The transition in leadership at the Oklahoma Legislature was the focus at the Tulsa Regional Chamber’s State of the State event on Thursday at the Cox Business Convention Center.

A crowd of close to 1,000 watched NonDoc Editor Tres Savage moderate a pair of panel discussions, the first featuring outgoing Oklahoma lawmakers Greg Treat (Senate President Pro Tempore) and Charles McCall (Speaker of the House) and the second highlighting Oklahoma Sen. Lonnie Paxton (Senate President Pro Tempore-designate) and Oklahoma Rep. Kyle Hilbert (Speaker of the House-designate).

The event was presented by Spirit AeroSystems.

McCall praised how far the state has come in his eight-year tenure as House Speaker, going from about $70 million in total state reserves to roughly $5 billion today.

“We’ve seen the worst,” McCall said. “Now, we’re seeing the very best. I can’t think of a better time to be term-limited and exit the legislature.”

Asked about House and Senate leadership’s frequent disagreements with Gov. Kevin Stitt, Treat said “conflict is good. You make better decisions when somebody challenges your thinking. You’ve seen across human history when too much power is concentrated in one set of hands, that leads to disastrous results. Governor Stitt is a very hands-on negotiator. He likes to be in the thick of it…which is a two-edged sword.

“That means when the Speaker and I are in there, we may be adversarial over some little, small, seemingly petty thing. That builds up scar tissue over time, and mistrust. But it’s also nice that you have the decision-makers there. You build up trust and animosity at the same time. I don’t think that’s going to change. He (Stitt) wants to be in the room the entire time.”

During the Paxton-Hilbert panel, Paxton recalled how those two first perceived the legislature when they both assumed office in 2016.

“We’re back there basically launching grenades at leadership telling them how bad of a job they’re doing,” Paxton said. “Now that we’re in this position, I think they knew what they were doing. We just didn’t understand it.

“I give tons of credit to Speaker McCall and Pro Tem Treat for what they were able to accomplish. It was a big, big deal.”

Hilbert said that among his priorities as speaker will be roads and bridges infrastructure, mental health reform and investment in public education.

Paxton, a fifth-generation Oklahoman who’s from Tuttle, shared an anecdote about the importance of highway upgrades. He said that a three-and-a-half mile stretch of highway near Tuttle once claimed 10 lives in 20 years before it was widened and straightened.

“That road was repaired the way it should have been,engineered for modern traffic,” Paxton said. “In the last 13 years, there have been zero fatalities on that road. That’s what investing in roads does.”

Savage asked Hilbert whether any legislative relief was in sight for working parents in terms of childcare incentives.

House Bill 4147 provides a 30% tax credit for five years to employers that assist their employees with childcareexpenses, for operating or contracting to operate a childcare facility primarily used by their employees, or for contracting with a childcare facility to reserve spots for their employees.

“Childcare is a real problem,” Hilbert said. “I do think that for us in the state legislature, we have to figure out what is the proper role of government in this. How do we make sure we’re doing that to make sure it’s sustainable and not something that we’re going to throw a bunch of money into and the program’s going to go away in three years?”