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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 income House Speaker T.W. Shannon wants to require every state agency to develop a contingency plan how they would operate without billions in federal funds. The state’s monthly total tax revenue fell below the previous year’s amount for the third time in the past six months due to plummeting collections on oil and natural gas production.
State leaders responded to a report showing that only two Oklahoma had the third-largest per pupil education funding cuts in the nation since the recession began. OK Policy previously discussed the report. NewsOK argued that the funding cuts have not been detrimental. Kurt Hochenauer wrote that per pupil decline and state revenue drop weaken the argument for more tax cuts. End-of-instruction exam scores of 15 Hinton Public Schools students were invalidated after an investigation of the rural district’s testing program.
Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Justin Jones said employee pay raises will be his top priority next legislative session. House Minority Leader Scott Inman wants to ban the sale of beer at self-checkout stands in grocery stores. The Oklahoma Supreme Court has been asked to review whether a private contractor charging subscription fees for online court records and allowing only a select group access to them violates the state’s Open Records Act.
Hand Up Ministries will again fight a new law designed to keep sex offenders from living together in trailers. DHS has obtained a temporary license to open a second children’s shelter in Oklahoma City as its existing shelter continues to operate at near capacity. The U.S. Supreme Court in October will hear arguments in a case that has featured a Tulsa immigrant in the legal briefs. An Edmond beauty salon owner has been charged with a felony for offering a $4,000 bribe in exchange for help on the exam for a state cosmetology license.
The Number of the Day is the percentage of households in Oklahoma reporting internet access. In today’s Policy Note, Jared Bernstein examines how much politicians can really affect job creation.
In The News
Incoming speaker foresees fiscal doomsday
A few months ago, incoming Speaker of the House T.W. Shannon raised a lot of eyebrows when he proposed a legislative study of “state doomsday preparedness.” It sounded as if the man who was about to be one of the most powerful people in the state Capitol was a tin-hat survivalist, stocking up on MREs and booby trapping the cellar door. But the doomsday that the Lawton Republican was worried about wasn’t Armageddon, it was a state fiscal crisis created by massive federal budget cuts. “State agencies are addicted to federal spending,” Shannon said in a press release last week. His goal: Require every state agency to develop a contingency plan for a loss of federal money.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Oklahoma total tax revenues dip below last year
The state’s monthly total tax revenue collections fell below the previous year’s amount for the third time in the past six months, state Treasurer Ken Miller said Thursday. The state’s overall economy seems to be doing well, with the lower figures mostly attributable to lower collections on natural gas and oil production, he said. Total revenue collections, a reflection of the performance of the state’s economy, came in for August about 2.8 percent below August of last year, Miller said. Collections on oil and natural gas production are 53.7 percent lower for the month. However, sales tax collections are up by 10.4 percent, he said.
Oklahoma school cuts among nation’s highest
Only two states have cut their per-pupil school budgets by a bigger proportion since the recession began than Oklahoma, according to a national report, but there’s more to the story than that, state education leaders say. Oklahoma’s per-pupil spending went down $706 between fiscal year 2008 and fiscal year 2013, a 20.3 percent decline, according to the analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. But state education leaders questioned the report’s statistics and its conclusions. State Superintendent Janet Barresi said the report’s headline statistic isn’t the best way to compare the commitment of states to school programs. “Per-pupil funding is not necessarily a good yardstick for success,” she said. “Some of the lowest-performing school systems in the nation also have the highest per-pupil funding.”
Read more from the Tulsa World.
See also: Per pupil decline, revenue drop weaken tax cut argument from Okie Funk; Student outcomes offer best measure of schools’ economic impact from NewsOK; Oklahoma’s per pupil spending has plummeted from the OK Policy Blog
15 high school students have test scores invalidated by Oklahoma Education Department
End-of-instruction exam scores of 15 Hinton Public Schools students were invalidated after an investigation of the rural district’s testing program by the state Education Department, The Oklahoman has learned. Richard Brownen, superintendent of Hinton Public Schools, said the Education Department found several infractions in the district’s testing program. He said the infractions occurred in the spring of 2010 and the summer of 2011. Brownen said the district has about 170 students in high school, meaning nearly 10 percent of test-taking students were affected by the invalidations. The district’s former testing coordinator, Cheryl Garrison, resigned during a recent school board meeting. Former Superintendent Patrick Duffy, who now works at Jefferson Middle School in Oklahoma City as an assistant principal, resigned in June.
Oklahoma Department of Corrections to seek employee raises
Oklahoma Department of Corrections Director Justin Jones said employee pay raises will be his top priority next legislative session. “It is out of necessity,” he said. When lawmakers return to the state Capitol in February, it will have been seven years since state employees had a pay raise, Jones pointed out. Correctional officers start out at $11.83 per hour, but Jones wants that increased to $14. In addition, he is seeking a 5 percent, across-the-board pay increase for classified employees in the Department of Corrections. The total cost would be $12.2 million. The low pay for correctional officers results in a high turnover rate, Jones said. And several facilities are in areas with low unemployment due to the oil industry, which can pay higher wages, he said.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Oklahoma lawmaker wants beer banned from self-checkout stands
An Oklahoma lawmaker said Thursday that he will pursue legislation that would ban the sale of beer at self-checkout stands in grocery stores. The House Public Safety Committee held an interim study on the issue at the request of House Minority Leader Scott Inman, D-Del City. Inman said he held off on legislation last session at the request of the Oklahoma Grocery Association. Inman said some minors are scanning sodas but placing beer in their shopping bags as a means to acquire alcohol. But Oklahoma Grocery Association Chairman Keith Kinnamon, a Chandler grocer, said that’s not a big problem in the state. Kinnamon said most point-of-sale devices will flag alcohol and require additional action by an employee for a transaction to continue. The issue described by Inman is essentially shoplifting, he said.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Limited access to online court records may be Open Records Act violation
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has been asked to review whether a private contractor charging subscription fees for online court records and allowing only a select group access to them violates the state’s Open Records Act. Mike Evans, administrative director of the courts, said as a result of multiple complaints, he has asked the Supreme Court to look at the practice by state contractor KellPro. The company allows only Oklahoma Bar Association members to buy subscription access to online records in the 64 counties serviced by KellPro’s ODCR court records system. In those counties, residents can access court dockets online, but only Oklahoma Bar Association members can download the accompanying documents. KellPro charges a subscription of $50 per month or $600 per year. Residents who are not members of the state bar association have to drive to the county courthouse, ask to examine documents in person and pay up to $1 per page for copies.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Hand Up Ministries to challenge Oklahoma sex offender housing law
Hand Up Ministries will again fight a new law designed to keep sex offenders from living together in trailers, the group’s new attorney said. The 14-acre trailer park at 2130 SE 59 in Oklahoma City is run by the nonprofit. The founder, the Rev. David Nichols, said it’s one of few places that helps registered sex offenders facing extreme housing restrictions get back on their feet after prison. “This is not good public policy,” attorney David Slane said Sunday. He said he plans to file a lawsuit in state district court this week challenging the statute. He said the law violates Nichols’ due process rights under the Oklahoma Constitution.
Second Oklahoma City children’s shelter licensed as existing DHS facility nears capacity
DHS has obtained a temporary license to open a second children’s shelter in Oklahoma City as its existing shelter continues to operate at near capacity. The new license was issued at a time when DHS is under intense pressure to reduce or eliminate its use of shelters for abused or neglected children — particularly babies. There were 42 children at the Pauline E. Mayer shelter Friday, just six under capacity, said Sheree Powell, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. Of the 42 children at Pauline E. Mayer on Friday, seven were ages 2 and under, and 12 were ages 3 through 5, Powell said. The other children were teens or preteens.
Tulsa awaits U.S. Supreme Court decision on immigration
The U.S. Supreme Court in October will hear arguments in a case that has featured a Tulsa immigrant in the legal briefs. Two years ago, the court ruled that the Sixth Amendment requires criminal defense attorneys to inform non-citizen clients of the possible immigration consequences when accepting a plea agreement. The court was silent on whether it could be applied in criminal cases adjudicated before the decision. Lower courts have been split on issue of retroactivity. The U.S. 10th Circuit Court is among those siding against retroactivity, meaning deportation proceedings may continue for immigrants in that district, which includes Oklahoma, who received bad or incomplete legal advice before the Supreme Court rendered its decision. Among the legal briefs in support of retroactivity is the story of Jorge “George” Aguilar, a Tulsa immigrant featured in a Tulsa World story in November.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Edmond woman charged with felony for offering bribe for help on cosmetologist exam
An Edmond beauty salon owner has been accused of promising a $4,000 bribe for help on an exam for a state license, while a former state employee has been accused of asking for the payment. An Edmond woman has been accused in a bribery indictment of promising $4,000 to a Cosmetology Board investigator for help passing a test. Grand jurors alleged Tina Thi Vo promised Cosmetology Board investigator Patricia Migliaccio $4,000 in May to let her take an oral exam for an instructor’s license and to use hand signals to give her the correct answers. Grand jurors alleged Migliaccio asked for the payment and assured Vo she would pass. Vo, 48, of Edmond, is charged with a felony — bribery. Migliaccio, 63, of Moore, is charged with a misdemeanor — asking for a gratuity for performing an official act.
Quote of the Day
This problem has not gone away. It’s not going to go away. There are always going to be children who are abused or neglected that need our help. We, in turn, need the community’s help to serve these children.
–Sheree Powell, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, speaking about an Oklahoma City children’s shelter that continues to operate at near capacity without enough foster families to house the children.
Number of the Day
71.4 percent
Percentage of households in Oklahoma reporting internet access, compared to 75.9 percent nationally
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Do politicians really have much to do with job creation?
Reading Matt Bai’s piece in the NYT Magazine today about the Ohio economy, and reflecting on many recent discussions and debates, I found myself pondering the question posed above. It’s a big, portentous question, especially in an election year where the economy’s center stage. It’s central to the Bai piece as he talks to the current and former governors, the mayor of Columbus, and the White House. It’s not like Ohio’s soaring ahead of the rest of the nation, but there’s been a notable recovery there, particularly in autos. Unemployment, which peaked at 10.6%, above the national rate, is now below it, at 7.2% (the nation is at 8.1%). Predictably, everybody wants a piece of the action. Ohio’s an interesting case study, because it’s a swing state and an autos state so there’s a lot for the pols to squabble about. Bai points out that Gov John Kasich (R) talks about his great jobs record, giving Obama little credit, while the President is all over the state reminding folks of his actions, while at the same time Romney surrogate Sen Rob Portman (R) reminds Ohioans of the very un-Kasich-like message that they’re really not doing so well at all. Is there any way of sorting out who’s right here?
Read more from Jared Bernstein.
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