For the first time in four years, Oklahoma legislators will not see a change in their pay.

The Legislative Compensation Board on Tuesday voted to maintain lawmakers’ current annual salary of $47,500.

Total annual compensation for most legislators is about $69,799 with the state’s 7% retirement contribution, benefits and per diem of $165 per day for the days the Oklahoma Legislature is in session, according to figures from the Office of Management and Enterprise Services.

A majority of the compensation board shot down a proposal to boost extra stipends for some legislative leaders, including House Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, and Senate Pro Tem Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City.

Certain legislative leaders receive additional pay on top of their base salary due to extra responsibilities and greater workload.

Lawmakers will be returning to the State Capitol this fall for a special session to carry out the once-a-decade task of redrawing legislative and congressional boundaries.

Gov. Kevin Stitt announced last week that he is calling lawmakers into a special session on Nov. 15 to solely focus on redistricting work that must be completed this year.

State officials originally hoped to finish months ago. A delay from the U.S. Census Bureau in delivering the data caused states, including Oklahoma, to scramble to finish in time for the 2022 elections.

The work will have far-reaching consequences. The final legislative and congressional boundaries will help define Oklahoma’s political landscape and, depending on how the lines are drawn, could give one party an advantage in key parts of the state.

Here’s what you need to know about the next steps, what lawmakers are facing and how the public can weigh in.

Oklahoma lawmakers will be representing a much more diverse, urban-centric and larger population than in the past.

New Census data released Thursday reveals that Oklahoma grew its population by more than 200,000 over the past decade. That growth was hardly uniform.

As the map (above) shows, many rural counties lost a significant portion of their population during the past decade. But growth in the metro areas, namely Oklahoma City and Tulsa, has more than made up for those losses.

After jumping on a media briefing on Thursday put on by the Census Bureau, another big takeaway that caught my eye was how much the state has changed racially.

In 2010, more than two-thirds of the state (68.7%) identified as white alone. New Census figures show that percentage dropped to 60.8% in 2020. This was largely driven by an increase in people identifying as two or more races. The number of people identifying as Latino or Hispanic was also on the rise.

Myself and the rest of the Oklahoma Watch staff (including Rebecca Najera and Lionel Ramos, our new Report for America reporters who are focusing on race and equality) plan to dive deeper into the findings in the coming weeks and months.

The long-awaited Census data is not just important for illustrating new trends of the state’s racial, geographic and socio-economic demographics.

It also will be used by lawmakers to finish redrawing the state’s congressional districts during a special session planned later this year.

The Legislature redistricted legislative districts based on preliminary numbers earlier this year. But they may make tweaks or changes, depending on what the new information shows.

Oklahoma lawmakers closed this year’s legislative session this week after spending four months debating and voting on bills that will have lasting impacts.

Here’s a look at how different segments of Oklahoma’s population will feel the impact of some bills that the Legislature passed, or didn’t pass.

Taxpayers
The Big Impact: All Oklahomans will see their personal state income taxes go down slightly due to House Bill 2962. The new law, which takes effect Jan. 1, 2022, cuts individual income tax rates by 0.25%, by lowering the top rate from 5% to 4.75%.