Lawmakers Sue Board of Equalization, Chaired by Governor Kevin Stitt

Senators and House Representatives have effectively sued Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, amid a continuous budget battle.
 
Over a week ago, lawmakers passed a bipartisan deal totaling over $400 million.
Yet, Governor Stitt only signed two of the three bills that landed on his desk.
 
The claim stated in the newly filed lawsuit is that the governor did not sign off because he was disappointed funding for the “Digital Transformation Revolving Fund” was not included in the budget bills.
 
Nonetheless, lawmakers argue that because the governor did not take action by vetoing the bill, it has become law by default.
 
In order to trigger budget provisions, the next step was to have the Board of Equalization, chaired by Stitt, to meet and declare a revenue failure.
 
However, in a last minute decision, the Board of Equalization meeting was canceled.

Here’s what Governor Stitt had to say on that day:
 
“We had a deal with the legislature to fully fund state government for April, May and June of this year which is fiscal year 2020. I'm committed to standing by that deal. House leadership wanted to use this time to play Washington D.C. politics and sneak in some last minute changes while Oklahomans are hurting," said Governor Stitt.
 
Lawmakers said the lawsuit was filed in an effort to get the governor to come back to the table before money runs out in May.

Representative Emily Virgin (D) of Norman said that to the average Oklahoman, this looks like politics as usual, which is concerning during a pandemic.
 
She wants to emphasize that Republicans and Democrats agreed on a budget, and said the Oklahoma Supreme Court is aware this is a time-sensitive issue.
 
“It’s our job as a legislature, and as a state government to make sure core services are funded with this package of bills that we sent to the governor. Unfortunately, the governor is holding up all the pieces of the puzzle to keep government funded because of a very small portion that affects his office specifically,” she said. “We are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars that are needed to fill this budget hole, and the governor is holding it up over less than $250,000.”
 
We reached out to the governor’s office Tuesday and received the following statement:
 
“The governor and his senior staff members are all at the Governor’s Solution Task Force headquarters working on the state’s comprehensive response to COVID-19 and have not been able to fully review the petition.”
 
We have attached the full lawsuit for background.