Oklahoma Farm Report’s Ron Hays talked with Executive Vice President Michael Kelsey of the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association as they recalled OCA’s wins and losses of the 2025 Oklahoma legislative session.
A major win, according to Kelsey, was the $250 million budgeted for an important building project. “I think one of the big wins is the dollars that we secured for the OSU vet school,” Kelsey stated. “That was a main priority for OCA, as it was for several other folks. To have that as part of the budget is a big win and something that we are going to be really appreciative of for a long time.”
Another big win was House Bill 1027. “We really appreciate Speaker Hilbert and Senator Bullard leading the charge in their respective chambers, and the pretty much overwhelming support in those respective chambers,” Kelsey commented. “The Governor, that was one of those bills that he signed almost immediately when it hit his desk.”
House Bill 1027, he explained, requires people who are gathering signatures for a state question to obtain them from a minimum of 18 or 19 counties rather than only one. “it provides for more broad representation and that is something that we are very supportive of,” he added and explained that the state question itself, when on the ballot, is still a majority vote.
He described groups from out of state assembling and paying signature gatherers to sit where crowds gather to achieve their agendas that may not represent the broader interests of Oklahomans.
“I think we are going to see it challenged in the court, so stay tuned on that one,” Kelsey cautioned. “But right now, it is a big win for rural Oklahoma.”
The men discussed situations in other states where anti-animal agriculture groups have utilized streamlined state question processes to target members of the agricultural community.
“We just don’t think management-type questions or decisions ought to be in the form of a state question,” Kelsey said. “Certainly, even prohibiting certain types of management.”
Counted as a loss, the OCA team didn’t succeed in preventing the reduction of the state income tax by another quarter point. Even more concerning to Kelsey was the Pathway to Zero bill.
“Over time, depending on what previous years’ state revenue would be, it would offer the opportunity to notch the state income tax down by a quarter percent,” Kelsey explained. “If you did that on a yearly basis, it would take sixteen to eighteen years to eliminate the income tax.”
He explained OCA’s opposition of it is because they believe that property taxes will increase over time to make up the lost revenue.
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