Budget deal includes $3M for new Oklahoma state plane

OKLAHOMA CITY — Several years after the governor pushed to shrink the state’s fleet of aircraft, state leaders want to spend $3 million to purchase a new state plane. 

The plan to purchase the plane is part of a Republican $12.8 billion budget deal, which was unveiled Wednesday. 

The funding would go to the Oklahoma Department of Transportation, and the purchase was a request from Gov. Kevin Stitt, according to House Speaker Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow. 

Stitt previously sold the governor’s plane for $1.27 million in 2019 as part of a broader push to consolidate the state’s aviation fleet to save money. When Stitt ordered the sale of the governor’s plane, he said he could rely on private flight donations or save taxpayers money by flying commercially. 

He consolidated the state’s aviation fleet from 17 to five aircrafts, the Governor’s Office said in a statement. 

The funding included in the budget agreement would be a one-time expenditure to replace ODOT’s 35-year-old state plane with a “safer, more efficient model for supporting future state officials for the next decade or more,” a spokesperson said. 

A spokesperson for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation referred comment to the Governor’s Office. 

An Oklahoma Voice analysis of flight logs showed the Governor’s Office over five years authorized over 100 flights on the 1992 Beechcraft King Air, which cost Oklahomans nearly $301,000.

State officials, including Stitt and his wife, have used the plane to travel. Many of the flight logs conceal the purpose of and the names of passengers on those flights in an apparent flouting of state law, according to state records. Oklahoma Voice is suing the Oklahoma Department of Transportation in Oklahoma County District Court to obtain unredacted and complete copies of the flight logs, including who used the plane and the purpose for all travel. 

Senate President Pro Tem Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, said he first heard of the request for funding for a new state plane the day before the budget agreement was reached. The plane would not be for use by Stitt, he said. 

Paxton said the current plane is outdated and needs to stop for fuel on the way to D.C. This is an opportunity to trade in an older model for a new one, he said. 

“I do appreciate the governor asking for this for whomever the next governor is, you know, it’s just he thinks this is an asset the state needs to have for that office,” he said. “I agree, it ought to be able to get the governor around the country as fast as they reasonably can, and also, of course, as safe as they can. And we hate to think that we’re trying to save money and we have a horrible accident because we didn’t have an upgraded plane.”