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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 House overwhelmingly passed three anti-abortion measures Tuesday despite warnings from a GOP member that their votes would drive Oklahoma women away from the Republican Party. The House also passed Gov. Fallin’s plan to slash the state’s top personal income tax rate further. The OK Policy Blog previously showed the Gov. Fallin’s tax cut would do little to nothing for the average Oklahoman while taking more than $100 million from core public services.
KOSU reports that despite rosy promises of growth following huge tax cuts in Kansas, so far the revenue hasn’t returned. Oklahoma’s secretary of finance said state income tax refunds and a drop in natural gas production led to a drop in general revenue in February. Collections for the first eight months of this fiscal year are about $29 million below the same period one year ago. Despite continuing resistance in the Legislature, Gov. Fallin renewed her pledge of support for bonds to finance completion of the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum.
The OK Policy Blog has a guest post by John Thompson on what the Texas backlash against high-stakes testing means for Oklahoma. An appeals court cited years of warnings about serious deficiencies at the Oklahoma County jail as a basis for reopening a lawsuit stemming from the 2009 death of a sick inmate. A bill making its way through the House would eliminate state funding for OETA.
The Number of the Day is the graduation success rate for University of Oklahoma football players, tied for the lowest rate among all Division I universities. In Today’s Policy Note, the New York Times reports that there is little evidence that tax cutting has worked as advertised to improve economic growth over the last three decades.
In The News
House approves three anti-abortion measures
The Republican-controlled House overwhelmingly passed three anti-abortion measures Tuesday despite warnings from a GOP member that their votes would drive Oklahoma women away from the Republican Party. “This bill is an example of a bill that we’ve gone too far,” said Rep. Doug Cox, R-Grove. “It hasn’t happened in Oklahoma yet but it’s happened nationwide — we’ve gone so far in disrespecting a woman’s right to determine her own destiny that women are leaving the Republican Party.” Two measures making it harder for young women to receive an abortion without notifying a parent and a bill that would expand the state’s abortion reporting law all won easy approval. All three advance to the Senate.
House approves Governor’s tax cut proposal
A plan backed by Gov. Mary Fallin to slash the state’s top personal income tax rate easily cleared the Republican-controlled Oklahoma House on Tuesday over the objection of Democrats who argued it would take funding from critical state services. The House voted 65-30 for the bill by House Speaker T.W. Shannon, R-Lawton, to cut the top rate from 5.25 percent to 5 percent, beginning Jan. 1. The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration. The bill passed Tuesday would cost the state about $50 million in the upcoming fiscal year that begins July 1 and $130 million when fully implemented in fiscal year 2015, according to a House analysis.
Read more from the Enid News and Eagle.
See also: Governor Fallin’s tax cut would do little to nothing for the average Oklahoman from the OK Policy Blog
Lower income taxes in Kansas, so what has Oklahoma learned from their situation?
It’s good politics in most parts of Oklahoma to run on a low tax pledge. All federal and statewide seats are now red, and Republicans dominate the House and Senate at the Capitol. A plan to make a change failed last year, while Kansas was slashing their rate. The state cut the income tax for small businesses, and the top rate came down a couple notches too. So far, the revenue hasn’t returned. “We’ve said all along that’s it’s going to take a year or two, maybe two years before you see the real effects.” “He’s either going to have to increase taxes to fill that hole or he’s going to have to make some very drastic cuts across the board to state services.” That’s Representative Nile Dillmore, Democrat out of Kansas’s 92nd district.
Tax refunds, natural gas cut Oklahoma revenue
Oklahoma’s secretary of finance says state income tax refunds and a drop in natural gas production reduced general revenue fund receipts last month. Secretary of Finance and Revenue Preston L. Doerflinger said Tuesday that collections totaled about $255 million in February. That’s almost $29 million below collections in February 2012 and $20 million lower than the official estimate upon which this year’s budget is based. Collections for the first eight months of the fiscal year are $3.5 billion, which is about $29 million below the same period one year ago.
Gov. Fallin renews pledge of support for American Indian museum financing
Despite her aversion to federal deficit spending, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin does not think all debt is bad. She has restated her support for completion of the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum in Oklahoma City, including possible state bond financing. The chief executive’s statement came even as legislative opposition to new state bond issues seems to have intensified. State Rep. Paul Wesselhoft, R-Oklahoma City, cautioned there was little appetite for a bond issue this year. He is encouraging Chambers of Commerce and others to “step up” and finance completion of the Center with direct contributions.
What the Texas backlash against high-stakes testing means for Oklahoma (Guest Blog: John Thompson)
The test-driven accountability of No Child Left Behind was born of Governor George Bush’s faith that teachers with “High Expectations!” can overcome the legacies of generational poverty. Data-driven “reform” was conceived from the spinning of numbers in Houston that was then proclaimed the “Texas Miracle.” Even today, the market-driven theories of Governor Jeb Bush are being imposed on schools in Oklahoma and elsewhere. In Texas, the bubble-in mania has crested.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
10th Circuit restores lawsuit against Oklahoma County over man who died in custody
An appeals court Tuesday cited years of warnings about serious deficiencies at the Oklahoma County jail as a basis for reopening a lawsuit stemming from the 2009 death of a sick inmate. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded “a reasonable jury could find that Sheriff (John) Whetsel and the County acted with deliberate indifference” to substandard jail conditions that may have caused the death. Appellate judges decided 3-0 that the daughters of inmate Charles Holdstock should get an opportunity to prove their claim that he was denied his constitutional right to adequate medical attention while in custody.
HB 2218 would eliminate state funding to OETA
An Oklahoma bill making its way through the House of Representatives would cut state funding to public broadcasts. Under House Bill 2218, the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority would receive incremental cuts until 2022, after which the network would obtain no further state appropriations. The first round of cuts would reduce funding by 25 percent. If at the end of that period OETA were to find alternate funding, Oklahoma would enact cuts of 10, 10, 20 and 35 percent over the next four years. If it could not, however, state funding would be even more drastically reduced.
Quote of the Day
This bill is an example of a bill that we’ve gone too far. It hasn’t happened in Oklahoma yet but it’s happened nationwide — we’ve gone so far in disrespecting a woman’s right to determine her own destiny that women are leaving the Republican Party.
–Rep. Doug Cox, R-Grove, on a bill passed by the House that would make it harder for young women who have been sexually abused to receive an abortion without notifying a parent
Number of the Day
47 percent
The graduation success rate for University of Oklahoma football players, tied for the lowest rate among all Division I universities.
Source: NCAA
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Blessings of low taxes remain unproved
The proposition that low tax rates produce higher economic growth has been a central plank of the Republican platform since I was a teenager. The new standard-bearer for lower tax rates, Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, is for the first time younger than I am. But while the message has not changed, the track record of the last three decades does not bear out the core proposition of Republican economic doctrine. In laying out his plan for a balanced budget by 2023, Mr. Ryan has trotted out the same three elements of Mr. Kemp’s formula: drastic curbs on spending, paring loopholes in unspecified ways and cutting tax rates even further, well below the roughly 40 percent top rate on income that was reintroduced by President Obama’s recent tax increase. Problem is, there is little evidence that tax cutting has worked as advertised.
Read more from the New York Times.
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Aargh.