Governor Kevin Stitt was the featured speaker at the Chamber Forum on Tuesday at City Church in Bartlesville. He brought with him a message of optimism on the economy and freedom along with a sense of real challenges with the vaccine mandate and the McGirt decision.

 

Governor Stitt was very upbeat sharing the state's economic news saying that Oklahoma has the 7th lowest in unemployment, we have over a billion dollars in surplus funds and that Oklahoma has attracted the Canoo electric vehicle maker to Eastern Oklahoma from California. He then named California Governor Gavin Newsom ans Oklahoma's economic development agent of the year.

 

Stitt then got serious when it came to some of the challenges with the recent US Supreme Court McGirt decision regarding the Indian tribes of Oklahoma and how he feels the decision is tearing the state apart when it comes to criminal justice, taxes and more.

 

And, although the Governor said his attorney general was ready to sue the Biden administration regarding the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, he stopped short of saying whether his administration should interfere with its own vaccine mandates when answering a question from Julie Merciez who is a medical nurse.