Mike Jackson shares key priorities for Oklahoma's 2025 Legislative Session

As the 2025 legislative session unfolds, the Chamber's Senior Vice President of Government & Community Relations Mike Jackson shares his insights on key priorities for Oklahoma’s future. In this Q&A, Jackson discusses several legislative initiatives, such as ensuring the state's economic development programs stay competitive, fostering innovation through research partnerships, improving educational outcomes and more. Jackson's responses highlight a commitment to shaping a prosperous, forward-thinking Oklahoma through strategic legislative action.

Q: How do you envision empowering local governments to tailor their structure and functions to better serve communities?

County government reform is a top priority. A bill moving through the legislature targets efficiencies in Oklahoma’s two largest counties—Oklahoma and Tulsa—by improving county services, enhancing effectiveness and protecting taxpayer dollars. The bill applies only to counties with populations of 500,000 or more.

Q: How do you plan to ensure economic development programs remain competitive and continue to attract businesses to Oklahoma?

Several programs, including the Tourism Development Act, Quality Events Act and Aerospace Engineer Tax Credit, are set to sunset either at the end of this year or mid-next year. We are working to extend these successful programs. The Chamber raised the Tourism Development Act cap from $15 million to $30 million, but we hit that cap every year. We’ve proposed a $20 million increase and extension to ensure projects like OAK and The National come to fruition. This is also crucial for rural Oklahoma. The Quality Events Act has also been successful, with a key win being the relocation of Cattlemen's Congress to the state fairgrounds from Denver. Programs like the Quality Events Act not only help our region but also offer future possibilities for surrounding areas. The Chamber helped create the act in 2010 and has supported updates to enhance its usability and effectiveness in the future. The Aerospace Engineer Tax Credit, reviewed by the Incentive Evaluation Commission, demonstrated a strong return on investment. In 2017, for every $1 Oklahoma spent on credit, the state saw $86 in return. This tax credit has proven to be a highly profitable investment, generating significant economic benefits for the state.

Q: What legislative actions will you support to foster innovation, and how can the state better support research partnerships between businesses and universities?

Last year, we expanded a committee to focus on research and development, exploring federal funding and innovation with partners. We have a bill with Senator Kelly Hines to mirror the federal BioSecure Act. Our goal is to foster BIO innovation in the biospace while protecting Oklahoma’s assets. This will be challenging, but I’m excited about the potential to put something in place for the future.

Q: How can Oklahoma improve education outcomes and workforce readiness for future generations?

Education and the workforce are critical to our state. One key issue from our committee discussions is Oklahoma’s lack of a Statewide Longitudinal Data System. It’s believed Oklahoma may be the only state without a system that tracks students from pre-K through college. Without this system, we cannot track outcomes or understand the student's learning capacity throughout their education. Several pieces of legislation in 2025 aim to address this, ensuring systems at higher ed, career tech and K-12 can communicate, allowing us to track a student’s achievements throughout their education and career path.

Q: How will you ensure aspects like longer days, summer programs and after-school initiatives improve student learning capacity outcomes in literacy and academic performance?

During and after the pandemic, there was a push toward four-day school weeks, along with a reduction in required instructional hours. Oklahoma has one of the lowest numbers of instructional days. As other states increase the number of school days to focus on STEM, math and reading, we’ve reduced the number of instructional days. Despite record funding, our National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores have decreased, which can be attributed to less time in the classroom. We’ve heard some larger school districts are considering four-day weeks, which would send a bad message to other schools. We’re working to push back against that idea.

Q: What steps will you take to secure the Rebuilding Oklahoma Access and Driver Safety (ROADS) Fund is sufficient to support Oklahoma's transportation system and meet the increasing demands on infrastructure?

The eight-year plan, started in 2006, has successfully improved roads and bridges. From 1980-2006, Oklahoma had the highest number of deficient bridges, and we hadn’t increased infrastructure funding until recently. This year, there is a major effort to boost that funding. For example, since 2019, inflation in road and bridge construction has been 63%, so we’re working to preserve buying power and increase funding. This will allow us to continue the major infrastructure improvements we’ve seen over the last 20 years. The Chamber and our transportation committee support adding about $60 million to the ROADS Fund, led by Sen. Avery Frix and Rep. Nicole Miller. This effort has transformed Oklahoma City, and we aim to maintain this progress in the future.