The Oklahoma House of Representatives returned to the House floor on Monday to override the veto of House Bill 1005X, which extends the compact agreement with several tribes dealing with motor vehicle licensing or registration.
In his veto message for HB 1005X, Governor Kevin Stitt noted he felt that the measure went around his authority to renegotiate compacts with tribes.
“Both because this Bill amounts to a circumvention of the executive’s authority to negotiate compacts and because it is not in the State’s best interests, I must veto it,” wrote Stitt.
Early in his first term, Stitt failed to get the tribes to return to the negotiating table for gaming compacts, and the compacts automatically renewed.
The governor also objected to the bill being passed during a special session, instead of the regular legislative session.
“First, this Bill is a byproduct of a body purporting to sit simultaneously in special and regular session. While a special session may have run concurrently with a regular session before; it does not mean such an occurrence is constitutional,” Stitt wrote.
House Speaker Charles McCall challenges Stitt’s notion about passing HB 1005X during a special session.
“Extending the compacts in their current form while tribal and state leaders consider any alternative agreements is our best option to keep this important revenue stream available and avoid potentially harmful effects on the state budget,” McCall said. “Recently, a number of conversations between state and tribal leaders regarding the compacts have taken place, sparked in large part due to the introduction of these compact bills in their original form. The House, in passing this legislation, is exercising their proper authority in the compacting process and we look forward to continued conversations until a new long-term deal is struck.”
The override of Stitt’s veto was successful by a margin of 74 to eleven. It is now eligible for the Senate to take up.
That Chamber is expected to gather by the end of June to consider the override and possibly override the other compact extension dealing with tobacco.
The House also passed a resolution on Monday to extend the special session until the end of July.
