Oklahoma lawmakers set aside $3 million this year to buy the state a new executive plane, but officials now say a suitable aircraft will actually cost between $5 million and $5.5 million — leaving a budget hole of up to $2.5 million that state leaders are scrambling to fill. The gap has reignited a years-old fight over Gov. Kevin Stitt's decision to sell the governor's plane back in 2019, with one lawmaker now saying even the governor has called that sale a mistake.
House Budget Committee Chair Trey Caldwell, who led the effort to determine funding for a new plane, said Stitt told him the 2019 sale of the state aircraft was a mistake, according to KFOR. Stitt had campaigned in 2019 on selling the governor's plane, arguing at the time that it was not a good use of taxpayer dollars, and the governor's office sold the 1990 Beechcraft Super King Air 300 for around $1.27 million under an executive order, according to Oklahoma Energy Today. That order stated Oklahoma owned and maintained more aircraft than necessary for efficient executive-branch administration. The governor's office has maintained that selling the aircraft was not a mistake, saying the planes Stitt sold were underused and expensive to maintain and operate, per KFOR's reporting.
A Decades-Old Plane Racks Up Flight Hours
Since the 2019 sale, state officials have continued flying on a plane owned by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation — a 1992 aircraft with nearly 8,000 flight hours that officials now describe as slow and outdated, according to Oklahoma Voice. Between 2019 and 2024, the governor's office authorized more than 100 flights on that ODOT-operated aircraft, costing taxpayers nearly $301,000, per the same outlet's analysis of flight records. Oklahoma Voice also filed an Open Records Act lawsuit in Oklahoma County District Court in January 2026 against ODOT over heavily redacted flight logs that withheld passenger names and flight purposes, following a July 2025 records request for 18 months of travel data, according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
At Stitt's request, lawmakers approved a one-time $3 million appropriation for a replacement plane, Caldwell told KFOR, adding that officials had told lawmakers they needed that amount for a good airplane. State Chief Operating Officer David Ostrowe has since disclosed that the real price is between $5 million and $5.5 million — a figure state officials confirmed while eyeing a Pilatus PC-12, a single-engine turboprop that seats 8 to 10 passengers and can fly nonstop between Oklahoma City and Washington, D.C., under recommended two-pilot operating procedures, the article notes.
Who Pays For The Gap?
Ostrowe has said officials may take funds from other state agencies to help cover the shortfall, and that proceeds from selling the current state plane will also help fund the replacement. Caldwell estimated that one of the state's older aircraft may be worth only a couple hundred thousand dollars, while Stitt has estimated the current plane could sell for around $2 million to $3 million. Caldwell told KFOR that lawmakers do not foresee voting on a supplemental appropriation next year to cover the difference, and Senate Appropriations Chairman Chuck Hall has said Oklahoma instead plans to sell two additional state-owned aircraft alongside the current plane to bridge the roughly $2 million gap, rather than pulling money from other agencies, per the same account.
Oklahoma is not alone in turning to the Pilatus PC-12 for executive travel. Louisiana State Police purchased a secondhand 2019 model of the same aircraft for $5.5 million in September 2024 to transport Gov. Jeff Landry, replacing two 20-year-old state helicopters, according to the Louisiana Illuminator. Single-engine turboprops like the PC-12 are frequently chosen by state governments for their fuel efficiency and short-field capability.
Democrats Point To Rural Hospitals, Medicaid
The spending gap has become a flashpoint amid separate state budget debates. Rep. Mark Mann said 18 rural hospitals are on the verge of shutting down and argued that considering an airplane purchase in the current environment is asinine, according to KFOR, adding that the governor's office should instead focus on issues including affordability. Democratic lawmakers had already raised concerns about the $3 million plane appropriation before the budget was finalized, and House Minority Leader Cyndi Munson said that if $3 million could actually fund a state plane, lawmakers might not need to be discussing repealing Medicaid expansion. Stitt has separately discussed cuts to Medicaid expansion and lawmakers have discussed cuts to the program as well, per KFOR's reporting.
The plane debate is also surfacing in Oklahoma's 2026 governor's race. Former House Speaker and gubernatorial candidate Charles McCall pledged in June that if elected, he would not use a state plane for personal travel, family trips, or non-official passengers, according to Oklahoma Voice's earlier reporting. The issue echoes a similar fight playing out just north of Oklahoma, where a Kansas governor hopeful demanded a jet sale amid his own travel controversy. Oklahoma's broader aviation network includes 108 public airports generating an estimated $10.6 billion in annual economic impact statewide, according to the Oklahoma Department of Aerospace and Aeronautics, underscoring how central air travel remains to state operations even as the executive plane's price tag draws fire.
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