OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma Senate on Wednesday overrode Gov. Kevin Stitt’s veto of a bill that dealt with money going to the Oklahoma Health Care Authority.
Stitt on Monday vetoed Senate Bill 1130, calling it imprudent.
The measure took about $600 million in surplus funds from the state’s Medicaid agency for fiscal year 2023 and appropriated it back to the agency for fiscal year 2024.
The agency acquired the funds through additional federal dollars given to states during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stitt’s veto message said any action should be delayed until the agency is finished disenrolling 300,000 people who no longer qualify for coverage.
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Senate Appropriations Chairman Rogers Thompson, R-Okemah, said the disenrollment has already been handled and called Stitt’s veto message inaccurate.
Stitt said in his veto message that the bill punishes the agency for its fiscal conservatism and wise stewardship of taxpayer dollars.
Thompson said the measure did not sweep the account and is not imprudent. The Legislature is the body that appropriates funds, he said.
The issue is essentially a disagreement between the Legislature and Stitt’s office regarding who controls the funds.
The Senate voted 45-2 to override the veto.
Carly Atchison, a Stitt spokeswoman, said the Governor’s Office would withhold comment unless or until the House takes action on the override.
April 14, 2023 video. A dispute over who will pay for roughly $245 million in site work at the industrial park means the agreement isn’t a done deal yet.
