Lawmakers attended the Guthrie Chamber of Commerce annual Legislative Luncheon on July 28th, 2026 at the Meridian Technology Center. Pictured from left are Sen. Chuck Hall (Dist. 20), Rep. Molly Jenkins (Dist. 33), Rep. Collin Duel (Dist. 31) and Rep. Denise Crosswhite Hader (Dist. 41) Photo by Reece Heck, Correspondent
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The Guthrie Chamber of Commerce held its annual Legislative Luncheon on July 28th, 2026 at the Meridian Technology Center. Giving members of the local business community a chance to hear directly from the state lawmakers who represent the area and to ask questions about issues facing the region.
Panelists included Sen. Chuck Hall, Rep. Molly Jenkins, R-Perkins (District 33); Rep. Collin Duel, R-Guthrie (District 31); and Rep. Denise Crosswhite Hader, R-Piedmont (District 41). Hall, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee, opened the panel by talking about his ties to the community. “I’ve said for years that Guthrie was not my hometown, but it quickly became it. You’re an important part of Senate District 20, if not the most important part.”
Hall described a fast-moving session shaped in part by the election calendar, with all House seats and half the Senate on the ballot. Lawmakers reached a budget agreement with the House and the governor on April 1, unusually early, he said, compared with the mid to late May deals of recent years, and passed the general appropriations bill about three weeks later.
Roughly 87% of new spending went to education, Hall said, with additional dollars directed to health care and to water infrastructure. That included a new $50 million fund aimed at helping smaller rural communities secure low-interest loans for aging water systems.
“Nothing in Oklahoma grows without water,” Hall said. “We know our crops don’t grow. We know our communities don’t grow, and we have failing and aging water infrastructure all across the state.”
On education, Hall said Oklahoma’s ranking, somewhere between 48th and 50th depending on the measure, is “completely not acceptable by anybody’s standards,” but argued the answer is diagnostic rather than financial. He pointed to new emphasis on reading and math sufficiency, an expanded school day, a teacher pay raise and a cost-of-living adjustment for retirees.
Hall also said the state is carrying its largest savings balance in history at about $3.5 billion, with the constitutional Rainy Day Fund now maxed out and no longer able to accept deposits. Even after recent cuts to the corporate and personal income tax, he said, income tax collections rose 12.5% for fiscal year 2026.
Among his own bills this session, Hall cited stiffer penalties for identity theft, a measure making it a felony to impersonate a police officer, and legislation requiring the Department of Human Services to provide foster children with a plain duffel or backpack rather than a trash bag for their belongings. The bill carried $250,000 to fill the bags, but Hall said private donors covered the bags outright and Walmart agreed to supply the contents.
The Legislative Luncheon is part of the Chamber’s ongoing effort to promote civic engagement and keep open lines of communication between local leaders and the business community.