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The Oklahoma Senate has narrowly approved legislation that would use marijuana taxes to fund building repair and construction in school districts with very little local property tax funding.

Legislation that increases state payments to retired government workers, but does not include a direct funding source, has passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives without opposition on a 99-0 vote. The measure is expected to boost the state’s unfunded liability by $800 million to $900 million.

In an email sent to Oklahoma lawmakers this month and later posted online, the Oklahoma Parent Legislative Action Committee (OKPLAC) has urged legislators to kill numerous tax-break measures, including bills that would reduce teachers’ out-of-pocket health insurance costs, improve school security, and support adoption.

House lawmakers have voted to increase benefit payments to some state government retirees, but have chosen not to provide an appropriation to fund the additional expense. Instead, lawmakers voted to raid pension system assets to cover the cost of the higher monthly payments, which will reduce the systems’ solvency, and they advanced the bill despite lacking any firm estimate of the associated cost.

Gov. Kevin Stitt has endorsed Medicaid expansion and urged lawmakers to enact a de facto tax increase to pay for it. A related funding measure was placed on a Feb. 26 committee agenda for a morning vote, but the committee did not convene. The reasons for the delay were not immediately revealed, but challenges continue to surround the tax-increase proposal, ranging from the fact that it will not generate enough revenue to cover the state cost of Medicaid expansion to suggestions the proposal may be illegal .

Less than two years removed from a series of major state shortfalls, members of a Senate committee have voted to raise the cap on a state government savings fund, advancing a key priority of Gov. Kevin Stitt.

Grappling with the surging expense of Oklahoma’s Medicaid program and the potential for even greater costs if a ballot measure expanding the program passes later this year, members of a Senate committee have voted to redirect state tobacco settlement funds to Medicaid.

Attempting to build on reforms enacted last year, members of a Senate committee voted Wednesday to require increased public reporting on the use of federal funds by state and local governments in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma state government could generate millions of dollars in savings by cost-shifting Medicaid costs to the federal government, but half of state government savings would then be given to tribal governments under legislation approved by a Senate committee on Monday.

In his second State of the State address, Gov. Kevin Stitt mostly urged fiscal restraint, calling for increased state savings and agency consolidation, but he also promoted a tax/fee increase to fund a major expansion of welfare through Medicaid.