Elizabeth Fussell is a professor in the Sociology Department of Washington State University and a member of the Scholars Strategy Network. Her research focuses on migration and population change in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

On May 20, 2013, a tornado with peak winds of 210 miles per hour struck Moore, Oklahoma, killing 24 people, injuring 377 more, destroying 1,150 homes and causing an estimated two billion dollars in damage. These impacts were indiscriminate, but the process of rebuilding is not. The City of Moore has an opportunity to rebuild better and fairly by remembering that both homeowners and renters need recovery assistance, but assistance will be different for each.

After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated parts of Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005, state officials chose to prioritize the repair of owner-occupied homes over rented ones. According to a study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, out of 489,000 homeowner units damaged in these two states 62 percent were repaired or replaced with federal funding. By contrast, out of the 247,000 rental units that were damaged, only 18 percent received federal recovery money. Consequently, low-income, minority, and female headed households were more likely to be displaced from their homes and communities, making pre-disaster inequalities worse.

continue reading Lesson from Louisiana: Don’t Forget the Renters (Guest Blog: Elizabeth Fussell)

In The Know is a daily synopsis of Oklahoma policy-related news and blogs. Inclusion of a story does not necessarily mean endorsement by the Oklahoma Policy Institute. You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.

Today you should know that Department of Corrections Director Justin Jones is resigning effective Oct. 1. Jones has clashed with lawmakers over a push to put more state inmates in private prisons and over flat budgets for the Department as it deals with a growing inmate population. The Supreme Court decision to strike down a voter registration law in Arizona will not affect the process in Oklahoma, which requires registrants to attest to U.S. citizenship but not provide documents proving their status. The OK Policy Blog discusses how the recently passed tax cut/capitol repairs law may have violated the state Constitution in multiple ways.

Although the state has made strides in its efforts to boost the number of residents with college degrees, Oklahoma still lags behind the national average. The heavy water usage of fracking by energy companies is affecting farmers in Oklahoma and other areas already suffering from droughts. The owner and operator of five power plants in Oklahoma as well as other sites around the country was listed as the nation’s worst greenhouse gas polluter. See the full polluters index from the Political Economy Research Institute here.

The Number of the Day is the number of months on average that low-income families receive cash assistance in Oklahoma. In today’s Policy Note, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows in one graph why smart states are taking measures to raise new revenues.

continue reading In The Know: Department of Corrections director submits resignation

When Gov. Fallin signed HB 2032 into law this past legislative session, Oklahoma Attorney Jerry Fent immediately promised that he would challenge the constitutionality of the law. In early June, Mr. Fent made good on his word and filed a Writ of Mandamus with the Oklahoma Supreme Court. He is petitioning the Court for declaratory and injunctive relief to block HB 2032.

Fent presents two distinct arguments against HB 2032. The first is that HB2032 violates Article V Sec. 57 of the Oklahoma Constitution which states:

Every act of the Legislature shall embrace but one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in Its title, except general appropriation bills, general revenue bills, and bills adopting a code, digest, or revision of statutes….;

Secondly, he argues that the bill failed to secure the three-fourths support in both legislative chambers that is required of revenue bills.

The Constitution’s single-subject rule prevents legislators from participating in log rolling, “the legislative process of embracing in one bill several distinct matters none of which perhaps could singly obtain the assent of the legislature.” HB 2032 lowers the top income tax rate from 5.25 to 5.0 percent starting in 2015 and will lower the rate again to 4.85 percent in 2016, or later, whenever revenue increases by more than the cost of reduction. At the same time, the bill also earmarks a total of $120 million in income tax revenues for renovations to the capitol building over two years.

Fent is not a stranger to challenging Oklahoma legislative actions he believes violate the single-subject rule. In Fent v. State ex rel. Oklahoma Capitol Improvement Authority, he challenged Senate Bill 1374 which “authorized the Oklahoma Capitol Improvement Authority (OCIA) to issue obligations to finance projects for the Native American Cultural and Educational Authority, the Oklahoma Conservation Commission, and the River Parks Authority.” The Oklahoma Supreme Court found the legislation to be log rolling because it “involve[d] three separate bond issues and three separate entities with three separate purposes.”

In Fent, the Court outlined the germaneness test to determine if legislation addresses multiple subjects:

[T]he issue is not how similar or “related” any two provisions in a proposed law are, or whether one can articulate some rational connection between the provisions of a proposed law, but whether it appears that either the proposal is misleading or provisions in the proposal are so unrelated that many of those voting on the law would be faced with an unpalatable all-or nothing choice.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court has addressed the issue of legislative log rolling several times over the last decade. Its opinion in Nova Health Systems v. Edmondson listed some of the types of legislation that had been found to be unconstitutional in the past: “House Bill 1743 (space in the capitol building), Senate Bill 1708 (uniform laws), House Bill 1105 (accounting of funds), Initiative Petition 382 (eminent domain), House Bill 1570 (releasing of funds), Senate Bills 142 and 725 (cultural entities), and Senate Bill 1374 (water reservoirs and cultural entities).” The Court in Nova Health Systems also expressed its displeasure with continuing to address the legislature’s participation in log rolling stating:

We are growing weary of admonishing the Legislature for so flagrantly violating the terms of the Oklahoma Constitution. It is a waste of time for the Legislature and the Court, and a waste of the taxpayer’s money.

Most recently, the Court struck down Comprehensive Lawsuit Reform Act of 2009 because it violated the single-subject rule.

Proponents of HB 2032 argue the single-subject rule does not extend to appropriation measures. Oklahoma City University School of Law Professor Andrew Spriopoulos wrote that the law will pass constitutional muster because “[e]very provision of the bill deals with the structure and management, including the apportionment of revenues and rate, of the state income tax.” Alex Weintz, a spokesman for Gov. Fallin, defended HB 2032 saying:

It is common practice when crafting a bill affecting taxes and revenue to include provisions concerning revenue allocation and reapportionment…[i]t is the opinion of the governor and her legal counsel that the law is constitutional and similar to many other laws affecting revenue.

The Court has typically rejected legislation found to be broad and expansive and upheld laws found to be concerned unequivocally with one subject. In Edmondson v. Pearce the Court stated that Oklahoma’s anti-cockfighting Act was constitutional and didn’t violate the single-subject rule. The Court stated that, “although the Act itself [was] somewhat detailed, all of its provisions [were] germane to its central purpose, i.e., prohibiting cockfighting and related conduct associated with this type of animal fighting.”  

Fent also argues that HB 2032 violates Article V. Section 33 of the Oklahoma Constitution which states that all revenue bills not voted on by the people must pass by a 3/4 vote of both houses of the legislature. In a landmark 1950s case, Leveridge v. State of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Supreme Court defined a revenue bill:  

“Revenue Bills” are those laws whose principal object is the raising of revenue and which levy taxes in the strict sense of the word, and said phrase does not cover laws under which revenue may incidentally arise.

The question for the Court in this case will be whether a bill that lowers taxes falls under the definition of a ‘revenue bill’.

Did lawmakers participate in log rolling and violate the single-subject rule? Is HB 2032 a revenue bill? Only the Oklahoma Supreme Court knows for sure. The bill is set to take effect on July 1st; the Court has scheduled an oral presentation on July 9th to address Fent’s lawsuit.

In The Know is a daily synopsis of Oklahoma policy-related news and blogs. Inclusion of a story does not necessarily mean endorsement by the Oklahoma Policy Institute. You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.

Today you should know that Gov. Fallin has asked White House officials to reconsider a federal decision to pull out of the state’s Insure Oklahoma program, even though the state has not made any requested changes to the program. Oklahoma Watch reports on the impacts of Oklahoma having the worst access to dental health care in the nation. Attempts to sell underutilized state properties are being hampered by long-neglected maintenance problems. Chesapeake Energy Corp shareholders rejected a proposal that would have made it easier to replace the entire board of directors all at once.

NewsOK profiles an undocumented Oklahoma City University student who is benefiting from the Obama administration’s deferred action policy for immigrants brought to the United States as children. The Muskogee Phoenix examined reasons behind the high levels of food insecurity in Muskogee and surrounding counties. The Oklahoma-based charity Feed the Children is lobbying to stop the Farm Bill currently under consideration by Congress because it would cut billions from SNAP (food stamps).

The Tulsa World reported on homeless foster care kids in Tulsa who have fallen through gaps in the safety net. Julie Delcour writes about the “Ban the Box” movement to prevent employers from discriminating against workers with criminal records. Joining “ban the box” was one of the policy recommendations in OK Policy’s proposed action items for criminal justice reform. The Executive Director of the Oklahoma Women’s Coalition and the Oklahoma County district attorney wrote in NewsOK that Oklahoma’s high rate of female incarceration is caused by our state’s lack of support for abused of girls and women. Janet Pearson writes that the Oklahoma Legislature is continuing an assault on women’s health care.

The Number of the Day is the amount of wealth per household lost to foreclosure in communities of color in Oklahoma. In today’s Policy Note, Wonkblog explains why throwing children in prison makes them less likely to finish high school and more likely to commit crimes as adults.

continue reading In The Know: Fallin asks feds to support Insure Oklahoma program without changes

The Weekly Wonk is a summary of Oklahoma Policy Institute’s events, publications, blog posts, and coverage.  Numbers of the Day and Policy Notes are from our daily news briefing, In The Know.  Click here to subscribe to In The Know.

The OK Policy Blog featured a guest post by Ken Busby on why public funding for the arts matters. We also presented the third in our series of posts about Oklahoma’s racial wealth gap. The post looks at wide and stubbornly persistent disparities in white and non-white Oklahomans’ access to jobs and income. OK Policy Director, David Blatt’s Journal Record column explained why closing the wealth and opportunity gap for people of color in Oklahoma is central to our state’s future prosperity. A new Oklahoma Policy Institute fact sheet was featured on our blog which explained that, despite a much-heralded law passed in 2012, Oklahoma has not implemented any real criminal justice reform. Lastly, we posted a video explaining why high quality early childhood education raises incomes.

Numbers of the Day

• 1^st – Oklahoma’s rank among the states for the number of major federal disaster declarations (44) since 1991 — including tornados, floods, and snow and ice storms.
• 67,700 – Number of households in Oklahoma that are underwater on their homes, nearly 16 percent of the state’s 429,000 mortgages
• 2^nd – Oklahoma’s rank among the states for the prevalence of interracial marriage, 17.2 percent of couples compared to 6.9 percent nationally
• 10.3% – Percentage of families in poverty receiving ‘welfare’ cash assistance in Oklahoma, compared to 27.3% nationally
• 29 percent – Percentage increase in the price of groceries (or ‘food at home’) since 2005, compared to just 19 percent inflation overall

Policy Notes

• A preview of insurance premiums on the Washington D.C. health exchange showed a large range of options at reasonable prices.
• A new Feeding America map showed that children in rural areas are the most likely to lack steady access to sufficient food.
• Bloomberg reported on how the accountable care program created by the Affordable Care Act is already racking up cost savings while improving care in hospitals.
• Health researcher Dr. Aaron Carroll pointed out that the arguments used today by opponents of expanding Medicaid are the same as those made when Medicaid was first created in the 1960s, and the critics’ predictions of doom didn’t come true.
• The Census Bureau released analysis of an increasingly diverse electorate; there is no statistically significant difference in voter turnout in Oklahoma between Whites and African-Americans, but large gaps in turnout between Hispanic/Latino and non-Hispanic/Latino residents.

In The Know is a daily synopsis of Oklahoma policy-related news and blogs. Inclusion of a story does not necessarily mean endorsement by the Oklahoma Policy Institute. You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.

Today you should know that the U.S. Supreme Court blocked a Texas agency’s attempt to tap into Oklahoma’s water supply.  An explosion at a chemical plant operated by Tulsa-based Williams Company killed one and injured dozens in Louisiana.

Arizona lawmakers voted to accept federal funds to expand Medicaid and extend health care to 300,000 low-income residents.  The state medical examiner has added an unidentified little girl to the list of Moore tornado victims.  U.S. wholesale grocers filed a lawsuit against potato growers in 15 states, including Oklahoma, accusing them of running a price-fixing cartel. 

A Federal Grand Jury indicted a mentally ill Oklahoma man, recently arrested at a propane company in Talequah, for possession of explosive devices and an unregistered firearm.  The OK Policy Blog posted a video explaining why high quality early childhood education raises incomes. 

The Number of the Day is the percentage increase in the price of groceries, compared to the percentage increase in price inflation overall, since 2005. In today’s Policy Note, the Census Bureau released analysis of an increasingly diverse electorate; there is no statistically significant difference in voter turnout in Oklahoma between Whites and African-Americans, but large gaps in turnout between Hispanic/Latino and non-Hispanic/Latino residents.

In The News

Top Court Blocks Texas Agency From Taking Oklahoma Water

A unanimous court held that the Red River Compact does not allow Texas to trump Oklahoma’s sovereign right to control its own water supplies. It concluded that Texas has rights to water under the compact, but is not entitled to draw it from Oklahoma. Legal experts said the ruling could have implications for the many compacts that govern the flow of river water between states.

Read more from The Wall Street Journal

Explosion rocks Louisiana chemical plant owned by Tulsa-based Williams Partners

A ground-rattling explosion Thursday at a Louisiana chemical plant owned and operated by Tulsa-based Williams Partners LP ignited a blaze that killed one person and injured dozens of others, authorities said. Witnesses described a chaotic scene of flames as high as 200 feet into the air and workers scrambling over gates to escape the plant. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the blast and blaze, OSHA spokesman Juan Rodriguez confirmed to the Tulsa World. 

Read more from Tulsa World

Arizona Gov. Brewer secures Medicaid expansion

Ending a six-month legislative session, Arizona lawmakers endorsed a key element of President Barack Obama’s health care law in a huge political victory for Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, after a lengthy fight over Medicaid expansion that divided the state’s Republican leadership. The expansion that will extend health care to 300,000 more low-income Arizonans came after months of stalled negotiations, tense debates and political maneuvering as Brewer pushed the Medicaid proposal through a hostile Legislature. 

Read more from Associated Press

Unidentified child added to May 31 Oklahoma tornado, storm death toll

The state medical examiner has added a 22nd victim to the May 31 tornadoes and storms death toll. An unidentified little girl is the most recent victim added to the list nearly two full weeks after the storms. Her cause of death has not been determined. 

Read more from KJRH

Grocers allege potato group pumped up spud prices

A U.S. wholesale grocer says America’s potato farmers have run an illegal price-fixing cartel for a decade, driving up spud prices while spying on farmers with satellites and aircraft fly-overs to enforce strict limits on how many tubers they can grow. Kansas-based Associated Wholesale Grocers’ lawsuit against United Potato Growers of America and two dozen other defendants was shifted this week to U.S. District Court in Idaho, America’s top potato-producing state at 30 percent of the nation’s supply. 

Read more from Associated Press

Federal Grand Jury indicts Bryan Berres for Tahlequah bomb scare at propane company

A Federal Grand Jury indicted a man Wednesday in the May bomb scare at a propane company that shut down US Highway 62 in Tahlequah. Bryan Berres was arrested for possession of destructive devices and an unregistered firearm. According to court documents, Berres walked up to Amerigas Propane Company in Tahlequah May 9, removed a backpack and asked for an ambulance.

Read more from KJRH

Watch This: The economic case for preschool

In this TED Talk, economic development expert Tim Bartik talks about why high quality early childhood education raises incomes, even for those who didn’t attend preschool.

Watch This at OKPolicy Blog

Quote of the Day

“The day has been a red-letter day for the people of Arizona.  It was a win, win, win all the way around.”

Governor Jan Brewer, on Arizona approving Medicaid expansion after a lengthy legislative fight

Number of the Day

29 percent

Percentage increase in the price of groceries (or ‘food at home’) since 2005, compared to just 19 percent inflation overall

Source:  Bureau of Labor Statistics via economagic.com

See previous Numbers of the Day here.

Policy Note

The Diversifying Electorate:  Voting Rates by Race and Hispanic Origin in 2012

This report provides analysis of the increasingly diverse American electorate, specifically for presidential elections since 1996, with particular focus given to the patterns of voter turnout by race and Hispanic origin. Overall voting rates have fluctuated in recent presidential races, from a low of 58.4 percent of the citizen population in 1996 to a high of about 64.0 percent in both 2004 and 2008. In 2012, the overall voting rate was 61.8 percent. By examining these overall changes by race and Hispanic origin, this report provides a better understanding of the social and demographic factors that have influenced recent American elections.

Read more from the U.S. Census

You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.

In this TED Talk, economic development expert Tim Bartik talks about why high quality early childhood education raises incomes, even for those who didn’t attend preschool.

Watch This Too:

• The Racial Wealth Gap in America
• The New Jim Crow
• The Line
• Just the Facts
• Illegal

In The Know is a daily synopsis of Oklahoma policy-related news and blogs. Inclusion of a story does not necessarily mean endorsement by the Oklahoma Policy Institute. You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.

Today you should know that the cost of damages from recent Oklahoma tornadoes has been estimated at $5 billion, of which only half is estimated as insured. Scientific American shared a satellite image showing the Moore tornado’s path of destruction. Restaurants were ordered closed, a hospital moved its patients to other facilities, an emergency was declared and 100,000 residents faced a boil advisory after a water main break in Broken Arrow.

A new Oklahoma Policy Institute fact sheet explains that, despite a much-heralded law passed in 2012, Oklahoma has not implemented any real criminal justice reform. Gov. Fallin signed a bill into law that criminalizes driving with any detectable amount of marijuana in a person’s system.  THC can remain detectable in blood tests for days after its use — long after any behavioral effects have worn off. OKC.net discussed how Oklahoma has the highest per capita number of executions in the nation since the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

New Census numbers show that growth of Oklahoma’s Hispanic and Asian populations continues to far outpace growth of non-Hispanic whites. David Blatt’s Journal Record column explains why closing the wealth and opportunity gap for people of color in Oklahoma is central to our state’s future prosperity. The state Board of Education the creation of boot camps to get more special education teachers into Oklahoma classrooms amid a severe shortage statewide. Oklahoma higher education officials are seeking greater collaboration between universities and industry employers.

An Oklahoma court said a ruling that invalidates the state’s exemption of capital gains taxes for Oklahoma-based companies is limited to the 2008 tax return of the company that filed the appeal. Norman sales tax collections continue to fall below budget predictions, and the city’s Finance Director said growth in untaxed online shopping by the college population is a major cause. The Number of the Day is the percentage of families in poverty receiving ‘welfare’ cash assistance in Oklahoma. In today’s Policy Note, health researcher Dr. Aaron Carroll points out that the arguments used today by opponents of expanding Medicaid are the same as those made when Medicaid was first created in the 1960s, and the critics’ predictions of doom didn’t come true.

continue reading In The Know: Tornado damage costs still climbing

Yesterday, the Tulsa World reported that Oklahoma judges are not implementing a key provision of the Justice Reinvestment Initiative that sought to reform Oklahoma’s criminal justice system. The JRI law approved by lawmakers in 2012 mandates post-release supervision for felony offenders after incarceration, but since it went into effect, that requirement has been placed on only 9 out of 1,621 eligible offenders.

Unfortunately, the news is just the latest of many examples where Oklahoma is not implementing the new law. A new fact sheet from Oklahoma Policy Institute makes clear that the law continues to face numerous roadblocks that prevent it from having any impact of the state’s high levels of costly incarceration.

The fact sheet shows that implementation of several provisions of the law have been weak to nonexistent. It also explains how the Justice Reinvestment Initiative did nothing to address the central drivers of Oklahoma’s high incarceration rates: unusually long sentences and a lack of alternatives to incarceration for low-risk offenders.

You can see the fact sheet on our website or download it as a pdf.

For recommendations on what Oklahoma can do to achieve real criminal justice reform, see OK Policy’s “Action Items for Criminal Justice” report.

In The Know is a daily synopsis of Oklahoma policy-related news and blogs. Inclusion of a story does not necessarily mean endorsement by the Oklahoma Policy Institute. You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.

Today you should know that general revenue fund collections were up 5.8 percent in May over the previous year. Due to federal sequestration cuts, Tulsa Public Schools stands to receive $1.7 million less in Title I funds for serving children from low-income families. The cut is $400,000 worse than was previously projected.

An EPA survey found that Oklahoma will need about $6.5 billion in federal funding to maintain its drinking water infrastructure over the next 20 years. NPR spoke to an Oklahoma farmer for a story on the debate over federal subsidies for crop insurance. An appeals court allowed a lawsuit to go forward by a Bethany pastor who claims an American Indian image on Oklahoma’s standard license plates violates his religious rights as a Christian.

The OK Policy Blog shared the third in our series of posts about Oklahoma’s racial wealth gap. The post looks at wide and stubbornly persistent disparities in white and non-white Oklahomans’ access to jobs and income. Oklahoma Watch reported on the struggles of undocumented immigrants in Oklahoma to obtain life-saving health care. CapitolBeatOK reports on how for the first time since the 1940s, so-called “Black Friday” retail tactics will be legal in Oklahoma.

AEP-PSO is seeking bids for long-term purchases of up to 200 megawatts of new wind energy resources. Mayor Dewey Bartlett and former Mayor Kathy Taylor are headed to November’s ballot in Tulsa’s first nonpartisan mayoral general election. In a primary election that included all candidates, Taylor received 42 percent of the vote while Bartlett received 34 percent.

The Number of the Day is Oklahoma’s rank among the states for the prevalence of interracial marriage. In today’s Policy Note, Bloomberg reports on how the accountable care program created by the Affordable Care Act is already racking up cost savings while improving care in hospitals.

continue reading In The Know: General revenue collections for Oklahoma rise in May