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Weekly Wonk: New laws to benefit Oklahoma youth | Good ideas get better with more input | Tulsa Race Massacre notes, numbers

Improving the health and well-being of Oklahoma's youth; Tulsa Race Massacre policy notes and numbers; Good ideas get stronger with debate [More...]

New laws should help improve health, well-being for Oklahoma children (Capitol Update)

This was a remarkably good year for legislation on behalf of children and youth, whether they are in the child welfare system, the juvenile justice system or at home and school. Below is a brief synopsis of several forward-looking bills… Read more [More...]

Weekly Wonk: Moving towards justice | FY22 budget highlights | Managed care isn’t silver bullet | Ins and outs of Medicaid expansion

Highlights of the FY 2022 budget; Moving toward healing, reconciliation, justice; Improving Oklahoma’s health outcomes requires multi-faceted investments; Connecting to Health Care: The Ins and Outs of Enrolling for Medicaid Expansion [More...]

FY 2022 Budget Highlights

The FY 2022 budget reverses service cuts but remains at among lowest level in decades. The budget reflects a dramatic, if short-term, turnaround from last year. [More...]

Managed care isn’t a silver bullet: Improving Oklahoma’s health outcomes requires multi-faceted investments

We must look at the factors that actually impact health and increase our investment in the mental, physical, and economic well-being of all Oklahomans.  [More...]

Lawmakers expand private school scholarship tax credits (Capitol Update)

Getting a “nose under the tent” is an expression used regularly at the legislature when a new idea or program is proposed. The expression refers to an alleged Arab proverb that if a camel is allowed to get its nose… Read more [More...]

Weekly Wonk: A first look at FY 22 budget | Oklahomans deserve budget transparency | Anti-protest bills criminalize protesters | More

A first-look at FY 2022 budget; Oklahoma's inside-out budget process; anti-protest bills seeks to criminalize protesters; Prematurely stopping unemployment payments is short-sighted [More...]

A welcome budget turnaround, but not a long-term recovery plan: A first look at Oklahoma’s new state budget

The $8.3 billion budget represents a modest increase from last year’s pandemic low. However, rather than trying to change Oklahoma’s overall trajectory through smart spending choices, lawmakers enacted tax cuts that will largely benefit out-of-state corporations, high-income households, and special interests. [More...]

Oklahoma’s answer to protest is the criminalization of protesters (Guest Post)

The Oklahoma Legislature was among the most vocal in choosing to pursue that strategy. The bills varied in levels of blatant unconstitutionality, but all 20+ different bills introduced at the Oklahoma Legislature this session shared the goal of chilling speech, criminalizing acts related to protests or accountability, and creating conditions that make people exercising their First Amendment rights less safe, especially when being critical of government actors. [More...]

Wait and Hurry Up: Oklahoma’s Inside-Out Budget Process

Because budgets affect us all, both immediately and into the future, they should be made in public view with public input. While most states show this is easily accomplished, Oklahoma’s leaders neither inform nor engage the public in their budget deliberations.  [More...]

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