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In the bank: What do Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell, Attorney General Gentner Drummond and House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, have in common?
None has an election this year.
All have a fair amount of money in their campaign accounts.
And all have been mentioned as potential 2026 gubernatorial candidates.
The term-limited Pinnell reported last week that he still had almost $1 million in his 2022 account as of the end of March.
Drummond, who spent nearly $2 million of his own money to win election in 2022, had $577,000.
McCall, also term-limited, reported $145,000 but raised and spent more than the other two early this year.
None of that is anywhere close to the amount that will be needed to be competitive in 2026, but it’s not a bad start.
McCall collected $60,500 during the first three months of 2024, with much of that coming from health and long-term care-related sources. His itemized expenses suggest that he picked up a few dinner tabs and did some traveling but give little indication that he might be gearing up for something in 2026.
The same is true of Drummond and Pinnell. Drummond reported receipts of about $50,000, Pinnell $10,000. The two combined spent less than McCall, but both appear to have political consultants on retainer.
Rules and regs: Those hoping the Legislature might intervene in the Oklahoma State Department of Education and its governing board’s controversial rulemaking appear destined for disappointment.
The House Administrative Rules Committee, which sorts through the thousands of rules issued by state agencies each year and decides which ones should be disapproved, issued its recommendations last week in the form of House Joint Resolution 1059.
Rules recommended for disapproval include such subjects as dam inspections, tax delinquency, demonstrations at the Capitol and regulation of fire extinguishers, but none of the OSDE regulations is listed.
Critics in both parties said the department and the Oklahoma State Board of Education exceeded their authority by essentially rewriting accreditation rules to include demerits for such things as not sufficiently observing a daily moment of silence or allowing too much discussion about the less uplifting aspects of American life past and present.
Defenders maintain that the changes are an effort to more align accreditation with student outcomes. The objection there is determining how outcomes are measured and by whom.
The House committee is scheduled to vote on the resolution Monday morning.
Counting house: Gross receipts to the state treasury in April were 3% higher than for the same month a year ago. Income and gross production taxes were moderately higher, while sales and use tax receipts were slightly lower.
The latter figure is troubling for municipalities because sales and use taxes are their primary revenue.
Gross receipts to the treasury are all taxes paid to the state, including those collected on behalf of local governments and money returned to taxpayers as refunds and rebates.
Still talking: While the state budget is getting most of the attention at the Capitol these days, a lot of other legislative work is going on.
It’s conference committee time, meaning bills on which the House and Senate agree in general principle but not in detail go into negotiations involving members of both chambers. These often involve the most complex legislation.
Sometimes the differences between House and Senate versions are small and compromises are worked out quickly. Sometimes the differences are so great that “going to conference” is a euphemism for “dead as a doornail.”
In many cases, bills that disappear into conference committee one session return the next year with completely new numbers. Legislation often wanders the halls of the Capitol for years before it finds the Governor’s Office and a place in the statutes.
Among the bills in conference:
House Bill 3854
HB 4118
HB 4147
Senate Bill 482
SB 1450
John Hancocked: Bills signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt last week include:
HB 2367
HB 3159
HB 3556
SB 1877
First question: The Legislature has already teed up a state question for the November ballot.
SQ 833, the result of Senate Joint Resolution 16, by Sen. John Haste, R-Broken Arrow, asks whether voters want to amend the state constitution to allow a real estate developer to obtain a special taxing district to pay for infrastructure such as water and sewer lines.
Homebuyers in the new addition would then assume the additional property tax to pay for the improvements.
As a joint resolution, the measure did not require the governor’s signature.
Taking names: State Treasurer Todd Russ added Barclays PLC to the list of financial companies state agencies are forbidden to use because they are deemed insufficiently supportive of oil and gas.
BA bonds: Broken Arrow officials have begun gathering input for the city’s 2026 bond initiative, City Manager Mike Spurgeon said in a press release.
“We have an incredible opportunity to present the community with a package in April 2026 of projects that will continue to maintain and build upon the great quality of life we have here in Broken Arrow,” Spurgeon said.
He expects the bond package to be finalized in late 2025.
Guard duty: Stitt was among 52 governors opposing a U.S. Air Force proposal to shift 500 to 600 Air National Guard members from about six states to the Space Force.
The governors and some Air National Guard supporters are unhappy because the Air Force is asking Congress to authorize the transfers without the governors’ approval. That’s seen as an attempt to weaken the states’ control of their National Guard units.
It was not immediately clear whether any Oklahoma Guard members would be affected.
Choctaw milestone: With a ceremony in Durant on April 26, the Choctaw Nation observed Chief Gary Batton’s 10th anniversary leading the tribe.
Meetings and events: Mayoral candidates will be featured at the 6:30 p.m. Monday meeting of the Heart of the Party, the Tulsa Chapter of the Oklahoma Federation of Democratic Women, at Baxter’s Interurban Grill, 717 S. Houston Ave. The meeting is open to non-members.
randy.krehbiel@tulsaworld.com
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