Gov. Kevin Stitt renewed his call to cut state income taxes and touted business-friendly policies he says have kept Oklahoma’s economy strong during his seventh State of the State address. The Frontier used government data and other sources to fact-check Stitt’s claims about jobs, energy and education. Some of the governor’s statements were true but we found inaccuracies in a few.
Claim: Entrepreneurs have created over 31,000 new jobs in Oklahoma over the past year.
Stitt said: “Entrepreneurs created over 31,000 new jobs, lifting their communities and contributing to our state.”
Fact check: Mostly false
It’s true that Oklahoma added 31,300 jobs between December 2023 and December 2024, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But it’s false to say that all of these jobs were created by entrepreneurs. These figures are for what the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls non-farm employment, which includes jobs created by private businesses as well as state, federal and local government jobs. Oklahoma gained 22,500 private sector jobs over the past year, according federal labor statistics.
-Brianna Bailey
Claim: Oklahoma is getting new investment in data centers.
Stitt said: “A few weeks ago, President Trump announced a $20 billion dollar investment in data centers across the country – and Oklahoma is on that list. Those of us in this room know there is no better place than Oklahoma. This is a massive opportunity to create more jobs for people in our state and to continue to put us on the map as the best state for business.”
Fact check: Mostly true
Hussain Sajwani, founder of the Dubai-based real estate developer DAMAC Properties and longtime business associate of President Donald Trump, announced plans in January to invest $20 billion in data centers across eight central U.S. states, including a $2.5-billion project in Oklahoma. The centers are intended to process data for artificial intelligence and cloud computing services, but the company has provided few further details. Energy experts have expressed skepticism about the project’s feasibility given the current capacity of U.S. electrical infrastructure. Energy Wire reported that public utility officials in all eight states were unaware of the plans before the announcement. Studies have shown data centers create few local jobs.
DAMAC Properties has surfaced in investigations of money laundering and political influence in the United States, according to news reports. The company has also faced allegations of labor exploitation and lawsuits from investors for allegedly failing to deliver on promised projects.
In response to questions about the project, the developer’s background, and whether the state has been in contact with the company, Abegail Cave, a spokesperson for Gov. Stitt, said she “can’t speak to specifics of the proposed projects at this point” but added that “the hope is most certainly that those data centers come to fruition in Oklahoma.”
-Garrett Yalch
Claim: Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Colorado and Louisiana are cutting income taxes and have lower rates than Oklahoma.
Stitt said: “States all around us – Nebraska, Missouri, Arkansas, Colorado and Louisiana – are cutting their income taxes and have lower rates than we do. If we don’t act quickly, we are going to be left behind, and we’ll be considered a high-tax state.”
Fact check: True
These states have cut personal income taxes in recent years and are set up to have top individual income tax rates lower than Oklahoma. Oklahoma’s personal income tax rates range from .25% to 4.75%.
Louisiana implemented a 3% flat tax starting this year. Colorado has had a 4.4% flat tax for the last few years before dropping to 4.25%. Nebraska is phasing in tax cuts that will cap the highest tax bracket at 3.99% by 2027. Arkansas also has a new 3.9% cap. Missouri cut its top rate to 4.7% last year.
Some of these states have looked at increases to sales tax as a way to offset income tax cuts. In Colorado, local municipalities also charge income taxes.
-Kayla Branch
Claim: Oklahoma has the most affordable, reliable energy.
Stitt said: “Here in Oklahoma, we have business friendly policies and the most affordable, reliable energy anywhere thanks to limited government, common sense, and clean-burning natural gas.”
Fact check: Mostly false
Oklahoma ranked 47th out of 50 states and Washington D.C. for residential natural gas prices late last year, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Prices averaged $31.49 per thousand cubic feet of natural gas in Oklahoma between June and November 2024, the average U.S. cost for residential natural gas for the same period was $20.61. In electrical production, Oklahoma ranked second in the nation for low electrical prices for commercial and industrial users. Oklahoma ranked fourth for lowest electrical prices in the nation across all users, but 11th for residential customers, according to federal data.
A spokesperson for Stitt said the governor made his comments based on costs for businesses.
“In terms of the Governor’s goal of being the most business friendly state, we focus in on electricity costs to businesses,” Abegail Cave, a Stitt spokesperson said. “Oklahoma is frequently ranked #1 or #2 in electricity costs to industrial and commercial consumers.”
On the issue of reliability, Oklahoma ranked third to last in the nation for minutes per-year of electric interruptions that lasted longer than a few seconds for the average customer in 2023 and 49th in average number of minutes for restoration of electrical service, according to the EIA data. Natural gas is a relatively clean-burning fossil fuel compared to coal or oil, but accounted for more than a third of all energy-related carbon emissions produced by the United States in 2022, according to the EIA.
-Clifton Adcock
Claim: Oklahoma ranks fourth in the nation for educational freedom.
Stitt said: “We ushered in the largest education freedom movement in the nation. And just recently, Oklahoma was ranked No. 4 in the nation for education freedom. I believe that when you inject competition, everyone gets better. We’re seeing that here in our school systems.”
Fact check: True
The American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative think tank, ranked Oklahoma fourth overall in its Index of State Education Freedom earlier this year. The organization said in a post on X that Oklahoma jumped from seventh to fourth place after Stitt signed a law last year allowing students to transfer between schools in the same district at any point in the school year.
The group ranked Oklahoma 13th in its education freedom programs category, which weighs access to education scholarship accounts, vouchers and tax-credit scholarships. ALEC ranked Oklahoma No. 1 in a category evaluating policies that allow students to transfer between public schools.
-Ari Fife
Rating system:
True: A claim that is backed up by factual evidence
Mostly true: A claim that is mostly true but also contains some inaccurate details
Mixed: A claim that contains a combination of accurate and inaccurate or unproven information
True but misleading: A claim that is factually true but omits critical details or context
Mostly false: A claim that is mostly false but also contains some accurate details
False: A claim that has no basis in fact
This article first appeared on The Frontier and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
