![]() ![]() The Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw have state compacts regarding tribal licenses. Only three tribes have compacts with the state of Oklahoma authorizing tribal car tags, and only two of those tribes run that process through a local state tag office. The situation is due, in part, to flaws in existing state-tribal compacts on tribal tags and the lack of enforcement mechanisms. In just two months, drivers with tribal tags accounted for a huge number of unpaid tolls.ĭrivers with Cherokee Nation tags accrued more than $1.5 million in unpaid tolls from May 15 to July 18.Ĭars with Muscogee (Creek) Nation tags accrued $675,167 in unpaid tolls during those two months.Ī single vehicle with a Muscogee (Creek) Nation tag failed to make $687 in toll payments during that time, while an individual with a Cherokee Nation tag failed to pay $670 in tolls over those two months.īased on April 2023 data, Echelle said the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority estimates that drivers with tribal tags will evade payment of more than $10.8 million in turnpike fees per year. ![]() Since May 15 the agency has been tracking unregistered tags on the turnpike system. “We’ve realized just in the last year, really, that this issue was going to be a big one for us,” Echelle said. ![]() ![]() In fact, many are driving with illegal tags. While that system has reduced car accidents at toll booths, it has also allowed many drivers with tribal tags to evade payment because information on registered owners of vehicles with tribal tags is not provided by tribes to the state. Drivers that do not have a Pikepass are individually billed turnpike fees. Under that system, Echelle said that “people driving with a tribal plate or other unregistered plate, if they didn’t have a Pikepass they pulled over and paid cash to a toll collector or put it in a coin machine.”īut the state’s turnpikes are now transitioning to an electronic “plate pay” system that monitors car tags electronically. “This is not going to go away,” Joe Echelle, deputy director of the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority, told lawmakers.įor years, the tribal tag issue was not a problem for state turnpikes because the system included toll attendants or lanes for drivers to pay in cash. Prior to the veto override, officials with the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety and the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority met with lawmakers to notify them that tribal car tags, many of which are not registered with state officials, are creating both public-safety problems and financial challenges for the state. When lawmakers did so, they locked in place a system that is allowing drivers with tribal car tags to evade paying tolls on state turnpikes, a practice that is expected to cost the state millions of dollars and increase the fees imposed on all other, non-Indian drivers. Kevin Stitt’s veto of legislation authorizing a one-year compact with tribal governments that allows the issuance of tribal vehicle tags. The bill to extend the compact over the sale of tobacco still must be overridden by the House, which is expected to meet July 31.This week, members of the Oklahoma Legislature overrode Gov. Treat also said he would consider changing state law to give the Legislature a greater role in compact negotiations if the governor doesn't negotiate in good faith. Senate President Pro Tempore Greg Treat said he wants to give the governor more time to renegotiate the terms of the deal and has been openly critical of Stitt's disputes with the tribes. The two bills he vetoed would extend those compacts for another year. "I am trying to protect eastern Oklahoma from turning into a reservation, and I've been working to ensure these compacts are the best deal for all four million Oklahomans," Stitt said in a statement. Supreme Court ruling in 2020 that led to the reservation boundaries of several Oklahoma-based tribes being upheld. Stitt has raised concerns that the existing compact language needs to be rewritten in light of a landmark U.S. Several of the state's most powerful tribal leaders were in the gallery during Monday's debate and praised the Senate for overriding the governor's vetoes. Stitt, himself a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, wants to renegotiate tribal compacts on the sale of tobacco products and the issuance of motor vehicle tags by tribes. The overrides were the latest development in an ongoing dispute between Stitt and several Oklahoma-based tribes. Kevin Stitt's vetoes of two bills to extend existing agreements with Native American tribes for another year. The Republican-controlled Oklahoma Senate met in a special session Monday and overrode GOP Gov. ![]()
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