TULSA, Okla. — Governor Kevin Stitt visited Tulsa during National Police Week to celebrate law enforcement officers.
He also gave Tulsa media a chance to question him on several hot-button issues including the tribal tag compacts, the state budget and the parental choice tax credit.
The governor said law enforcement across the state has to navigate police and public safety when it comes to the issue of tribal tag compacts.
"We have compacts with the state of Oklahoma with the Choctaws and the Chickasaws. So, that makes so that means when you see a Choctaw plate, that is in the state database. So a police department and Highway Patrol, they know who that is when they are pulling that over just like any Oklahoma tag," Governor Stitt said. "The thing that is weird is that the Cherokee plates, we don't have that visibility so if you talk to law enforcement when they're pulling over a vehicle, that is the most dangerous part for law enforcement is not knowing who is in that vehicle, who it belongs to, is it stolen, we have no visibility into that."
He also stressed the financial issue because, as of Friday morning, the Cherokee Plate Pay balance is roughly $5.63 million.
The governor said it puts a tremendous burden on the state when it comes to infrastructure, roads and bridges.
Another topic front of mind is the state budget.
"We can't just keep spending every dime that we have or we are going to put ourselves in a bad situation."
The governor believes Oklahoma should not be spending more than recurring revenue.
He wants to keep the state savings account around $5 billion though he realizes inflation is hurting Oklahomans.
The governor points with pride how much money he has put towards public education, in addition to the parental choice tax credit for families looking to put their child in private school.
"They set aside $150 million and just so Oklahomans know and I will reiterate it," Stitt said, "We put $698 or $700 million into public education. We did that last year and I have funded more in public education in my five years so far than they did the last 25 years before I got here."
He added, "But setting aside $150 million for families that say for some reason my kid needs a better education over here, it also creates competition and injects competition into the system. That's all great."
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