OKPOLICY.ORG
What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk shares our most recent publications and other resources to help you stay informed about Oklahoma. Numbers of the Day and Policy Notes are from our daily news briefing, In The Know. Click here to subscribe to In The Know.
This Week from OK Policy
This week, Executive Director David Blatt explained why New York Times columnist Nick Kristof traveled to Oklahoma to examine deep poverty. Kristof’s column is available here. In his Capitol Update, Steve Lewis discussed the implications of incumbents defeated in June’s primary.
Blatt’s Journal Record column highlighted the importance of lifting the child care subsidy freeze. Policy Analyst Carly Putnam previously wrote that even before the freeze, child care was getting less accessible for Oklahoma’s working families. With the news that Kevin Durant was leaving for California (and its top income tax rate of 13.3 percent), we reran a post debunking the myth that Americans’ migration patterns are based on state personal income tax rate.
OK Policy in the News
Blatt spoke The Woodward News about how increasing fees and fines squeeze average Oklahomans. Policy Analyst Ryan Gentzler previously wrote that rather than reining in fees and fines, last-minute legislation instead hiked them further.
Weekly What’s That
Fiscal year
A fiscal year (usually abbreviated ‘FY’) is the period used for calculating annual budgets. The state of Oklahoma’s fiscal year runs from July 1 to June 30. Each fiscal year is named after the calendar year that it ends in. Read more.
Look up more key terms to understand Oklahoma politics and government here.
Quote of the Week
“The question: How can essential state services meet the demands of a growing population when budgets are declining and costs are rising? The answer: It’s not possible.”
– Arnold Hamilton, editor of The Oklahoma Observer, in his Journal Record column (Source)
Editorial of the Week
Dr. Gerard Clancy, The Tulsa World
Candidates ran on a platform pushing the smallest possible government and the lowest possible tax burden. It all sounded so good but soon this platform became an addiction. Like an addiction, all logic was ignored around the importance of education, health and economic opportunity. No matter the damage to our children’s future, and ourselves we pushed for and elected proponents of smaller government and lower taxes.
Numbers of the Day
- 69.9 – Birth rate per 1,000 women aged 15-44 in Oklahoma in 2014, 9th highest in the US
- 17% – Poverty rate for Oklahoma families with children in 2014
- 27% – Percentage of Oklahoma children who experienced food insecurity in 2013
- 23,536 – Total number of children who participated in TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) in Oklahoma in 2015
See previous Numbers of the Day and sources here.
What We’re Reading
- The big problem with one of the most popular assumptions about the poor [Washington Post]
- Full Faith and Credit: Christian Groups Unite Against Predatory Lending [New York Times]
- Why TANF Is Not a Model for Other Safety Net Programs [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
- The interesting thing that happened when Kansas cut taxes and California hiked them [Washington Post]
