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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 Former Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Morgan was convicted of one count of bribery for taking payments to push legislation favorable to an assisted living company. State revenue continues to rebound thanks to strong income tax growth, but State Treasurer Ken Miller said lingering low natural gas prices remain a concern. The OK Policy Blog discusses how ending the income tax would create huge risks for rural Oklahoma, and a new action alert provides information for rural advocates.
Chesapeake Energy Corp. responded to a Rolling Stone story that took aim at the company, its CEO, and hydraulic fracturing. A bill to reassign the duties of the commercial pet breeders board to the state Agriculture Department passed the House on an 80-3 vote. Members of the pet breeders board have said the reorganization will mean the rule-making process will have to start over, meaning the state will be left without puppy mill regulations in the interim.
The state Board of Education approved new rules for school districts offering online courses. Oklahoma’s chief information officer said IT consolidation has saved the state $40 million in two years, mostly through cutting 128 IT positions. Oklahoma Indian gaming generated nearly $3.23 billion in revenues in 2010 — a 3.9 percent increase over the previous year.
The Number of the Day is how many Oklahoma children were living in high-poverty neighborhoods as of 2010, up 104 percent since 2000. In today’s Policy Note, Reuters reports on how tens of thousands of low-income women and teenagers across the United States have lost access to birth control as states slash family planning funds.
In The News
Former Senate Pro Tem Mike Morgan found guilty of one count of bribery
Former Senate President Pro Tempore Mike Morgan, 57, of Stillwater, was convicted Monday of one count of bribery, ending his three-week federal trial. Oklahoma City attorney Martin Stringer, 71, was found not guilty of all 29 counts against him. The count on which Morgan was found guilty has to do with allegations that he asked an owner of Silver Oak Senior Living to pay him $12,000 to push legislation favorable to the assisted living company, which was in a regulatory battle with the State Department of Health in 2006. Morgan argued that the $1,000 monthly payments were for legal services. Morgan attorney David Ogle expressed disappointment regarding the bribery conviction, which he said will be appealed. Morgan was found not guilty of one count of conspiracy and all 32 mail fraud counts against him having to do with Tenaska Inc.
Read more from 23rd and Lincoln.
Oklahoma economy continues to improve; income tax revenues show biggest boost
Oklahoma recorded its second straight year of revenue growth, but lingering low natural gas prices remain a concern, state Treasurer Ken Miller said Monday. In the past 12 months, all major sources of revenue are higher than the previous year, Miller said when releasing the February gross receipts report. State income tax collections have come in the strongest, up more than 14 percent over the period, while all other areas are up by less than 10 percent. Total revenue collections, a reflection of the performance of the state’s economy, continue robust growth, he said. However, recent signs point to decreasing revenue generated by natural gas production, he said.
Betting the farm: Ending the income tax creates huge risks for rural Oklahoma
Could doing away with Oklahoma’s income tax shift taxes not only onto low and middle-income families but also from urban areas to rural areas? Many programs, services, and incentives important for rural Oklahoma rely on our existing revenue structure and the income tax in particular. In addition, switching to more reliance on other taxes would especially hurt farmers and ranchers. States without an income tax have to get resources somewhere to fund their core services. The majority of those states look to the property tax to fill the gap. Every one of the states without an income tax pay more in property taxes per capita than we do in Oklahoma. The average per capita property tax collections in no-income tax states, $1,507, is more than two-and-a-half times that of Oklahoma, $582.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
See also: Why it’s critical for rural Oklahoma to save the income tax from Oklahoma Policy Institute
Chesapeake vs. Rolling Stone
This weekend, Chesapeake Energy Corp. responded to a Rolling Stone story that took aim at the company, its CEO, and hydraulic fracturing. The magazine asserted that Chesapeake is “not only toxic – it’s driven by a right-wing billionaire who profits more from flipping land than drilling for gas.” “The Big Fracking Bubble: The Scam Behind the Gas Boom,” written by Jeff Goodell and released last week (it’ll be in the March 15 issue of the magazine), delves into the history of fracking, and Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon’s place in it, as well as current environmental concerns surrounding the practice—all from a decidedly anti-fracking angle. It also intensely—and critically—examines Chesapeake, McClendon and the millions of dollars they’ve profited from fracking. Goodell compares McClendon to the Koch brothers, Chesapeake to Enron, and a blowout at a Chesapeake natural gas well in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, last April to BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Read more from This Land Press.
House passes bill to start over on pet breeder regulation
A bill to reassign the duties of the commercial pet breeders board to the state Agriculture Department passed the House on an 80-3 vote Monday. The overwhelming vote without debate or questions from the House floor came despite warnings from current board members that the move would leave the state without rules to cover pet breeders at least temporarily and would be unfair to good breeders who have accepted state regulation. The measure would wipe out the current board’s membership and rules, said Rep. Phil Richardson, R-Minco, the bill’s author. Members of the pet breeders board have said the reorganization will mean the rule-making process will have to start over, meaning the state will be left without puppy mill regulations in the interim.
Read more from The Tulsa World.
Board of Education outlines control of online classes for school districts
The state Board of Education on Monday approved new rules that would regulate school districts under new laws already approved by the Legislature, such as offering online courses. The board adopted rules that would give school districts control of several aspects of offering supplemental online courses. District officials will decide which company to use for the classes. District level officials also will decide what classes were “educationally appropriate.” School districts will be able to pay for the courses through the regular state appropriations allotted for students, Kim Richey, assistant general counsel for the Education Department, said. Therefore, students who go to school at home or at private schools are not eligible for state funding for supplemental online classes.
Consolidating technology saves Oklahoma $40 million in two years
Oklahoma is consolidating the technology departments in 129 state agencies, and in the process officials have uncovered numerous inefficiencies that were wasting taxpayer money. Oklahoma state agencies currently pay $4.3 million a year to access the Internet through private fiber-optic cables, owned by companies such as Cox and AT&T, said Alex Pettit, the state’s chief information officer, who is overseeing the consolidation. Meanwhile, Pettit said the state owns 940 miles of its own, underused, fiber-optic cables that those state agencies could be using for free. Two years into a plan approved by lawmakers to remove in-house technology departments from almost every state agency and put them under a statewide office, the state already has realized $40 million in savings and cut about 128 information technology positions through attrition.
Oklahoma Indian gaming revenues rise 3.9 percent, but growth slowing
Oklahoma Indian gaming generated nearly $3.23 billion in revenues in 2010 — a 3.9 percent increase over the previous year, according to a report released early Tuesday by a California economist. Oklahoma tribes also generated $457.4 million in nongaming revenue from patron expenditures on food, beverages, lodging, shopping and entertainment at gaming facilities in 2010, the report said. The 2010 growth rate in Oklahoma Indian gaming exceeded the 1 percent national average but was much less than the double-digit growth rates the state experienced as recently as 2008.
Quote of the Day
If government employment under Mr. Obama had grown at Reagan-era rates, 1.3 million more Americans would be working as schoolteachers, firefighters, police officers, etc., than are currently employed in such jobs.
–Paul Krugman, writing in the New York Times
Number of the Day
98,000
Number of Oklahoma children living in high-poverty neighborhoods as of 2010, up 104 percent since 2000
Source: Annie E. Casey Foundation
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
States slash birth control subsidies as federal debate rages
Even as a national debate rages over contraception insurance, tens of thousands of low-income women and teenagers across the United States have lost access to subsidized birth control as states slash and restructure family planning funds. Montana and New Jersey have eliminated altogether their state family planning programs. New Hampshire cut its funding by 57 percent and five other states made more modest program trims. But the biggest impact, by far, has been in Texas. State lawmakers last fall cut family-planning funds by two-thirds, or nearly $74 million over two years. Within months, half the state-supported family planning clinics in Texas had closed. The state network, which once provided 220,000 women a year free and low-cost birth control, cervical cancer tests and diabetes screenings, will now serve just 40,000 to 60,000, officials said. Another 130,000 low-income Texas women who get free exams and contraceptives through Medicaid could lose those benefits by month’s end.
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