Greater OKC Chamber presents 2025 Legislative Priorities

The Chamber’s board of directors recently adopted a comprehensive set of public policy priorities for the 2025 legislative session, which are crucial to creating a strong future for Oklahoma businesses. These priorities reflect the Chamber's top legislative priorities and are designed to address the key issues that will shape the state’s economic growth and development. Below is an excerpt of key priorities. View the full list at okcchamber.com/legislative.

County Government Reform 

The Chamber supports empowering Oklahoma counties to alter their form of government to meet their unique needs.

Economic Development Programs 

The Chamber supports retaining and strengthening the state’s premier economic/community development programs which are critical in attracting new businesses to the state, assisting existing companies expand and encouraging investment in communities across the state. Following are the key programs the Chamber will seek to protect and improve:

• Quality Jobs Act, 21st Century QJA, Small Employer QJA and the Prime Contractor QJA 
• Aerospace Engineer Tax Credit
• Investment/New Jobs Tax Credit
• Historical Building Rehabilitation Tax Credit
• Cybersecurity/Software Engineer Tax Credit
• Five-year Ad Valorem Abatement and Sales Tax Exemption for Manufacturing Facilities
• Regional Home Office Insurance Premium Tax Credit 
• Tourism Development Act 
• Filmed in Oklahoma Act

The Chamber supports enacting meaningful strategic and structural reforms to the Oklahoma Department of Commerce to ensure this key state partner agency is positioned to successfully market our state on a global and national scale, recruit companies into the state and support the growth of existing companies.

The Chamber supports identifying funding streams for infrastructure and site control/development to enable the successful recruitment of high-economic impact projects.

The Chamber supports establishing “regionally focused” economic development finance tools and structures.

The Chamber supports the creation of incentives that bolster research and development efforts, catalyze early-stage capital deployment and provide the ability for key talent recruitment and retention in our market.

The Chamber will support efforts to reinstate the Tax Credit for Energy Efficient Homes and oppose efforts to amend the state’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit in a way that would deter investment in affordable housing.

The Chamber will support incentives and other state support to maximize opportunities for public and private investment in research and development, including Oklahoma businesses participating in joint research with Oklahoma’s public research institutions.

Incentive Evaluation Commission

The Chamber supports the Oklahoma Incentive Evaluation Commission (IEC), which was established to make recommendations to the Legislature and governor on which incentive programs are serving their intended purpose and creating economic/community development. If an incentive program cannot show a positive return to the state, it should be scaled back or repealed.

The Chamber supports re-positioning and broadening the mission of the IEC to require a thorough review of incentive programs offered by other states be conducted.  The purpose of this review would be to learn “best practices” to ensure Oklahoma is offering the most effective, up-to-date and innovative incentives possible.

Research and Development

The Chamber supports efforts to foster an environment that is conducive to further research and will oppose efforts to unreasonably restrict the continued development of the state’s bioscience and research programs.

The Chamber will further support marketing Oklahoma as a rising research, product and technology development hub; support start-ups, engage in intentional efforts to attract scientists, engineers and researchers back to market; and work to retain our premier research workforce.

Federal Funding for Research and Health/Life Science Infrastructure

The Chamber supports protecting and increasing funding for life science and health care infrastructure and programs including but not limited to the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST).

This includes:  

• Protecting the NIH/Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program, which has been instrumental in building health research infrastructure in Oklahoma.
• Ensuring that NIH continues to provide adequate funds for reimbursement of facilities and administration costs.
• Continuing to fund Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs is essential for early-stage product and research development. 
• Enhance connectivity with industry to jointly apply for federal funds supporting healthcare and life science infrastructure and programmatic funding.
• Related Farm Bill programs.

Health Care Mandates

The Chamber opposes new health insurance mandates and liabilities that will undermine an employer’s ability to provide quality health insurance at a reasonable cost to employees.

The Chamber further opposes new mandates being placed on physicians, hospitals and providers that will increase the cost of providing quality health care in Oklahoma.

Statewide Longitudinal Data System

The chamber recognizes the need for a robust and comprehensive Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) as a top priority for advancing education and economic outcomes across our state. The SLDS is essential to ensuring that data-driven decisions guide educational strategies, workforce readiness initiatives and policy development to empower stakeholders, including educational institutions, employers and policymakers, to make informed choices that improve the long-term success of our students and workers. To ensure the system operates effectively, strong data governance is vital. Oklahoma is the only state that does not have a longitudinal data system, thereby placing a disadvantage on our educational decision makers and stakeholders. Data governance provides the framework of policies, standards and roles to ensure data is used and protected in a responsible manner. Data governance includes data stewardship and ownership; data quality and integrity; data security and privacy; data access and sharing; policy and standards compliance; data lifecycle management and oversight.

Consideration should also be given to the following:

• Data integration and accessibility: The system must be able to integrate data from PK-12, CareerTech, Higher Education, workforce development and early learning systems, and the data must be accessible to stakeholders to use while maintaining privacy and security standards.
• Timeliness and Quality of Data: The system must ensure real-time or near-real-time data collection and analysis to respond quickly to emerging needs, such as labor market shifts or academic performance trends. The Office of Educational Quality and Accountability (OEQA) serves as the independent oversight and accountability agency for the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) and reports its findings to the Oklahoma State Legislature. The OSDE must provide data to the OEQA within a maximum of ten days of a data request so that valuable educational decisions can be made.
• Collaboration between groups: Cooperation between education, workforce and economic development sectors is critical. The system should facilitate collaboration between various state agencies, educational institutions and employers to create a comprehensive system that serves the broader goals of economic competitiveness and workforce alignment.
• Sustainability and Funding: Sustainable funding is necessary to ensure the long-term operation, maintenance and upgrading of the system.
• Workforce Alignment and Career Pathways: The system must be able to tie educational attainment to workforce outcomes, helping to align educational programming with the evolving needs of industry sectors. The Individual Career Assessment Plan (ICAP) must be prioritized as a tool administrators use with students. The proper time and effort must be given to help students understand the valuable data derived in this report. This will ensure students are prepared for high-demand careers and the state remains competitive in attracting businesses with a skilled workforce.

Oklahoma State Department of Education  

The Chamber requires aligning the OSDE with the goals and priorities herein to best serve the educational needs of the state, as well as any available funding that supports child well-being. The OSDE is the state education agency charged with determining the policies and directing the administration and supervision of the public school system of Oklahoma. The State Board of Education is responsible for overseeing these duties are completed. The restructuring of this board for increased accountability is supported. Adding two appointees from the House and two appointees from the Senate to the current appointee membership by the Governor will increase accountability and oversight for these functions taking place.

Increasing Student Learning Capacity

The Chamber supports providing additional and enhanced learning opportunities that utilize recognized best practices and extended learning opportunities to address student data from Pre-K to Higher Education student learning loss. It is important to help students catch up by having more time on tasks, including longer school days and additional instructional days. In addition, we are supportive of extended summer learning opportunities and after school programs. A focus on research-based reading and literacy programs that work to enable students at all grade levels to improve reading proficiency and comprehension skills is supported.

Turnpike Authority Long-Range Plan  

The Chamber supports the long-range Advancing and Connecting Communities and Economies Safely Statewide (ACCESS) Oklahoma Plan to develop a highly effective and viable state turnpike system, including construction of new access points at appropriate locations across Oklahoma to enhance safety and access, promote economic development and provide and protect adequate revenues to achieve these long-range objectives.

As part of this long-range plan, the Chamber specifically supports improvements to the following existing high-speed facilities:

• Widening the Turner Turnpike, as an innovation corridor, to six lanes connecting Oklahoma City to Tulsa, the state’s two largest population centers.
• John Kilpatrick Turnpike widening from I-40 to I-35, including turnpike improvements at County Line Road to improve access and generate economic development. Further consideration should be given to improvements in the vicinity of Council Road and Rockwell to assist with increased traffic flow generated by ongoing corporate expansion.

As well as construction of the following new alignment high-speed expressway facilities in the Oklahoma City region and associated improvements:

• Outer Loop: East West Connector, expanding mobility of south Oklahoma City, including accelerating connection from I-44 to I-35.  
• Outer Loop: Tri-City Connector, to increase access and offer alternative routes from I-40 to I-44 and, ultimately, I-35.
• South Extension: End connector south to I-35 south of Norman. 

The Chamber supports the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority’s efforts to enhance safety, increase travel time reliability, allow passage of high/wide loads and create additional interchanges such as I-44/Wellston, Oklahoma, and I-44/Amber, Oklahoma.

ROADS Fund 

The Chamber supports raising the cap on the Rebuilding Oklahoma Access and Driver Safety (ROADS) Fund, the key funding mechanism for ODOT’s Eight-Year Plan, to combat ongoing inflation and reduced purchasing power for materials, manpower and maintenance.

Heartland Flyer 

The Chamber supports protecting and expanding passenger rail service as an important transportation option for both rural and urban Oklahomans. The Chamber will work with the Oklahoma congressional delegation, the Oklahoma state Legislature, ODOT, Amtrak, the City of Oklahoma City, Class 1 Railroads and the Association of Central Oklahoma Governments to oppose efforts to reduce or eliminate state or federal funding received by Oklahoma to operate the Heartland Flyer Amtrak service to Fort Worth, Texas. Moreover, the Chamber supports ongoing efforts by ODOT to negotiate with the State of Texas and Amtrak to ensure Amtrak can be maintained as the passenger rail carrier.

The Chamber is taking active steps with our partners to pursue the objective of extending the Heartland Flyer Amtrak service to Newton, Kansas, which would connect Oklahoma City to Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago and other locations on the national Amtrak system. Furthermore, the Chamber supports the designation of the entire Heartland Flyer line (Fort Worth – Oklahoma City – Newton – National Network) as a national Amtrak route within the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Rail Administration’s specific “Corridor Identification Program.” This designation would serve to assist with the multi-million dollar federal/state burden/cost-sharing and would strategically address a significant gap in the national Amtrak system.