Budget & Tax
Ray Carter | May 20, 2020
Stitt vetoes diversion of offender-management funds
Ray Carter
Using his line-item veto power, Gov. Kevin Stitt struck a section of House Bill 4160 on Wednesday.
Stitt’s veto message noted the vetoed language would have diverted funds now designated for offender management in state prisons and redirected the cash to provide pay raises at private prisons.
“The state is not contractually obligated to increase private correctional facilities pay scales,” Stitt wrote.
He called the offender-management system a “critical component of our correctional operations as it serves as the centralized source of offender information for staff, the public, and numerous state and federal agencies.”
Ray Carter
Director, Center for Independent Journalism
Ray Carter is the director of OCPA’s Center for Independent Journalism. He has two decades of experience in journalism and communications. He previously served as senior Capitol reporter for The Journal Record, media director for the Oklahoma House of Representatives, and chief editorial writer at The Oklahoman. As a reporter for The Journal Record, Carter received 12 Carl Rogan Awards in four years—including awards for investigative reporting, general news reporting, feature writing, spot news reporting, business reporting, and sports reporting. While at The Oklahoman, he was the recipient of several awards, including first place in the editorial writing category of the Associated Press/Oklahoma News Executives Carl Rogan Memorial News Excellence Competition for an editorial on the history of racism in the Oklahoma legislature.