in education, but lawmakers are betting on literacy reform (Capitol Update)

The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2026 KIDS COUNT Data Book, published earlier this month, ranked Oklahoma 44th in overall child well-being, keeping the state among the bottom 10 nationwide. Oklahoma’s lowest major-category ranking was in education, where it placed 48th.… Read more [More...]

HB 3742 brings long-needed discovery reforms to Oklahoma courts (Capitol Update)

Although Oklahoma ranks 4th in the nation for incarceration per 100,000 people, reforms aimed at making the criminal legal system fairer and less reliant on incarceration remain difficult to achieve. If incarcerating people at a higher rate than 46 other… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma takes a closer look at its early childhood services (Capitol Update)

With the passage of House Bill 1979, Rep. Trish Ranson, D-Stillwater, and Sen. Chuck Hall, R-Perry, have taken the right approach to finding long-term solutions to Oklahoma’s childcare crisis and other urgent early childhood needs. The bill creates an Early… Read more [More...]

Managed care and Medicaid expansion shape Oklahoma’s health policy debate (Capitol Update)

Oklahoma’s approximately $3 billion Medicaid (SoonerCare) managed care program is likely to remain a prominent public policy and political issue for the foreseeable future. Known as SoonerSelect, it covers hospital and physician services as well as dental care, mental health… Read more [More...]

Senate divisions come to a head at session’s end (Capitol Update)

Former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner was once quoted as saying that “a leader without followers is just a man taking a walk.”  Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, must have found himself feeling that way at times this… Read more [More...]