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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 Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater told the state Pardon and Parole Board to resign or face misdemeanor charges for alleged violations of the Open Meetings Act. Sen. Brian Crain, R-Tulsa, is proposing a bill that provides severe penalties for people who know or suspect that a “crime of mass violence” is being planned but do not report it to authorities. Juveniles as young as 13 would be charged as adults under the proposed law.
Norman legislators said education may move to the head of the line for the expected $200 million in new funding in this year’s budget. House Speaker T.W. Shannon says he’ll be pressing for more cuts to the income tax and elimination of the business franchise fee, which has been suspended in Oklahoma since 2010. David Blatt’s Journal Record column discusses the continuing tax cut drama. The OK Policy Blog discusses an updated report showing that poor and middle class taxpayers in Oklahoma pay more of their incomes in state and local taxes than do the wealthiest.
Streetsblog criticized Oklahoma transportation officials for their close ties with the asphalt industry. A nonprofit group released thousands of e-mails today and said they show how a foundation begun by Jeb Bush is working with public officials in states to write education laws that could benefit some of its corporate funders. You can see the e-mails between the foundation and the Oklahoma State Department of Education here. Departing Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon will receive a golden parachute worth about $46 million, as well the right to continue using the corporate jets for four years.
Western Oklahoma State College will no longer offer the two-week online courses have shown up on the transcripts of thousands of college athletes across the country. NewsOK writes that Oklahoma needs to bolster funding for mental health programs. Oklahoma Watch conducted an in-depth interview with Health Commissioner Terry Cline about what Oklahoma will do to address the state’s health needs. The Obama administration issued regulations making it clear that the state’s choice not to accept Medicaid expansion funding won’t set up thousands of poor Oklahomans for penalties, but others will still have to pay a tax penalty if they don’t have qualifying coverage.
The Number of the Day is Oklahoma’s current jobs deficit, or the number of jobs the state needs to create to keep up with the growth of the working aged population. In today’s Policy Note, PolicyLink discusses an initiative that is building a business case for removing employment barriers from ex-felons.
In The News
DA tells Pardon and Parole Board members to resign or face criminal charges
Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater told the state Pardon and Parole Board to resign or face misdemeanor charges for alleged violations of the Open Meetings Act, multiple sources told the Tulsa World on Wednesday. Prater recently met with Oklahoma City attorney Mack Martin, who represents the board, to make the offer, a source close to the issue said. Prater told Martin he had looked at the situation and believed violations of the Open Meetings Act had occurred, the source said. Prater told Martin that he would file misdemeanor charges against the five board members if they did not resign, the source said.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Bill would provide severe penalties for not reporting suspected “crime of mass violence”
State Sen. Brian Crain is addressing potential school shootings and similar acts somewhat differently from most of his legislative colleagues. Instead of guns, Crain, R-Tulsa, is interested in eyes. Specifically, Crain’s Senate Bill 995 provides severe penalties for people who know or suspect that a “crime of mass violence” is being planned but do not report it to authorities. Juveniles as young as 13 would be charged as adults under the proposed law and, if convicted of plotting such an incident, would serve 10 years to life in prison.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Education funding will be in Capitol spotlight this session, lawmakers say
Education may move to the head of the line for the expected $200 million in new funding that will greet Oklahoma lawmakers when they return to the Capitol next week. Four Norman legislators — two Democrats and two Republicans — listened to the Norman Chamber of Commerce’s legislative agenda and shared their thoughts on the upcoming session at a standing-room only breakfast Wednesday at the Hilton Garden Inn. “There seems to be this loud chorus around the Capitol for more education funding,” said state Rep. Scott Martin, R-Norman. “We’ve passed lots of reforms so now we need to fund them.”
Read more from the Norman Transcript.
OK House Speaker T.W. Shannon says he’ll be pressing for tax cuts
The state of Oklahoma will have $170 million more in revenue this year than last, but state agencies have asked for $1.4 billion in increases. And Rep. T.W. Shannon, the state’s freshly minted speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives, says he’ll be pressing for cuts in business franchise fees and personal income taxes. What will he say to state agencies looking for big budget increases? “We are not going to meet that, I assure you,” the Lawton Republican said in an interview with CapitolBeatOK.
Read more from Oklahoma Watchdog.
Prosperity Policy: Tax cut drama continues
The great drama of last year’s legislative session was the failed attempt to slash, and ultimately eliminate, Oklahoma’s personal income tax. In the session starting next week, the tax debate drama may be less intense, but the show will again be worth watching closely. Will the governor get her long-sought tax cut? Will her fellow Republicans revolt? Will everyday Oklahomans pay for tax cuts with substandard schools, bumpy roads and less opportunity? Answers to these questions, and more, await.
Read more from the Journal Record.
A low tax state for who?
Like most state tax systems, Oklahoma takes a much larger share from middle- and low-income families than from wealthy families, according to the fourth edition of “Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States,” released today by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). The report measures the state and local taxes paid by different income groups in 2013 (at 2010 income levels including the impact of tax changes enacted through January 2, 2013) as shares of income for every state and the District of Columbia. Combining all of the state and local income, property, sales and excise taxes that Oklahoma residents pay, the average overall effective tax rates by income group are 10.3 percent for the bottom 20 percent, 9.3 percent for the middle 20 percent and 4.6 percent for the top one percent. Nationally, those figures are 11.1 percent for the bottom 20 percent, 9.4 percent for the middle 20 percent and 5.6 percent for the top one percent.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
The Revolving Door: Oklahoma’s Gary Ridley – Asphalt Lobbyist, DOT Chief
Oklahoma DOT Director Gary Ridley has split his career between public office and lobbying on behalf of the asphalt industry. He started out in the mid-1960s, working as an equipment officer for the DOT. He climbed several rungs on the ladder and then left in 1997 to lead the Oklahoma Asphalt Paving Association, before returning to the department in 2001 as director of operations. In 2009, he was appointed to the top position in the agency. The Oklahoma Asphalt Pavement Association made $3,000 in contributions to Governor Brad Henry’s reelection campaign in 2006, three years before Ridley’s appointment, and then donated $1,000 to the campaign of current Governor Mary Fallin in 2010. She had reappointed Ridley shortly after her confirmation. Those are pretty small amounts in the world of political campaign money. But there are a lot of cozy ties between the road lobby and top politicians in Oklahoma, and Ridley is deeply embedded in the state’s industry-friendly culture.
E-mails link Bush foundation, corporations and education officials
A nonprofit group released thousands of e-mails today and said they show how a foundation begun by Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and national education reform leader, is working with public officials in states to write education laws that could benefit some of its corporate funders. A call to the foundation has not been returned. The e-mails are between the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE) and a group Bush set up called Chiefs for Change, whose members are current and former state education commissioners who support Bush’s agenda of school reform, which includes school choice, online education, retention of third-graders who can’t read and school accountability systems based on standardized tests. As in other states, FEE staff had great control over Oklahoma’s education policies, writing and editing regulations for the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
Read more from the Washington Post.
See also: Oklahoma FOIA Documents from In the Public Interest
Chesapeake Energy CEO’s $45 million goodbye
CEO Aubrey McClendon is stepping down from the company he founded 24 years ago after clashing repeatedly with the board. But he won’t go away empty-handed. According to CNBC and Bloomberg News, McClendon will get a golden parachute worth about $46 million, including $34 million in accelerated vesting of restricted stock that he was previously awarded and about $12 million in cash and benefits to be paid over four years. And inexplicably, he still gets to use the corporate jets during that time. There is speculation that McClendon was pushed out. “Based on the terms of a termination without cause, Chesapeake won’t collect any clawbacks from McClendon in connection with his resignation,” according to a Bloomberg report, citing an anonymous source.
Western Oklahoma State College discontinues quick-credit courses
Western Oklahoma State College, the small rural institution whose two-week online courses have shown up on the transcripts of thousands of college athletes across the country, will no longer offer the popular 10-day intersession courses, college officials announced on Wednesday. According to an article in The Oklahoman, the college’s announcement came hours after the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education met to discuss a “compliance review report” on the accelerated online courses and recommended that the college discontinue them immediately. According to the report, the college offered 256 course sections through the 10-day online format during the 2011-12 academic year and enrolled 7,500 students from across the country in them. The report and higher-education officials at the meeting questioned whether such quick-credit courses were appropriate for a college-level curriculum.
Read more from The Chronicle of Higher Education.
NewsOK: It’s prudent to bolster mental health programs in Oklahoma
Gov. Mary Fallin made it a point last year to steer added state funding toward mental health services and hopes to do the same this year. It’s a prudent move, one lawmakers should support. The National Institute of Mental Health says more than one-fourth of adults in the United States have a diagnosable mental health problem. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimates 22 percent of Oklahomans have a mental health issue of some kind. This takes an enormous toll, particularly on the criminal justice system. According to the Department of Corrections, half of all state inmates have a history of, or now exhibit, some form of mental illness; one-fourth of the prison population exhibits symptoms of serious mental illness.
An interview with Oklahoma Commissioner of Health Terry Cline
Now that Gov. Mary Fallin has rejected the Obama administration’s Medicaid expansion proposal, she has asked Commissioner of Health Terry Cline to help her devise an “Oklahoma solution” for addressing the state’s health needs. In an interview with Oklahoma Watch’s Warren Vieth, Cline discusses why state officials said no to Washington, why Oklahoma ranks near the bottom of many health indexes, and why he’s ready to take on tobacco industry lobbyists when the Legislature convenes next month. A native of Ardmore, Cline has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and served as President George W. Bush’s director of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. He also serves as Fallin’s secretary of health and human services.
Read more from Oklahoma Watch.
Health care rules specify exemptions, penalties
The Obama administration issued regulations Wednesday making it clear that the state’s choice not to accept Medicaid expansion funding won’t set up thousands of poor Oklahomans for penalties under the Affordable Care Act. The rules released by the IRS and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also gave further definition to other exemptions to the federal law’s individual mandate, including members of Indian tribes and adherents of religious sects whose tenets prohibit health coverage. But the rules also make it clear that the coverage requirement will be enforced, meaning anyone who isn’t exempt will have to pay a tax penalty if they don’t have qualifying coverage.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Quote of the Day
There seems to be this loud chorus around the Capitol for more education funding. We’ve passed lots of reforms so now we need to fund them.
–Rep. Scott Martin, R-Norman
Number of the Day
84,165
Oklahoma’s current jobs deficit, or the number of jobs the state needs to create to keep up with the growth of the working aged population as of December 2012
Source: Bureau of Labor via Economic Policy Institute
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
From Prison to Paycheck: Initiative builds business case for removing employment barriers from ex-felons
Jahaun McKinley of Grand Rapids, Michigan, defied the odds when he landed a $9.50-an-hour job after his release from prison – nationwide, more than half of former inmates are unemployed. Now he is on the front lines of a business-led effort to change the prospects for people with criminal records throughout the region. Launched by two Grand Rapids firms, the 30-2-2 initiative aims to enlist 30 area companies to hire two people each, track their job performance for two years, and help build the business case for removing employment barriers for people returning to the community. Seventeen employers, predominantly in health care and manufacturing, have signed on so far. In a nation where 700,000 people, disproportionately African American and Latino, are released from state prisons annually, efforts like this are instrumental in building a sustainable economy.
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