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 the first bill signed by Governor Fallin this year reverses a 2010 law that mandated staggered elections of directors of certain public corporations. Chesapeake Energy helped write the initial law, which was designed to shield corporate boards from a shareholder revolt. The company began pushing for its repeal after board members were replaced and CEO Aubrey McClendon was pushed out. Sandridge Energy CEO Tom Ward and a dissident shareholder are taking their dispute to the company’s 2,500 employees with competing letters.
More than a dozen compressed natural gas-fueled pickup trucks were delivered to Oklahoma transportation officials as part of a multi-state effort headed by Gov. Fallin to expand the use of CNG vehicles in state fleets. An appeals court heard conflicting claims on whether the federal government illegally imposed a plan for controlling the amount of pollutants emitted by two Oklahoma power plants. Oklahoma Policy Institute released an issue brief showing the Oklahoma’s Medicaid program is a cost-effective insurance program that improves health outcomes.
The House passed a bill to change Oklahoma’s A-F grading system, which has received heavy criticism for design flaws and overemphasis on the lowest tier of students. The Senate passed a bill to allow 51 percent of parents to kick out administrators and force a school to become a charter if it scores poorly on the A-F grading system. School superintendents and House Democrats called for more funds for public schools instead of tax cuts. OK Policy previously showed that severe education funding cuts in recent years threaten Oklahoma’s economic future, and Governor Fallin’s proposed tax cut tax cut would do little to nothing for the average Oklahoman.
NewsOK reports that Democrats, who make up 30 percent of the state House, have had about 10 percent of their bills heard by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. The House passed a bill that takes money from a program for needy Oklahoma families and uses it to create an advertising campaign promoting marriage. OK Policy has been tracking this and other bills that threaten the safety net for low-income Oklahomans. The Senate approved two measures that could jeopardize the state’s higher education funding by violating a 1978 agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.
The Number of the Day is amount of money allocated by Oklahoma in the last two years for adult basic education centers. In today’s Policy Note, a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows why cutting state personal income taxes won’t help small businesses create jobs and may harm state economies.
In The News
First bill signed into law in 2013 undoes a law Chesapeake Energy helped write
Chesapeake Energy has been pushing for a new law to undo a previous law the company helped write. On Tuesday, the new law was signed by Gov. Mary Fallin — the first bill signed by the Governor during the 2013 legislative session. House Bill 1646, authored by Rep. Fred Jordan, R-Jenks, reverses 2010 legislation that mandated staggered elections of directors of certain public corporations. Chesapeake helped write the 2010 law, which required a style of corporate governance that guarded against boardroom takeovers.
Read more from StateImpact Oklahoma.
Sandridge Energy, dissident shareholder reach out to employees
The fight for the future of SandRidge Energy Inc. has turned to the company’s 2,500 employees. CEO Tom Ward sent a letter to SandRidge employees Tuesday after hedge fund TPG-Axon Capital placed a letter to workers in Tuesday’s editions of The Oklahoman. The shareholder letter occupied a full-page advertisement in the main section of the paper. TPG-Axon has urged SandRidge to cut back its overhead as much as 75 percent by reducing employee compensation, selling the company’s planes and some of its buildings and ending “extraneous expenses.” That 75 percent figure was not part of Tuesday’s letter. TPG-Axon, in Tuesday’s letter, said more than one-third of SandRidge’s overhead spending was compensation for a small number of executives and board members.
Governor Fallin accepts compressed natural gas vehicles as part of multi-state effort
More than a dozen compressed natural gas-fueled pickup trucks were delivered to Oklahoma transportation officials Wednesday as part of Gov. Mary Fallin’s plan to supplement the state’s vehicle fleet with clean-burning, low-cost CNG vehicles. The white Ram 2500 pickups are among 242 new CNG trucks that are being added to the fleets of the Department of Transportation and other state agencies. The trucks represent the largest single order of the alternative fuel vehicles since Chrysler launched production in October, state officials and company executives said. Chrysler official Peter Grady said CNG vehicles are now part of the automaker’s long-term strategy for meeting federal fuel economy and emission standards.
Read more from the Associated Press.
OG&E, Oklahoma deliver arguments in air quality case
An appeals court heard conflicting claims Wednesday on whether the federal government illegally imposed a plan for controlling the amount of pollutants emitted by two Oklahoma power plants. The case pits Attorney General Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma Gas & Electric and industries that are big users of electricity against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and environmental group Sierra Club. The coal-burning plants near Pawnee and Muskogee emit large amounts of pollutants that cause haze and damage air quality in a multistate region. The emissions are subject to EPA regulations for haze and other types of pollution under the federal Clean Air Act. The EPA in 2011 rejected a state plan to control sulfur dioxide emissions from burned coal at those two plants operated by OG&E, the state’s largest utility.
Medicaid proves its worth
Extending health coverage to more uninsured people through Medicaid is at the core of the Affordable Care Act’s efforts to ensure access to affordable health insurance for millions of Americans. Currently in Oklahoma, nearly fifty per cent of low-income adults under age 65 lack health insurance. Working-age Oklahomans are now eligible for Medicaid only if they are parents of dependent children and have annual income less than around $6,000. Covering this population through Medicaid would provide substantial economic benefits to Oklahoma, saving the state millions of dollars that now go to cover the cost of caring for those without insurance, creating new jobs in health care and related fields, and generating significant new tax revenues. The vast bulk of the cost –over 90 percent – would be assumed by the federal government, which would spend over $12 for every state dollar from 2013 to 2022.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
Oklahoma House passes bill to change A-F grading system
The state’s new A-F school grading system was given an “incomplete” by the Oklahoma House of Representatives on Tuesday. House Bill 1658, by Rep. Lee Denney, R-Cushing, orders an adjustment to the formula used to calculate the grades. Denney said the revised formula will more accurately reflect school performance. The grading system, a concept borrowed from Florida, was intended to translate obscure school effectiveness measures into a format easy for parents and students to understand. School administrators throughout the state, however, say the current formula overemphasizes the lowest tier of student scores and is unfair to schools.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Senate passes ‘parent trigger’ bill
The Oklahoma Senate on Wednesday passed an Oklahoma version of what has been described as the “parent trigger.” Under Senate Bill 1001, if a school obtains a D or F for at least two years on the state’s A-F rating system, 51 percent of the parents could sign a petition to transition it to a charter school, said Sen. David Holt, R-Oklahoma City, the author. Administrators in school districts with at least 5,000 students in Oklahoma and Tulsa counties could be fired under the measure, Holt said.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Oklahoma House Democrats urge more funds for public schools
Flanked by public school superintendents, Oklahoma House Democrats called on Republican legislative leaders and the governor Wednesday to increase funding for public schools. Funding for public schools, which makes up the largest percentage of the legislatively appropriated budget, has been cut nearly 20 percent the past five years, said House Minority Leader Scott Inman, D-Del City. Oklahoma’s cuts to public schools are the third-worst in the nation, he said. Yet enrollment in public schools has grown by about 22,000 students in the same time period, Inman said.
See also: Severe education funding cuts threaten Oklahoma’s economic future from Oklahoma Policy Institute; Governor Fallin’s tax cut would do little to nothing for the average Oklahoman from Oklahoma Policy Insitute
Oklahoma House Democrats’ bills stalled
Democrats, who make up 30 percent of the state House, have had about 10 percent of their bills heard by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, frustrating members of the minority party who had hoped for better results under a new procedure to have bills heard on the floor. The House Calendar Committee, formed under rules approved by the House last month, reviews all bills that are passed out of committees. House Speaker T.W. Shannon, R-Lawton, said it’s part of his goal to give all voices in the House a chance to be heard. But as the House completes its fifth week of work, 148 Republican bills have passed the House, compared with 16 Democratic measures through mid-Wednesday afternoon, according to the speaker’s office.
House OKs money for marriage campaign
A bill that takes money from a program for needy Oklahoma families and directs that it be used to create an advertising campaign to promote marriage has cleared the Oklahoma House. The House voted 71-27 Wednesday for the bill sponsored by new Republican House Speaker T.W. Shannon of Lawton. The bill calls for the creation of a statewide public service announcement campaign that promotes marriage as a tool against poverty. It directs that the campaign be paid for by funds allocated to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, program. TANF provides temporary cash assistance to poor families for up to 60 months in cases of a parent’s death, incapacity, absence or unemployment.
See also: Threats to the safety net: Bills affecting low-income Oklahomans from Oklahoma Policy Institute
Senate vote could jeopardize Oklahoma higher education funding
The Senate approved two measures Tuesday that Democrat Senators Jabar Shumate and Constance Johnson believe would jeopardize the state’s higher education funding. Senate Bills 58 and 59 would remove the mandate for a Langston University presence in Tulsa and would allow for the duplication of Langston University course offerings. In a press release, the two lawmakers argued that both bills would be “in direct violation” of a 1978 agreement with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, which mandated that Langston University would have a presence in both Tulsa and Oklahoma City, and that it’s courses would not be duplicated by other universities.
Read more from Tulsa Business.
Quote of the Day
While our students have larger class sizes, fewer new textbooks and fewer resources, we’re giving $39 back a year to Oklahoma citizens. We believe that if the people of Oklahoma hear that case … that they’ll join with us and call on a bipartisan group of leaders to put a stop to this income tax push. Instead of cutting $120 million, let’s put that $120 million into the common education system in Oklahoma.
–House Minority Leader Scott Inman, D-Del City
Number of the Day
$0
Amount of money allocated by Oklahoma in the last two years for adult basic education centers, which offer GED prep courses and teach basic math and reading skills, previously allotted between $2-3M dollars annually by the state
Source: The Lawton Constitution
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Cutting State Personal Income Taxes Won’t Help Small Businesses Create Jobs and May Harm State Economies
Cutting state personal income taxes not only won’t promote small business growth and job creation, but it is also likely over time to threaten the success of entrepreneurs by taking resources away from critical services like education. Until recently, most proposals to cut state taxes in the name of boosting economic growth and job creation focused on cutting business taxes like the state corporate tax. But in the past several years a growing number of elected officials and business organizations have called for cuts in state personal income taxes. Regardless of the specific form they take, state personal income tax cuts will almost inevitably provide disproportionate tax savings to the most affluent households in a state. At the same time, cutting income taxes is a poor strategy for stoking small business growth and job creation.
Read more from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.
