I’m honored to stand before you today and begin my fourth year as your governor. It has been a great privilege to lead our state. I am thankful to the citizens of Oklahoma and my heavenly Father for giving me this opportunity.

OKLAHOMA CITY — House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, issued the following statement in response to Gov. Kevin Stitt’s annual State of the State address: “House Republicans found plenty to like in the governor’s speech as we begin another strong year to close out what is already the most comprehensive policy session in recent history, thanks to last year’s extensive accomplishments.

Next Monday the Oklahoma Legislature will again convene in formal session to begin the process of introducing, changing and eliminating laws in our great state. The legislative process can be daunting to the inexperienced, as you have so many regional interests and personalities to deal with.

Session is right around the corner and the bill filing deadline has just passed. We will get underway in roughly two weeks’ time, starting with Governor Stitt’s State of the State address. After that, we’ll go to our committees and get to work on the numerous bills that have been filed this interim and carryover bills from last session as well.

Our newspaper is following a recent story about Oklahoma Natural Gas and how they may be billing customers for as long as 25 years for gas that they used during last February’s big cold spell. Oklahoma Watch, in collaboration with the Los Angelesbased publication “Floodlight,” have published a detailed story about the billions in gas costs being passed to Oklahoma consumers, and that story appears at the top of this page.

Now that I’ve transitioned into a COVID-survivor, I’m having a hard time finding direction from the government or the private sector as to how I should live the rest of my life. Imagine that.