OKPOLICY.ORG
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 Gov. Fallin declared a state of emergency in all 77 counties as dry conditions combined with triple-digit temperatures bake Oklahoma with no end in sight. StateImpact Oklahoma discussed Oklahoma’s status as first in the nation for payday loan usage. OK Policy previously explained how these loans trap Oklahoma families in debt.
On the OK Policy Blog, Dr. John Schumann discusses the serious need for more doctors and other health professionals to provide care after the Medicaid expansion. The Tulsa Initiative Blog discussed the latest KIDS COUNT Data Book, which ranked Oklahoma 40th overall in child well-being. Outgoing House Speaker Kris Steele told lawmakers at the at the Southern Legislative Conference that they need to set aside emotions and ignore anecdotes if they want to get serious about prison overcrowding.
Despite strong support from Senators Coburn and Inhofe, Senate Republicans blocked the nomination of Oklahoma Robert Bacharach to a federal appeals court. Supporters of granting personhood rights to human embryos asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that stopped the proposed constitutional amendment. The Tulsa World discussed the dangers of communities becoming reliant on private prisons for their economy.
The Number of the Day is the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas in Oklahoma. In today’s Policy Note, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows how claims that letting the high-income Bush tax cuts expire would harm small businesses have been vastly exaggerated.
In The News
Oklahoma’s drought conditions prompt governor to declare emergency
Gov. Mary Fallin declared a state of emergency Monday as dry conditions combined with triple-digit temperatures bake Oklahoma with no end in sight. The hot, arid conditions have increased fire danger across the state. Temperatures are expected to continue to reach at least 100 degrees in the Oklahoma City metro area for the next several days. The governor’s declaration covers all 77 counties, which are suffering from extreme or exceptional drought conditions. By 9:30 p.m. Monday, Emergency Medical Services Authority paramedics had responded to 99 heat-related emergencies with 63 patients taken to hospitals since July 9 in the Oklahoma City metro area, said Lara O’Leary, EMSA spokesman.
Oklahoma is no. 1 in payday loan usage
Nationwide, 5.5 percent of adults have used a payday loan in the last five years, according to a new study by the Pew Charitable Trusts. But the rate among Oklahomans is more than twice that, 13 percent — the highest in the United States. These short-term loans — which are secured against a borrower’s next paycheck — typically come with exorbitant interest rates and fees. Proponents say they’re used by borrowers who can’t get ordinary loans. Critics claim payday loans are predatory. From the report, Who Borrows, Where They Borrow, and Why: Pew’s analysis of data from Oklahoma finds that more borrowers use at least 17 loans in a year than use just one.
Read more from StateImpact Oklahoma.
Previously: Quick Cash and Debt Traps: Predatory payday lending in Oklahoma from the OK Policy Blog
Dr. John Schumann: ‘Help wanted’ for Medicaid expansion
Despite its complexities and its politics, I support the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”). As I’ve written elsewhere, I think it would be both morally and economically wrong for Governor Fallin and the Oklahoma legislature to opt out of the ACA’s vast Medicaid expansion – a position shared by Oklahoma Policy Institute. So if Oklahoma does the right thing and opts to expand Medicaid for adults with incomes at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level, what will happen? First, the math in round numbers: There are 600,000 uninsured Oklahomans. Medicaid expansion will cover about a third of them. (The remainder will be obligated under the law to buy insurance on the open market–hopefully, from a robust and economical online insurance exchange–or pay the just-deemed-constitutional penalty, er, tax.) So far, so good. But herein lies the problem. Oklahoma’s primary care “system” is already stretched thin.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
Kids Count 2012: The good news and the bad news for Oklahoma
The Annie E. Casey Foundation recently released their 2012 KIDS COUNT Data Book. It details how kids are doing across the United States, measuring overall child well-being, as well as ranking states in four specific areas: Economic Well-Being, Education, Health, and Family and Community. There are also individual state profiles, and Oklahoma’s data holds both good and bad news. The KIDS COUNT Data Center ranks Oklahoma 40th overall in child well-being, and this is a slight improvement over last year. However, while the state made gains in five key areas, they fell in nine others while two remained unchanged.
Read more from The Tulsa Initiative Blog.
Speaker asks state to focus on facts
West Virginia lawmakers need to set aside emotions and ignore anecdotes if they want to get serious about prison overcrowding, the Republican speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives said Monday. Speaking at a conference of southern lawmakers in Charleston, Oklahoma House Speaker Kris Steele said nobody wants to be seen as soft on crime, but lawmakers have to check partisan politics as they work on criminal justice reform. “It feels like that if we would just incarcerate more people, we would have a safer environment, but that’s not at all what the statistics bear out; that’s not at all what the facts say,” Steele told lawmakers from 15 states at the Southern Legislative Conference. “So, we literally have to change the way we think and not make decisions based on emotions but rather based on the facts and evidence and what we know to be successful,” he said.
Read more from the Charleston Daily Mail.
Senate Republicans kill move to confirm Oklahoman to appeals court
With Oklahoma’s senators effectively sidelining themselves, the Senate failed Monday to advance an Oklahoma City magistrate past a Republican blockade and toward confirmation to a federal appeals court. Article Gallery: Republican opposition in Senate kills move to confirm Oklahoman to appeals court post U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert E. Bacharach likely will now have to count on President Barack Obama to win re-election to be confirmed to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The procedural vote to advance his nomination was 56 to 34, with only three Republicans joining Democrats and independents; 60 votes were needed under the procedural test. Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, and Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, voted “present,” a tactic that allowed them to vote without registering support or opposition. Both senators have strongly endorsed Bacharach’s nomination, and Coburn told The Oklahoman previously that Bacharach was the victim of a “stupid” custom in the Senate of stalling appeals court nominees in presidential election years.
Personhood backers appeal Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling
Supporters of granting personhood rights to human embryos asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to reverse a ruling by the Oklahoma Supreme Court that stopped the proposed constitutional amendment. Personhood USA asked the nation’s highest court to allow Oklahoma citizens to circulate and collect signatures to support a ballot measure that would place the issue before voters, alleging “it was error for the Oklahoma Supreme Court to assume the power to strike a proposed law before it had been enacted.” The state Supreme Court ruled that the ballot question, if approved, would unconstitutionally ban abortion. The group’s 34-page petition said that decision was contrary to rulings in similar cases by the U.S. Supreme Court that determined courts should not invalidate state statutes “based upon a worst-case analysis that may never occur.”
Read more from the Associated Press.
Tulsa World: Private prison mixed blessing
What’s happening in the southwestern Oklahoma town of Sayre is a cautionary tale about community reliance on private prisons. Sayre began enjoying an economic boost several years ago when the North Fork Correctional Facility, owned by Corrections Corporation of America, received more than 2,000 inmates from California. But now, California is withdrawing its inmates. There’s confusion about how many of the more than 400 jobs linked to the private prison in Sayre will be lost. There are also questions about a riot in October, which injured 46 inmates and resulted in at least 20 charges for violent offenses. Prosecution of these cases has put a strain on the Beckham County district attorney’s office. Private prisons offer a pressure valve for state prisons that are at capacity. But in some ways states become the “prisoners” of private prisons. When those companies raise rates, states must come up with extra money.
Read more from The Tulsa World.
Quote of the Day
It feels like that if we would just incarcerate more people, we would have a safer environment, but that’s not at all what the statistics bear out; that’s not at all what the facts say. So, we literally have to change the way we think and not make decisions based on emotions but rather based on the facts and evidence and what we know to be successful.
-Outgoing House Speaker Kris Steele, speaking to lawmakers from 15 states at the Southern Legislative Conference
Number of the Day
$3.39
The average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas in Oklahoma, compared with $3.49 nationally
Source: AAA
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Claims That Letting the High-Income Bush Tax Cuts Expire Would Harm Small Businesses Are Vastly Exaggerated
House Speaker John Boehner referred this week to the proposal to let President Bush’s tax cuts on income over $250,000 expire on schedule as a “small business tax hike” that would have “disastrous consequences.” Neither part of that charge holds up, as we explain in a new analysis. For starters, the frequently cited claim that letting the high-income tax cuts expire would seriously harm small businesses relies on a highly exaggerated definition of “business” that treats any filer with any pass-through income as a business owner. (A pass-through entity passes its profits through to its owners, who pay tax on them at the individual rate.) Under that definition, professors who occasionally get paid for giving a speech or doing some consulting, lawyers and accountants whose firms are organized as partnerships, and corporate executives who get paid to sit on other firms’ boards of directors are treated as small business owners. The definition is so broad, in fact, that under it, both President Obama and Governor Romney would count as small business owners — as would 237 of the nation’s 400 wealthiest people.
Read more from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.
