Recent Articles

2012 Assets & Opportunity Scorecard

OK Policy is pleased to partner with CFED to release the 2012 Assets and Opportunity Scorecard, a comprehensive look at wealth, poverty, and the financial security of families. Read more... [More...]

Benchmarking Asset Development in Fighting Poverty

A presentation by Dr. David Blatt, Director of Oklahoma Policy Institute and Steven Shepelwich, Senior Community Development Advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. Assets mean economic security.  Yet impoverished families frequently lack the means to build assets. … Read more [More...]

Task force proposal would hike taxes for 55 percent of Oklahomans; especially harms seniors and families

Contact: David Blatt, (918) 794-3944, dblatt@okpolicy.org A proposal by the legislature’s tax reform task force would raise taxes for 55 percent of Oklahomans, with the worst impact on low-income seniors and families with children, according to a new analysis from… Read more [More...]

The Tax Shift: Income tax proposal would hike taxes for most Oklahomans

A new fact sheet released today by the Oklahoma Policy Institute shows that the legislature’s tax reform task force proposal would raise taxes for 55 percent of Oklahomans. Low-income seniors and families with children would be especially harmed by the… Read more [More...]

Medicaid 101: The SoonerCare Safety Net

Medicaid, known as SoonerCare in Oklahoma, is the primary health care safety net program in the state, without which thousands of families would forgo basic health services for their children, lack necessary medical care for their disables loved ones, and… Read more [More...]

Coalition being formed to safeguard state services’ funding (Tulsa World)

Original at: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=336&articleid=20120104_16_A11_ULNSbw423597 By BARBARA HOBEROCK, Tulsa World Capitol Bureau  OKLAHOMA CITY – A coalition is forming to support adequate funding of public services in light of talks at the Capitol about cutting taxes used to fund government. The Oklahoma… Read more [More...]

Gap grows for income of whites, nonwhites (Tulsa World)

Original at: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=11&articleid=20120102_11_A1_Theinc511853 By CURTIS KILLMAN World Staff Writer Black, American Indian and Hispanic households all lost ground to white households in median incomes, Census figures show. One observer said the trend is indicative of the poor economy hitting minorities… Read more [More...]

Report: Oklahoma ranked 6th in the nation for safeguards on tax breaks

Contact:Michelle Lee 202-232-1616 x 210 or mlee@goodjobsfirst.orgGene Perry 918-794-3944 or gperry@okpolicy.org December 14, 2011–States are spending billions of dollars per year on corporate tax credits, cash grants and other economic development subsidies that often require little if any job creation… Read more [More...]

Fair share? Corporations in ‘race to the bottom’ in taxes owed (Tulsa World)

Original at http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/article.aspx?subjectid=214&articleid=20111211_214_G1_CUTLIN655628 By JULIE DELCOUR Associate Editor Oklahoma and every state that struggled mightily through recent recessionary times, might have had a far easier time had major corporations paid their fair share of state income taxes. But they did… Read more [More...]

Federal Health Policy Overview & Update

Click here for a copy of the presentation given at a public lecture at the state Capitol on various federal policy initiatives assocated with the new health care law, including state insurance exchange.… Read more [More...]