Democratic lawmakers decried most of the agenda laid out by Gov. Kevin Stitt in his final State of the State address, suggesting instead that state taxes should be raised dramatically and families with incomes above $75,000 should be considered wealthy.

During his speech, Stitt recounted the progress made during his time in office.

“I believe these last seven years have been the greatest in state history,” Stitt said. “We’ve gone from budget deficits to historic savings. We increased public education funding more in my term as governor than in the past 25 years combined. At the same time, we’ve cut taxes by $1.6 billion and let Oklahomans keep more of their money.”

House Democratic Leader Cyndi Munson of Oklahoma City quickly decried the enactment of those tax cuts in comments made shortly after Stitt’s speech concluded.

“He touted tax cuts to the wealthiest Oklahomans, estimating a loss of $1.6 billion in revenue,” Munson said. “That’s enough money to get Oklahoma’s public-education system out of that 50th ranking. We could actually put money into our public schools as opposed to giving money to those who least need it.”

Reversing the tax cuts would require re-imposing the state’s 4.5-percent sales tax on all groceries and significantly raising Oklahomans’ income-tax liabilities. During Stitt’s tenure, the income-tax rate has been reduced from 5 percent to the current rate of 4.5 percent.

While Munson argued those tax cuts benefited only the wealthy, Oklahoma’s top personal income tax rate is imposed at a much lower income level than many states, kicking in on income of $7,200 for single filers and $12,200 for joint filers.

As Stitt noted, tax cuts have occurred even as public-school spending has increased at historic rates. Oklahoma public-school revenue has surged more than $3 billion since 2018, rising from $6.3 billion to $9.5 billion.

However, academic outcomes have steadily fallen as spending has increased.

The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests, often referred to as the Nation’s Report Card, showed that Oklahoma’s fourth-grade reading score has declined nine points since 2019, meaning today’s fourth graders are nearly a full grade behind their 2019 counterparts. Oklahoma’s score on fourth-grade reading was lower than the average in all but three states.

Senate Democratic Leader Julia Kirt of Oklahoma City similarly criticized Stitt’s call to eliminate a $250 million cap on the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program, which provides refundable tax credits of $5,000 to $7,500 per child to help families pay for private school. The largest tax credits go to those with the lowest incomes.

“To finish the work on this achievement, it’s time to make the program available to every Oklahoma family who wants it,” Stitt said. “Let’s eliminate the cap. Let the money follow the student. Put parents in charge. Encourage competition and excellence.”

The Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program is currently capped at $250 million per year, and the program has almost reached the cap this year. Once the cap is reached, families will be turned away.

The size of the tax-credit program pales in comparison to funding for Oklahoma’s public school system, which received $9.5 billion in revenue in the 2024-2025 school year. Combined with reserve funds, Oklahoma public schools reported having $14.1 billion in total revenue available during that school year.

Kirt dismissed Stitt’s call to repeal the program cap, declaring, “Two-thirds of the families accessing that money are way above average for Oklahoma wages.”

However, according to the most recent report from the Oklahoma Tax Commission, 56 percent of children using the program this year are from families with incomes of $150,000 or less.

Those families are considered middle class or lower based on widely accepted metrics. The Pew Research Center defines middle-class earners as those with annual household incomes between two-thirds and double the national median household income, or $55,820 to $167,460.

Even so, Kirt said two-thirds of families using the Oklahoma Parental Choice Tax Credit program “are wealthier families.” Based on Oklahoma Tax Commission data, it appears Kirt was defining all families earning more than $75,000 as wealthy.

However, according to Census data, the median household income in Oklahoma among married-couple families is $95,573, meaning half of Oklahoma families earn more than that amount, and the Census reports the overwhelming majority of children in the state live with married parents or in two-adult households.

Kirt’s apparent definition of wealth would include households where both parents earn the average salary of a public-school teacher.

During a recent budget hearing, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Lindel Fields noted that Oklahoma’s average teacher compensation is now $61,330, meaning a husband and wife earning comparable incomes would have a household income of more than $120,000.

During his speech, Stitt also called on lawmakers to allow Oklahomans to vote on a proposal that would give policymakers more flexibility when dealing with Medicaid. Due to the language of a constitutional amendment that added able-bodied adults to Oklahoma’s Medicaid program several years ago, if lawmakers have to reduce Medicaid spending, they can only slash benefits for low-income and disabled beneficiaries with significant health needs, but not benefits for young men who decline to work.

Without change, Stitt noted Medicaid is “projected to eat up 37 percent of our annual budget—$6 billion.”

He also called for giving Oklahomans the chance to vote on repealing the state’s medical-marijuana law, saying the industry has become one of “the greatest threats to public safety” and the industry “enables cartel activity, human trafficking, and foreign influence in our state.”

“This industry is plagued by foreign criminal interests and bad actors, making it nearly impossible to rein in. We can’t put a band-aid on a broken bone,” Stitt said. “Knowing what we know now, it’s time to let Oklahomans bring safety and sanity back to their neighborhoods. Send the marijuana issue back to a vote of the people, and let’s shut it down.”

Kirt rejected those calls.

“I’m not into revisiting state questions,” Kirt said. “I think we should trust the people.”

Munson took a different stance, saying, “Let the people vote.”

She predicted voters would reject any effort to repeal or reform the medical-marijuana or Medicaid-expansion measures.

However, Stitt did receive public support from one Democratic lawmaker on his proposal to eliminate the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association (OSSAA). The governor said OSSAA officials’ recent efforts to bar open-transfer students from participating in sports at their new school are meant to undermine the state’s open-transfer law.

Stitt said students’ “ability to play sports shouldn’t be contingent on parents’ ability to afford an attorney.”

“It’s time to eliminate the OSSAA and secure our progress with open transfer,” Stitt said.

State Sen. Mary Boren, D-Norman, agreed with Stitt.

“That organization definitely needs to be reformed,” Boren said. “There’s very little due process. As an attorney and working in education—and I’ve dealt with that since 1992, since I got out of law school—it’s rare that I’ve ever seen a situation that has been one that you could predict how to navigate that system and how to predict the outcome. It seems to be very insider baseball that’s going on with a lot of those decisions, and I do agree with the governor: It shouldn’t matter that a family can afford an attorney in order for their child to be able to transfer and play sports.”