Commissioners of the Land Office cites record distributions, seeks restored operating budget to bolster staffing, invasive‑species control and well plugging

Dan Whitmarsh, secretary of the Commissioners of the Land Office, told the Appropriations and Budget committee that the agency distributed roughly $145.2 million to Oklahoma public schools in the most recent fiscal year and is seeking a restoration of its pre‑cut operating appropriation to shore up staffing, auditing and land‑stewardship work.

The CLO manages state trust lands and minerals to generate revenue for public beneficiaries, primarily K–12 schools and land‑grant universities. Whitmarsh said the permanent trust is “closer to $3 billion” in value, and the agency’s operating appropriation is statutorily limited to 6 percent of revenues. “We are an ATM machine,” Whitmarsh said, describing the CLO’s role in distributing earnings to school districts by average daily attendance.

Why it matters: The CLO is both a revenue manager and a landowner. Its choices about hiring, auditing and environmental work affect distributions to schools and the condition of hundreds of thousands of acres of surface and mineral estate the state owns.

Whitmarsh summarized operations and recent changes. The CLO holds roughly 736,700 acres of surface estate and about 1,100,000 acres of mineral estate, he said, with an estimated 4,400–4,500 wells on CLO lands. The agency runs…