OK Policy Blog

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2023 Census data: Oklahoma ranks as sixth poorest state

By: Oklahoma Policy Institute
September 12, 2024 // Updated: September 12, 2024
Lawmakers have options to improve Oklahomans’ well-being, access to prosperity Data from the Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey released Sept. 12 show that Oklahoma’s poverty rate was 15.9 percent, which was the nation’s sixth highest. The national poverty rate… Read more More...

Recent Posts

Bill would create state business court (Capitol Update)

By: Steve Lewis
March 31, 2025 // Updated: March 31, 2025
In 2004, in response to the business establishment’s perennial call for “tort reform,” House Speaker Larry Adair and Senate President Pro Tempore Cal Hobson authored House Bill 2661 authorizing the Oklahoma Supreme Court to create a Business Court Division within… Read more [More...]

Weekly Wonk: Lawmakers should choose targeted relief amidst budget uncertainty | Bill would revamp Oklahoma’s economic development efforts | Hands off our ‘power reserved for the people’

By: Oklahoma Policy Institute
March 29, 2025 // Updated: March 29, 2025
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… Read more [More...]

Bill would revamp Oklahoma’s economic development efforts (Capitol Update)

By: Steve Lewis
March 25, 2025 // Updated: March 25, 2025
Sen. Kristen Thompson, R-Edmond, Chair of the Senate Economic Development, Workforce and Tourism Committee, has been working more than two years to revamp Oklahoma’s economic development efforts, and the result was passage in the Senate last week of her Senate… Read more [More...]

Lawmakers should choose targeted relief amidst budget uncertainty

By: Aanahita Ervin
March 24, 2025 // Updated: April 15, 2025
State-level budget and tax policy matters deeply for Oklahomans because it directly affects how the state can meet its obligations to our fellow residents. This includes shared services like public safety, education, transportation construction, workforce development, and other programs that… Read more [More...]

Weekly Wonk: Tracking capital punishment in Oklahoma | With immigration bills, lawmakers are playing politics with people’s lives | The legislature is working against itself on criminal justice | Are state leaders listening to everyday Oklahomans?

By: Oklahoma Policy Institute
March 22, 2025 // Updated: March 22, 2025
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… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma Death Penalty Tracker

By: Andrew Bell
March 20, 2025 // Updated: March 20, 2025
Oklahoma has executed more than 125 people since the modern era of capital punishment began in 1976, which is by far the nation’s highest per capita rate for executions. Given the prevalence of capital punishment in our state and the… Read more [More...]

With immigration bills, lawmakers are playing politics with people’s lives

By: Gabriela Ramirez-Perez
// Updated: March 20, 2025
Instead of meaningfully addressing problems that Oklahomans face, lawmakers are once again choosing to target and criminalize our immigrant friends and neighbors for political gain. So far this session, legislators filed a flurry of anti-immigrant bills, such as House Bill… Read more [More...]

The Legislature is Working Against Itself

By: Cole Allen
March 19, 2025 // Updated: March 19, 2025
Once again, the Legislature is ready to work against itself when it comes to Oklahoma’s criminal justice system. The Legislature has advanced some bills that will remove barriers placed on justice-involved people. However, it has also entertained a number of… Read more [More...]

Weekly Wonk: #OKLeg leaders urge fiscal caution; will they heed economic warnings? | Proposed new hurdles to state question process could be legislative overreach | Housing is getting attention at the Capitol this year — some good, some bad

By: Oklahoma Policy Institute
March 15, 2025 // Updated: March 15, 2025
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… Read more [More...]

Housing is getting attention at the Capitol this year — some good, some bad

By: Sabine Brown
March 14, 2025 // Updated: March 17, 2025
Updated 3/17/2025 to note floor vote on HB 1129. – – – Oklahoma’s housing crisis continues to be a statewide issue as seen through rising evictions, increasing rates of homelessness, and a severe lack of affordable housing options. These growing… Read more [More...]

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