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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. E-mail your suggestions for In The Know items to gperry@okpolicy.org. You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.
Today you should know that two state lawmakers have proposed eliminating all state funding for OETA, the statewide public television network. The OK Policy Blog previously featured a guest post from the OETA Board Chair on why the network is vital to the public education mission of Oklahoma. Inadequate mental health facilities in Oklahoma continues to be a drain on law enforcement, with officers sometimes needing to travel 461-miles round trip to find an open mental health bed.
The liability cap for people killed or injured by the government in Oklahoma is much lower than in most other states. DHS is moving ahead with reforms mandated by a lawsuit settlement over foster care abuses. The agency also paid $92,500 in a settlement over a three-year-old’s death. One measure pending in the legislature would require a woman to listen to a fetal heartbeat before ending her pregnancy, and two others would declare that life begins at conception.
The number of homeless veterans in Oklahoma declined by more than 25 percent between 2009 and 2011, due in part to a new initiative by the Department of Veterans Affairs. A report last week by the Violence Policy Center ranked Oklahoma No. 4 in per-capita “black-on-black” homicides. Oklahoma is one of 15 states that has made the least progress toward establishing a health insurance exchange, but also one whose people could most benefit from one, a study by the Urban Institute shows.
The Tulsa World provides an overview of the income tax debate in Oklahoma. The Number of the Day is the average tax increase on elderly Oklahoma couples with $35,000 in income under a legislative proposal to eliminate a slate of broad-based tax credits and exemptions in order to pay for a cut in the top rate. Find more on this issue at OK Policy’s tax reform information page. In today’s Policy Note, the Foundation for Child Development finds that states with higher taxes and greater investment in public programs score highest for Child Well-Being.
In The News
Legislators propose eliminating all state funding for OETA
Two state legislators have proposed zero-funding for OETA, the statewide educational television network. While the move wouldn’t kill the state signal for Big Bird and ”Antiques Roadshow,” it would mean a lot fewer Oklahomans would be able to get it, the executive director of OETA said. OETA is the only Oklahoma public media to receive state appropriations. KOSU and KGOU – public radio stations licensed to Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma – receive their state funding indirectly through those schools, not through appropriations. Rep. Leslie Osborn, R-Tuttle, author of HB 3039, said the bill represents a reprioritization of state spending. She specifically cited the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, which needs state funding to protect the lives of children, as an agency with a higher priority than OETA. John McCarroll, executive director for OETA, said eliminating the agency’s appropriation would certainly lead to less of the state getting the network’s signal. OETA’s state appropriation has gone from $5.2 million three years ago to $3.8 million this year.
Read more from The Tulsa World.
Previously: Guest Blog (Dr. James Utterback): OETA is vital to the public education mission of Oklahoma from the OK Policy Blog
Lack of mental health beds a drain on law enforcement
When Tulsa Police officers answer a disturbance call and recognize signs of mental illness, they take the person to a local hospital for an evaluation – which often begins the search for an available bed at a mental health treatment facility. Sometimes, the only available bed is at Fort Supply in northwest Oklahoma, a 461-mile round trip. Tulsa police officers made 286 trips to move 357 mental health patients to crisis centers and hospitals as far as Fort Supply between June 2010 – when the department started keeping such records – and December 2011. They drove more than 65,700 miles, at a cost of 2,880 man hours and $81,335 in salary. “It is truly a broken system,” Tulsa Police Major Tracie Lewis said. “It’s costly for us, and time consuming and draining. And it’s really such a horrible process for the patients themselves. They’re on the road, in a police car, handcuffed – and they typically have no family support where they are going.” Statewide, a shortage of mental health treatment facilities is wasting taxpayer money and taxing local police resources, according to a report released earlier this month that aims to reduce Oklahoma’s future prison spending.
Read more from The Tulsa World.
Oklahoma’s low liability cap leaves some victims holding the bag
To the state of Vermont, life is worth up to $500,000. In Indiana, it goes up to $700,000. In Georgia, the price of life tops out at a cool $1 million. But in Oklahoma, if the government kills or maims you accidentally, you’re worth a lot less. The recent case of Broken Arrow’s John Zane has brought scrutiny to the Oklahoma Tort Claims Act. Zane was run over by a Broken Arrow school bus Dec. 16 while waiting at a stoplight on his motorcycle, and he now faces medical costs and wage losses that seem certain to far exceed the state’s $125,000 liability limit for most government entities. At least 38 other states have laws that treat people injured or killed by the government more generously than Oklahoma, a Tulsa World review of the 50 state laws found.
Read more from The Tulsa World.
DHS moving ahead on settlement requirements
Holding child welfare staff summits is part of building the improvement plan under an agreement to settle a federal class action lawsuit against the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. The DHS oversight commission and New York-based nonprofit Children’s Rights reached the settlement agreement earlier this month. The lawsuit filed in 2008 alleged abuses in the state’s foster-care system. While a fairness hearing is set for Feb. 29 to take testimony from class members, DHS officials are moving forward with the central focus of the agreement, which is to develop a plan to improve the system in 15 areas. The plan is to be ready by March 30 for approval by three independent monitors, who will oversee whether progress is being made during the next several years. DHS spokeswoman Sheree Powell said a section on the agency’s website will provide updates and give a place for the public to give comments.
Read more from The Tulsa World.
See also: Oklahoma pays $92,500 to settle lawsuit over child’s death from NewsOK
Oklahoma lawmakers file more abortion measures
One measure pending in the Oklahoma Legislature would require a woman to listen to a fetal heartbeat before ending her pregnancy. Sen. Dan Newberry, R-Tulsa, says his Senate Bill 1274, dubbed the “Heartbeat Informed Consent Act,” is not necessarily to discourage abortion but to ensure that a woman has a full understanding of what she is doing. Sen. Brian Crain, R-Tulsa, has filed Senate Bill 1433, which would declare that life begins at conception. The measure does not impose any penalties on women who end their pregnancies or for those who perform abortions, he said. Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, has filed a “personhood” measure that goes further than Crain’s bill. Reynolds’ House Joint Resolution 1067 would put the issue to a vote of the people. Reynolds said his proposal would allow prosecution for the taking of a human life. It has exemptions for treatment for life-threatening conditions but not rape or incest. The state has spent at least $120,000 defending prior laws putting restrictions on abortions.
Read more from The Tulsa World.
Program helping reduce number of homeless Oklahoma veterans
The number of homeless veterans in Oklahoma declined by more than 25 percent between 2009 and 2011, according to data released this month. There were 475 homeless veterans in the state in 2009. Last year, agencies reported 356 homeless veterans, according to data from the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Local officials said the decline is part of a culture change that puts the full force of the Department of Veterans Affairs behind the initiative to reduce the number, with the overall goal of ending veteran homelessness by 2015, announced in 2009 by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki. The VA has partnered with local agencies to help identify homeless veterans, get them stable housing then start working on what led to homelessness, from substance abuse to addictions to war-related physical and mental injuries.
Read more from The Tulsa World.
Oklahoma ranks 4th in black-on-black homicides
A report last week by the Washington D.C.-based Violence Policy Center ranked Oklahoma No. 4 in per-capita “black-on-black” homicides. Oklahoma’s rate in 2009, the year studied, was 27.96 homicides per 100,000 residents. Only Missouri, with 34.72 black homicides per 100,000, Michigan with 30.21 such murders, and Pennsylvania with 28.30 homicides per 100,000 population, ranked higher. “While Oklahoma has the fourth highest state rate of black homicide victimization, homicides are devastating black teens and adults across the nation,” Josh Sugarmann, VPC executive director and study co-author, said. He urged communities with these higher homicide rates to focus on the toll that guns, in the wrong hands, are extracting. It is true that most black homicide victims – 90 percent of those who died in Oklahoma – are killed with a gun. The availability and proliferation of guns, however, are far from the whole story. Poverty, joblessness and gang involvement also are factors.
Read more from The Tulsa World.
Oklahoma would benefit from health insurance exchange, study finds
Oklahoma is one of 15 states that has made the least progress toward establishing a health insurance exchange but also one whose people could most benefit from one, a study by the Urban Institute shows. Three attempts to legislate a basis for an Oklahoma exchange failed last year under pressure from conservative Republicans. Gov. Mary Fallin accepted but later rejected a $54 million federal grant to build an exchange. The resistance is ironic, the study points out, because Oklahoma has a great deal to benefit from the health care law in terms of reducing the number of uninsured people and reducing the amount of uncompensated care absorbed by government agencies and medical providers. Oklahoma has some 597,000 uninsured people, about 19 percent of the population that is not eligible for Medicare, the report says. With an exchange, that number would go down to 259,000.
Read more from The Tulsa World.
Income tax debates ratchets up in Oklahoma
Is the personal income tax all that’s keeping Oklahoma from economic nirvana? That seems to be the view of state leaders intent on abolishing that tax. But is it really that simple? The battle lines are drawn in the income-tax debate gearing up, and it’s hard to imagine the two sides could be any farther apart. A group of 23 House members is pushing legislation to phase out the personal income tax over 10 years. “In the past decade states without a personal income tax outpaced Oklahoma in economic growth and job creation,” declared Rep. David Brumbaugh, R-Broken Arrow, who also claimed those states have experienced twice the state and local revenue growth Oklahoma has. The Oklahoma Policy Institute, which quickly moved to the forefront of the save-the-income-tax movement, apparently has come across a different body of research than that tapped by lawmakers.
Read more from The Tulsa World.
See also: Tax reform information from Oklahoma Policy Institute
Quote of the Day
It’s costly for us, and time consuming and draining. And it’s really such a horrible process for the patients themselves. They’re on the road, in a police car, handcuffed – and they typically have no family support where they are going.
–Tulsa Police Major Tracie Lewis, speaking about people with mental illness that law enforcement officers must transport sometimes as far as 461 miles roundtrip to find an available mental health facility.
Number of the Day
$136
Average tax increase on elderly Oklahoma couples with $35,000 in income under a legislative proposal to eliminate a slate of broad-based tax credits and exemptions.
Source: Oklahoma Policy Institute
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Investing in public programs matters: How state policies impact children’s lives
Investing in Public Programs Matters: How State Policies Impact Children’s Lives, focuses on the results of the 2012 STATE Child Well-Being Index (CWI). The STATE CWI ranks children’s well-being in seven different domains for each state and compares them across states. In addition to state rankings, this report includes new findings about the strength of relationships between state policies and selected economic and demographic factors indicative of child well-being. The key findings from this study are: Higher State Taxes Are Better for Children. States that have higher tax rates generate higher revenues and have higher CWI values than states with lower tax rates. Public Investments in Children Matter. The amount of public investments in programs is strongly related to CWI values among states. Specifically, higher per-pupil spending on education, higher Medicaid child-eligibility thresholds, and higher levels of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits show a substantial correlation with child well-being across states.
Read more from The Foundation for Child Development.
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