Oklahoma Turnpike Authority targeted again for potential reform

The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority continues to face scrutiny amid an ongoing bond-financed expansion program and calls to reform the toll road agency.

The 15-year ACCESS Oklahoma (Advancing and Connecting Communities and Economies Safely Statewide) program, which was officially launched by Gov. Kevin Stitt in February 2022, aims to widen existing toll roads and build new ones at a projected cost that has risen to $8.2 billion from an initial $5 billion.  A toll rate increase to address escalating costs took effect in January.

About $1.61 billion of revenue bonds have been sold so far for the program, which has been targeted by unsuccessful litigation brought by property owners in the path of new toll roads, while legislation in recent years that sought to reform OTA’s practices, including a cap on outstanding debt and legislative approval for toll hikes, failed.

Republican State Rep. Danny Sterling, who has introduced several reform bills, said transparency was a focus of the latest in-depth examination of OTA by lawmakers last month, pointing to the potential for greater legislative oversight. 

“We also know that the OTA has been given much latitude legislatively in the past and it might be time for us as legislators to revisit that, to make sure we haven’t gone too far in one direction again,” he said as a so-called interim study commenced on Nov. 6.

OTA Executive Director Joe Echelle told lawmakers turnpikes are a cost-effective way to build highways.

“We’re user-fee-funded, which has helped us in Oklahoma as a state maintain very low motor fuel taxes throughout our history, because we’ve been able to leverage a user-fee-funded system in the turnpike,” he said. 

Officials with Oklahomans for Responsible Transportation, which is battling against the ACCESS program, raised concerns about OTA’s eminent domain and bond practices, as well as its finances. 

Amy Cerato, the group’s president, told The Bond Buyer reforms will be sought in the Republican-controlled legislature next year, including imposing a debt ceiling and ending OTA’s ability to pool revenue from the entire system to back bonds. 

“If the super-majority committee chairs would get out of our way and let our bills be heard, our bills would pass almost unanimously through both houses,” she said in an email. “They are common sense, citizen-protective bills, but the committee chairs are a huge problem.” 

The group also wants to see an investigative state audit of OTA completed ahead of further debt issuance.

In March 2023, Oklahoma Republican Attorney General Gentner Drummond cited financial and contracting concerns when he ordered the State Auditor and Inspector’s Office to produce the audit, which has yet to surface.

OTA, which operates 12 turnpikes totaling 630 centerline miles, sold an initial $500 million of second senior revenue bonds for the ACCESS program in October 2023 after obtaining validation for the debt from the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Another $1.11 billion of bonds were issued in January 2025. The deals were rated Aa3 by Moody’s Ratings and AA-minus by Fitch Ratings and S&P Global Ratings — all with stable outlooks.   

Another round of bond financing is likely by the end of 2026, according to an OTA spokeswoman. 

The legislature’s interim study also covered an October report by the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency on the cost of the state’s toll roads. Executive Director Regina Birchum pointed to two key findings.

“The first (is) that the turnpike system has become the state’s primary method for constructing new major roadways,” she said. “And then second, while changing Oklahoma’s turnpike model is possible, it would take decades to fully realize.”

The report examined the possibility of ending tolls, noting a $3 billion payoff for existing OTA bonds.

“If the legislature sought to immediately make the state’s turnpikes toll-free, it would have to satisfy this bond debt plus absorb the annual $260 million in asset preservation and maintenance costs for the roads,” the report said, adding OTA expects to issue another $6.6 billion of bonds over the next 13 years.

Other alternatives were to cap OTA’s bond indebtedness at $8.2 billion, allow OTA to continue to collect tolls once all bonds are retired to cover maintenance costs, or allow the periodic transfer of turnpikes to ODOT until all are toll free. The latter option “would require issuing new bonds with payoff triggers and enforcing a moratorium on new turnpike projects,” according to the report.

It also recommended lawmakers determine whether authorized but unbuilt turnpike routes “still match state priorities,” while adding sunset provisions for newly approved turnpikes.

An OTA statement on the report pointed to turnpike benefits, including out-of-state vehicles accounting for about 50% of toll collections.

“Oklahoma has a great story to share about its sustainable, user-fee-based approach to construct and maintain turnpike infrastructure that supports and connects seamlessly with the tax-funded state highway system,” it said.

The agency, however, continues to face litigation. 

Oral arguments were held last month in class-action litigation filed in July against the OTA and Oklahoma Department of Transportation in Rogers County District Court, claiming tolls were “unlawfully” being charged on a portion of the Will Rogers Turnpike.  

“On March 13, 2025, the additional access point and interchange with State Highway 20 on the Will Rogers Turnpike at Flint Road opened to public use with no free four-lane road parallel to the turnpike, no lease of the turnpike with concomitant elimination of tolls, and no compliance with Section 2004(А),” the lawsuit stated. 

The two transportation agencies responded in August with a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, contending OTA’s tolling authority is lawful and that the section of law cited would impair contracts with OTA’s bondholders. 

OTA is also seeking to dismiss a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in May by Cherokee nation members, claiming an exemption for paying tolls in Oklahoma based on a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that affirmed about 42% of the state as tribal reservation land for criminal law purposes.

A ruling is pending in Oklahoma County District Court on the constitutionality of a 2023 state law that altered OTA’s governance structure by stripping the governor of sole ability to appoint the agency’s six-member board and giving two appointments each to the House speaker and Senate president pro tempore.

The law took effect Nov. 1, 2023, after the legislature overrode Gov. Stitt’s veto of House Bill 2263. Stitt contended the measure would “codify legislative superiority and control over the operation of an executive branch agency.”

Oral arguments in the case filed by the OTA against legislative leaders were held in July.

Stitt prevailed in a dispute with Drummond, who issued an opinion in February 2024 that Tim Gatz could not simultaneously serve as Oklahoma’s transportation secretary as well as executive director of the office of transportation and the OTA. Gatz resigned from his OTA role in the wake of the opinion and Echelle was appointed his replacement last year. 

The State Supreme Court on Nov. 12 reversed a lower court ruling that upheld Drummond’s opinion.