Stitt offers a new direction for state
IN his inauguration speech Monday, Gov. Kevin Stitt laid down a marker: Business as usual must end. Turning that vision into reality will require buy-in from legislators and the public, and Stitt will face obstacles to achieving his goals. Still, there was much to like in his words and Oklahomans should hope he succeeds.
It’s clear Stitt, a businessman and political outsider, has concluded Oklahoma’s persistent woes owe much to a calcified government system that resists and impedes change. He vows to be a disruptive force for good.
“We need to change how Oklahoma’s 400 agencies and commissions are comprised,” Stitt said. “Our current system gives agencies too much independence from the voter. They have the ability to ignore executive orders, skirt around laws passed by the Legislature, hide pockets of money, and protect their own interests by hiring lobbyists.”
Stitt said “this must change if we are going to move the needle.” He promised his administration would “get to the bottom of every tax dollar spent,” bring government “fully into the digital age,” improve efficiency, lower costs and maximize services. Officials at state agencies, Stitt said, must “understand that they exist to serve and to answer to the people of Oklahoma.”
Stitt has called for giving the governor true CEO-style authority, including the ability to fire agency heads when performance falls short. Legislative leaders have voiced support for those changes. That alone could improve performance, but Stitt’s call to further scrutinize agency spending and practices, and hold people accountable for results, represents change that should leave some agency officials nervous.
In his administration, Stitt said, “state government will live within its financial means.” That tacitly put the Legislature on notice that the practice of inflating government spending with one-time dollars, which contributed much to budget shortfalls in recent years, won’t be tolerated.
While vowing to improve government performance, Stitt also cautioned, “State government is not the sole answer to our problems.” When discussing education, he similarly noted that “more government money is not the answer alone.” In both instances, his chief point was to urge citizens to become more active in civic affairs, but those comments also suggest a break with the recent past. Too often, politicians have acted as though increased spending or new programs are automatically a sign of progress, even if no associated improvement in outcomes occurs. Stitt’s words suggest he views things differently.
He endorsed continued education and corrections reform, and vowed all decisions made in his administration would “come back to growth.”
“We are at our best when people are gainfully employed, when wages are improving, when people have freedom to innovate and access to opportunity,” he said.
Recalling words his father told him as a boy, Stitt said, “The future doesn’t just happen. You make it happen. So dream big.”
Stitt appears eager to make things happen in Oklahoma. The journey from reform idea to implementation can be a long trip filled with much frustration. But in his first steps in his first moments on the job, Oklahoma’s new governor seems headed the right direction.