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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 Rep. Dustin Roberts, R-Durant, filed legislation that would require drug tests for anyone who files an initial claim for unemployment benefits. Roberts stated that legislation passed last year required drug testing for TANF recipients, but this bill was amended to do something totally different from what Roberts is proposing. OK Policy previously explained why Robert’s mandatory suspicionless drug tests are bad policy.
The head of Oklahoma’s overcrowded prison system says he needs $6.3 million before the next fiscal year or he’ll be forced to start refusing to receive inmates who are backed up in county jails across the state. A child under the age of 2 ended up being placed in a Department of Human Services shelter less than two weeks after an improvement plan’s Dec. 31 deadline to place nearly all babies and 1-year-olds in its care in family-like settings. Plans to close a state facility for Oklahomans with developmental disabilities depend on how quickly clients can find new homes.
As we prepare to celebrate OK Policy’s fifth anniversary, we’ve selected our top five greatest hits from our blog. The president of OU-Tulsa writes in the Tulsa World that much like our roads and bridges, Oklahoma health care system is “structurally deficient.” A $116 million bond proposal for higher education is on the cusp of approval. Investors are concerned about deficits created by a large tax cut in Kansas, leaving the state with the eighth-worst bond returns in the U.S.
The Number of the Day is the average retail price per kilowatt hour of electricity in Oklahoma for end-users in all sectors. In today’s Policy Note, the Economic Policy Institute contrasts the billions the federal government spends on immigration enforcement with the abysmally low level of funds for enforcing labor standards and protecting the rights of workers in the United States.
In The News
Lawmaker files bill requiring drug test for unemployment recipients
State Rep. Dustin Roberts filed legislation Thursday that would require an unemployed individual who files an initial claim for unemployment benefits to be tested for illegal drugs. House Bill 1045 would leave it to the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission to establish the drug testing program and promulgate rules for its administration. “We successfully passed legislation last year to require that the Department of Human Services drug test some Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients,” said Roberts, R-Durant. “I think it is good policy and one we should use with any state-paid benefits that might be misused by an addict. I know that my constituents do not want to support a drug addiction with tax dollars.”
Read more from the Ardmoreite.
Previously: A step sideways: Bill to drug-test welfare applicants gets a make-over from the OK Policy Blog; 5 reasons not to drug test welfare applicants from the OK Policy Blog
Department of Corrections seeks increase in funding
The head of Oklahoma’s overcrowded prison system says he needs $6.3 million before the next fiscal year or he’ll be forced to start refusing to receive inmates who are backed up in county jails across the state. Department of Corrections Director Justin Jones detailed his agency’s need for a supplemental appropriation Thursday before a Senate budget panel. Jones says he needs nearly $3.8 million to pay for the net growth of about 900 new prisoners in the system since last year.
Child under 2 was wrongly put in state shelter, Oklahoma Department of Human Services official says
A child under the age of 2 ended up being placed in a Department of Human Services shelter less than two weeks after an improvement plan’s Dec. 31 deadline to place nearly all babies and 1-year-olds in its care in family-like settings. The child, along with two siblings, was placed in the shelter on a Friday and stayed four days until DHS supervisors were told of the situation on the following Monday and found a foster home, Deborah Smith, director of the agency’s child welfare services, said Tuesday.
Numbers big factor in SORC transition
Regardless of whether one has been for or against closure of the Southern Oklahoma Resource Center, much of how well plans for its transition proceed depends on how quickly clients find homes. Though no clients have been placed as January comes to a close, a plan recently released by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services details its goal of transitioning most of them into community settings by the end of the current year. A reduction from a current campus population of about 123 residents to 18 by the end of this calendar year would help considerably toward meeting the closure date of April 30, 2014, but if transitions are slower than projected, delays could also shift additional attention on where clients would reside if they have yet to be relocated.
Read more from the Pauls Valley Democrat.
Turning 5: Our greatest blog hits
As we prepare to celebrate OK Policy’s fifth anniversary, we’ve gone back and selected our top five greatest hits from our blog. The winners, selected by staff, all generated strong traffic and buzz, and exemplify our efforts to apply careful research and accessible analysis to state policy issues.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
Road-fix initiative model for health care
Just a few years ago, many of Oklahoma’s bridges were designated as “structurally deficient,” among the worst in the nation. Local, state and federal leaders were moved by these rankings and by the observable shortcomings of our roads and bridges and unified their efforts for a better transportation system. For almost a decade, planning and funding from local, state and federal levels have worked in concert to significantly and quickly make progress on our roads and bridges. Maybe there is a lesson to be learned from these transportation initiatives in our heated discussions about Oklahoma’s health. And maybe it is time to change the conversation on health. I would argue that the data show that Oklahoma’s health is “structurally deficient.”
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Oklahoma lawmakers critical of regents’ Master Lease Program
A $116 million bond program that never got a vote by the Legislature or the people of Oklahoma may be on the cusp of approval. After Attorney General Scott Pruitt’s office found the approval process of the state Regents for Higher Education’s Master Lease Program to be constitutional, if not necessarily good policy, the latest round of borrowing will go before the Oklahoma Council of Bond Oversight on Thursday. While hurdles remain, including a potentially sticky position taken by State Bond Advisor Jim Joseph concerning the package’s most controversial element, the lion’s share of the program is moving forward, raising concerns among state debt hawks in the Legislature.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Kansas bonds highlight risks of tax cuts
Kansas lawmakers haven’t figured out how to pay for the tax cuts without potentially crippling public schools and other local government functions. Reducing the income tax has left a projected $2.5 billion revenue hole through fiscal 2018, according to the Kansas Legislative Research Department. On Jan. 11, a state court ruled that the legislature was illegally underfunding schools and ordered a payment of $440 million. “It’s a major fiscal risk,” Chris Mier, managing director of analytical services at Loop Capital Markets in Chicago, said of Brownback’s income-tax push. Other investors may share that view. Kansas issuers trailed gains in the $3.7 trillion tax-exempt market during the past year. The bonds’ 5.5 percent return in 2012 was the eighth-worst among all U.S. states, beating only Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Mexico, North Carolina, Utah and Virginia, according to Barclays Plc data.
Quote of the Day
Just like seeing our roads and bridges fail in front of our very eyes, our emergency rooms and safety-net clinics see the failings of our health-care system to stay ahead of end-stage diabetes, young adults suffering heart attacks and the late, and therefore almost certainly terminal, diagnosis of cancers. Maybe if we recognized our health-care system as “structurally deficient” we could push ourselves to again unify at the local, state and federal levels at this time to invest in and improve the health of all Oklahomans.
–Gerard P. Clancy, M.D., president of the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa
Number of the Day
$7.35
Average retail price per kilowatt hour of electricity in Oklahoma for end-users in all sectors, 4th lowest in the U.S. in 2012
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
In a new, well-documented report, Immigration Enforcement in the United States: The Rise of a Formidable Machinery, the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) calculated that the government’s price tag for immigration enforcement in 2012 was $18 billion. The report made headlines by highlighting the fact that this figure amounts to 24 percent more than it costs to fund the five main U.S. law enforcement agencies combined. But MPI offered another important juxtaposition in the report that has failed to receive much attention: the abysmally low level of funds the government commits to enforcing labor standards and protecting the rights of workers in the United States.
Read more from the Economic Policy Institute.
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