(Update: After the publication of NonDoc’s Nov. 14 story outlining how the membership of registered lobbyist James Leewright on the Board on Legislative Compensation appeared to violate state law and invalidate many of the votes discussed below, House Speaker Kyle Hilbert replaced Leewright with Krista Ratliff, and new meetings of the BLC and the Statewide Official Compensation Commission were scheduled for 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18, in Room 230 of the Oklahoma State Capitol. The following article remains in its original form.)
In a pair of meetings largely defined by chaos, confusion and admissions of ignorance, nine citizens appointed to set salary levels for all Oklahoma legislators and 11 statewide elected officials created new bonuses for four legislative leadership positions and made a flurry of changes that moved the governorship from being the top-paid post to the eighth-highest.
The Legislature created the new Statewide Official Compensation Commission earlier this year, relinquishing salary decisions over Oklahoma’s 11 statewide elected offices and giving the responsibility to the same nine people appointed to the Board on Legislative Compensation, which met Oct. 21 and kept base lawmaker pay flat for the third two-year period in a row. At that meeting, stipends for top House and Senate members were increased.
On Wednesday, the BLC met again — mostly because the new law creating the SOCC says it can only meet on the same day the BLC meets, but some members had hoped to revisit the topic of base lawmaker pay. A series of votes to rescind all of the Oct. 21 legislative pay votes all failed Wednesday, and board members bogged down in a discussion of adding new stipends for two leadership positions in each chamber: House majority leader and majority whip; and two Senate assistant majority floor leaders. Eventually, the board unanimously voted to set stipends equal to 33 percent of base pay for those positions.
Another lengthy discussion ensued, with longtime Board on Legislative Compensation member Robert DeNegri attempting to counter the arguments made by some other members.
“There seems to be this narrative (…) that we need to increase pay because we need to attract better people. That’s false,” DeNegri said. “The narrative is that, well, we have two kinds of people who want to serve the state of Oklahoma: those people who are right out of college or right out of high school, and $40,000 a year plus a stipend is a lot of money, or someone who is very wealthy and doesn’t need the money. That seems to be the narrative on any time we talk about increasing pay. And I don’t know where it started, but it’s absolutely false.”
Ironically, DeNegri then made two false statements in support of his argument.
“You can probably count on one hand how many people ran for office unopposed,” DeNegri said, apparently unaware that half of the 88 legislators who sought reelection in 2024 drew no challengers and won by default. “There are people that want these jobs. And you can count on one finger — probably — how many people get elected and then don’t run (for reelection). Most of them get elected and stay in until they can’t run.”
That statement is also false. Of the 16 legislators first elected to office in the class of 2012, only six served the maximum 12 years allowed by term limits.
Undeterred by DeNegri’s remarks, board member James Leewright — a former legislator who left office before being term-limited — led a 15-minute discussion about how to phrase a motion adding what he thought would be new stipends for more leadership positions, only to announce he received a text message from a legislative staff member saying the morning’s prior vote had already accomplished his goal.
“So the motion is irrelevant,” Chairman Brian Jackson said. “In [agenda item 7.B.3] we accomplished what he wanted to accomplish in B.4.”
Commission shakes up statewide official salaries
After a brief break, the nine board members — Jackson, Leewright, DeNegri, Chip Carter, Jennifer Miller, Scott Douglas, Jeff Bauman, Gary Unruh and Matt Tilly — returned and gaveled into the inaugural meeting of the Statewide Official Compensation Commission, which has been tasked with setting salaries for future statewide elected officials. Under state law, changes passed by the commission would not apply to current officeholders.
Background
In 2023, five bills in the year’s budget package that had purportedly been agreed to by both chambers’ leaders failed to receive final passage. The stalemate began in the Senate, which voted down two bills: HB 1022X to create a new “judicial performance evaluation” program; and HB 1026X to increase future statewide elected official pay by tying positions to judicial pay totals. In the 2025 session, the Legislature passed HB 2674 to create the Statewide Official Compensation Commission.
Carter opened the discussion on statewide elected official salaries — which currently run from $105,053 for the commissioner of labor to $147,000 for governor — by saying he was “embarrassed” that increases had not occurred since 2009.
“I’m embarrassed and ashamed in Oklahoma that we have not compensated our officials better than we have. I’m glad that we’re here today, and I hope that we as a body can help begin to rectify that,” Carter said. “It is a great honor to serve your state. We all believe that. But I think the things that you respect and honor, you pay for. And in our society, that’s how we largely gauge things. (…) I think we are really trailing where we should be.”
Like Carter, Unruh also said he was “embarrassed” by the pay rates for statewide elected officials, and he made a motion for an across-the-board 5 percent salary increase. However, no other member seconded the motion, so the 11 positions — three of which comprise the Corporation Commission — were considered separately.
That gave Bauman time to offer his own perspective, and he noted that he was “not embarrassed” about the current pay rates.
“I’m sure every one of them knew what the salary and benefits were when they got elected. They’re all highly intelligent people — I hope,” Bauman said. “But they were aware. That wasn’t a secret or held from people when they run for election, right? They all know what the salary and benefits are.”
When the commission reached its first voting item on the agenda — whether to raise the governor’s salary — Carter made a motion to increase it from $147,000 to $200,000. The vote failed 4-5.
Unruh, who later announced that he does not know the state treasurer’s name, responded by moving to set the governor’s salary at $155,000, and DeNegri seconded it. That motion passed 5-4.
But as the board trudged through the other statewide elected positions, motions and votes carried little consistency. Positions like attorney general, insurance commissioner and state treasurer received robust discussion about the types of professionals required for the job. Staff members for the treasurer, lieutenant governor, corporation commissioners and other officials offered feedback. Confusion about job duties and responsibilities slowed down the discussion.
When Carter moved to increase the three corporation commissioners’ salaries from $114,713 to $185,000, DeNegri asked a question.
“The Corporation Commission, is it three for each county?” he inquired. “How many are we talking about?”
Jackson responded: “Three for the state.”
“So these aren’t county commissioners,” DeNegri said.
That motion failed 4-5, with DeNegri, Miller, Unruh, Douglas and Bauman voting against. A subsequent motion to set corporation commissioner salaries at $165,000 passed 5-4, with Unruh flipping in favor.
When the dust settled, the board had dropped the governor from the state’s highest-paid elected official to its eight-highest. The state superintendent of public instruction’s salary was doubled from $124,373 to $250,000 — a major change justified on the fact superintendents of large local school districts often make more than $200,000.
Each vote occurred individually, with only scant comparison made between the positions at hand, which resulted in the following changes:
- The governor’s salary increased from $147,000 to $155,000 (an $8,000 increase);
- The lieutenant governor’s salary increased from $114,713 to $145,000 (a $30,287 increase);
- The attorney general’s salary increased from $132,825 to $185,000 (a $52,175 increase);
- The state superintendent of public instruction’s salary increased from $124,373 to $250,000 (a $125,627 increase)
- The corporation commissioners’ salaries were increased from $114,713 to $165,000 (a $50,287 increase);
- The state treasurer’s salary was increased from $114,713 to $175,000 (a $60,287 increase);
- The state auditor and inspector’s salary was increased from $114,713 to $150,000 (a $35,287 increase);
- The insurance commissioner’s salary was increased from $114,713 to $185,000 (a $70,287 increase); and
- The labor commissioner’s salary was increased from $105,053 to $135,000 (a $29,947 increase).
After Wednesday’s meeting adjourned, legislators and others wandering the State Capitol on other business seemed astonished by the disparate salary selections made by the board.
With the 2026 regular session slated to begin Feb. 2, it remains unclear whether the Legislature will grant one of Gov. Kevin Stitt’s requests: that most statewide elected positions become appointed instead of elected.
Carter also urged lawmakers to propose such a change to voters, advocating for it twice during the meeting, for such positions like commissioner of labor, which is most notable for its obligation to inspect elevators and amusement park rides.
“While we may not be streaming, I would like to encourage legislators to make this an appointed position of the governor,” Carter said.
(Update: This article was updated at 7:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 13, to include additional background information.)
