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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 Governor Fallin told the Wall Street Journal that she will continue the push for income tax cuts next year. See OK Policy’s collected research and coverage of this year’s tax debate on our tax reform information page. Federal officials turned down Oklahoma’s request for assistance to wildfire victims in Oklahoma, Cleveland and Payne counties. The average cost of child care in Oklahoma rose by as much as 21 percent during the past five years.
Rep. Jason Nelson said school administrators are being disingenuous to complain about receiving less state aid when districts have millions of dollars in their general funds. The okeducationtruths blog responded that carryover balances are necessary to avoid bouncing checks written at the beginning of the fiscal year. An employee benefits attorney told the Tulsa World that businesses need to be planning now for their new responsibilities under the Affordable Care Act. The OK Policy Blog explained why businesses will be better off providing their workers’ coverage under the new law.
Months after Oklahoma set an all-time high for the number of residents receiving food stamps, U.S. Rep. Frank Lucas is pushing to restrict eligibility for what is viewed as the nation’s most important safety net. Pikepass customers are being urged to get the new windshield sticker tags before the old units they have are deactivated. An energy conservation program for state agencies and educational institutions officially begins today, along with numerous other laws passed this year.
The Number of the Day is the percentage of Oklahomans who say they keep a firearm in or around their home. In today’s Policy Note, an infographic from the Congressional Budget Office shows how scheduled tax increases and spending cuts are expected to affect the economy and federal debt.
In The News
Governor Fallin says income tax cuts coming next year
Despite Republican control of the governor’s office and the state legislature, pledges to cut Oklahoma’s individual income tax failed last year because GOP members, the Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore writes, “wanted to spend more on district pet projects rather than cut tax rates.” Next year will be different, Gov. Mary Fallin tells the paper. Look out, Kansas and Nebraska: “We are going to get that tax cut done next year,” she insists. “We only had $2 in our rainy day fund when I came into office, but now we have a healthy reserve to finance a rate cut. We cut our unemployment rate by 30 percent since coming into office, and we’ve led the nation in manufacturing jobs.” The plan, Fallin tells the WSJ, is to get Oklahoma’s top income tax rate of 5.25 percent down to 4.8 percent “or lower” — less than Kansas’s recently reduced rate.
Read more from StateImpact Oklahoma.
See also: Tax Reform Information from Oklahoma Policy Institute
FEMA denies assistance for central Oklahoma wildfire victims
Federal officials turned down Oklahoma’s request Thursday for assistance for individuals and business owners who suffered losses from wildfires in Oklahoma, Cleveland and Payne counties. Gov. Mary Fallin called the decision by the Federal Emergency Management Agency cruel and plans to appeal it. FEMA made the announcement one day after approving individual assistance for wildfire victims in Creek County. Fallin said Oklahoma has 30 days to appeal. To help build a case, all those in Oklahoma, Cleveland and Payne counties who experienced wildfire damage to their homes or businesses since July 28 are urged to call FEMA at (800) 621-3362 to report it. The Oklahoma Emergency Management Department reported that FEMA and state damage assessment teams confirmed about 220 houses were destroyed in Oklahoma, Cleveland and Payne counties. More than 200 were uninsured.
Oklahoma child care costs up 21 percent in last five years
Despite a worsening economy, the average cost of child care in Oklahoma rose by as much as 21 percent during the past five years, according to a Tulsa World analysis of national pricing reports. Oklahoma is known as a leader in early childhood programs, offering universal prekindergarten through the state education department. About 98 percent of districts offer prekindergarten and 74 percent of Oklahoma’s 4-year-olds attend a public program, according to the National Institute of Early Education Research. But as families seek these public options, the price of care for the youngest children is shooting up. The average yearly cost for a baby or toddler in an Oklahoma center is $7,288, up from $6,029 in 2007. This is about 11 percent of the median income for a two-parent household and 36 percent of a single mother’s budget.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Rep. Jason Nelson calls education leaders disingenuous on state funding complaints
School administrators are being disingenuous to complain about receiving less state aid when districts have millions of dollars in their general funds, Rep. Jason Nelson told the state Board of Education at its regular meeting Thursday. “If you didn’t spend from your savings account money at the depth of the worst recession in decades … I’m not buying that argument,” he said. Nelson, R-Oklahoma City, presented documents from the Oklahoma State Department of Education showing that the state’s 522 districts held back just more than $676 million last year in their general funds. … Sand Springs Superintendent Lloyd Snow was at the meeting, but couldn’t rebut Nelson’s argument because Nelson spoke during the public comments section. “I had to sit on my hands,” he said. “General fund balances are critical to providing stability in a very unstable environment.”
Read more from the Tulsa World.
See also: Shrillness is in the eye of the beholder from okeducationtruths
Attorney says waiting is not a good plan for businesses when it comes to Affordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act has broadly changed the employment world, and companies that aren’t planning for its impact face a future fraught with peril, attorneys from the state’s largest law firm told more than 300 human resource professionals Thursday. “Waiting is going to get you into a really tough situation,” said Bill Freudenrich, an employee benefits attorney for McAfee & Taft, at a Thursday seminar at the Renaissance Hotel. While the law changes everything from how wages are reported on W-2 statements to what benefits are included in health packages, a key decision for employers is whether to offer health insurance or to pay tax penalties – the so-called play-or-pay decision. If a company with more than 50 workers fails to offer a qualifying health package to its full-time employees and one of those people gets coverage through a health insurance exchange, the law provides for a $2,000 tax for every employee, attorney Jim Prince said. The $2,000 penalty is figured for every employee in the company, including those who received outstanding insurance.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Summer re-run: Employers better off keeping workers’ coverage under new health care law
Employer-based health insurance coverage is the single largest pillar of the American health insurance system. Unemployment and rising costs continue to erode employer-based coverage, but more than half of all Americans – 169 million – are still insured through employers. The federal tax code has long encouraged employers to provide coverage by making employer health care expenditures tax-deductible. The new federal health care law, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aims to expand health insurance coverage in the United States in part by strengthening employer-based coverage. The law provides sizable tax credits to small businesses (≤25 employees) that offer insurance. Beginning in 2014, large employers (≥50 employees) will have new responsibilities to provide coverage.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
Proposed bill would limit food stamps
Months after Oklahoma set an all-time high for the number of residents receiving food stamps, U.S. Rep. Frank Lucas is pushing a controversial farm bill that would restrict eligibility for what is viewed as the nation’s most important safety net for the poor. About $945 million in food stamp benefits were dispensed to more than 600,000 Oklahomans in 2011, according to federal and state data compiled by Oklahoma Watch. Although the government has not released an official estimate, fewer Oklahomans are expected to receive food stamps under the Lucas-led legislative effort. One unofficial estimate projected that 20,000 to 30,000 households could be impacted. “The change affects the very neediest Oklahomans,” said Paul Shinn, a public policy analyst at the Community Action Project of Tulsa County, who offered the estimate.
Read more from Oklahoma Watch.
Pikepass customers urged to switch to new windshield sticker tags
Pikepass customers are being urged to get the new windshield sticker tags before the old units they have no longer work. Four months after the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority began sending out as many as four warnings that the old units will be deactivated, about 18 percent of the 580,000 Pikepass account holders have yet to comply, Tim Stewart, the agency’s deputy director and chief operating officer, told authority members Thursday. That means about 104,400 customers haven’t complied even though notices from the agency have been mailed to their registered addresses. The Turnpike Authority knows about 65,000 have received multiple postcards yet haven’t responded, he said. … Plans call for the old units to be deactivated around March of next year, Branscum said.
New energy conservation program for state agencies goes into effect
An energy conservation program for state agencies and educational institutions, estimated to save the state as much as $500 million over the next 10 years, officially begins Friday. A bill establishing the program, along with nearly 90 other measures, takes effect Friday. Laws outlawing the commercial growing and transportation of castor beans also take effect, as does a measure that extends the sales tax exemption to surviving spouses of disabled veterans who did not remarry. The exemption is capped at $6,000 per year. Castor beans, composed of 50 percent or more of oil, are among the most promising biofuel crops, but they contain ricin, one of nature’s deadliest poisons. The measures that become law Friday had no effective date in them, and automatically take effect 90 days after the session ended — which was May 25.
Quote of the Day
I am extremely disappointed in FEMA’s decision to deny disaster assistance to all Oklahomans who have been tragically impacted by these fires. It seems ridiculous to me that houses lost in fires occurring within the same period, on the same day in some cases, would arbitrarily qualify for aid in some counties while not in others.
-Governor Mary Fallin, on a decision by FEMA to provide federal assistance to wildfire victims in Creek County but not Cleveland, Oklahoma and Payne counties
Number of the Day
42.9 percent
Percentage of Oklahomans who say they keep a firearm in or around their home
Source: CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Fiscal Tightening in 2013 and Its Economic Consequences – Infographic
Under current law, a sharp reduction in the federal budget deficit between 2012 and 2013 will cause the economy to contract, the Congressional Budget Off ice projects, but will also put federal debt on a path more likely to be sustainable over time. To illustrate the eff ects of fiscal tightening, CBO compared its projections under current law (the “baseline” projections) with projections under an alternative set of policies — two scenarios in a broad spectrum of choices.
See the infographic from the Congressional Budget Office.
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