Mitchell Talks: Gov. Stitt Looks To Hire Lobbyist For Washington D.C.

Governor Kevin Stitt wants Oklahoma to hire a lobbyist for Washington D.C., even though he issued an executive order barring state agencies from hiring outside lobbyists.

Monday, August 26th 2019, 1:04 pm

By: Aaron Brilbeck

Gov. Kevin Stitt wants Oklahoma to hire a lobbyist for Washington D.C., even though he issued an executive order barring state agencies from hiring outside lobbyists.

The governor says taxpayer dollars should not be used to try to get taxpayer dollars funneled into state agencies. Agencies spent $1.5 million on lobbyists in 2019. But the governor wants to spend state tax dollars to try to reel in more federal dollars. News 9’s Aaron Brilbeck asked state Rep. Mike Sanders (R-Kingfisher) Majority Leader, “Isn’t that essentially the same thing? Using tax dollars to lobby for tax dollars?”

Sanders replied, “No, what I think it is is we lose tax dollars every day. We send them to Washington, but there's no return.”

Democrats argue the state can bring in about a billion additional federal dollars by expanding medicaid.

See the entire interview above on Mitchell Talks the News 9 Sessions Episode 45.

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