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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 the vast majority of Oklahoma employers will be exempt from the tax provisions of the Affordable Care Act. KRMG examined why continuing to obstruct the health care law would be unhealthy for Oklahoma. David Blatt’s Journal Record column looks beyond the heated rhetoric to explain what the health care law really does.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded more than $12 million to Oklahoma for health care and public health emergency preparedness. A new teacher evaluation system is required to go into effect at Oklahoma schools this year, but the Legislature has not provided funds to fully cover the cost of implementing it. The U.S. Justice Department is probing Chesapeake Energy Corp and Encana Corp for possible collusion.
The Obama administration’s move to force a judicial decision about Cherokee freedmen means a resolution may finally be reached in the long-running case. New rules by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board could increase Oklahoma’s projected state pension shortfalls. Under a settlement agreement, Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. stands to get about a $4 million rate increase, although residential customers are expected to see their bills drop slightly as municipal and security lighting customers costs rise.
Urban Tulsa Weekly examines Tulsa’s airport tax proposal and some possible better alternatives. OK Policy previously discussed concerns about perspectives left out of Chamber of Commerce-driven economic development policy seen in the Tulsa proposal. The OK Policy Blog features a video about the lives of people living in the Greenwood district of Tulsa, before and after their homes, businesses, and community were destroyed by a fire started in anger by the city’s white residents.
Oklahoma Department of Human Services Commissioner Jay Dee Chase died Sunday. Urban Tulsa Weekly examined the growing number of 20-something state Legislature candidates.
The Number of the Day is the amount Oklahomans on Medicare have saved on their prescription medications since 2010 from rebates and discounts enacted by the Affordable Care Act. In today’s Policy Note, a Washington Post infographic shows who would be denied access to health insurance in states that opt of the health care law’s Medicaid expansion.
In The News
Most Oklahoma employers exempt from health care act tax provisions
The vast majority of Oklahoma employers will be exempt from the tax provisions of the Affordable Care Act, according to state statistics. Starting in 2014, the federal law will tax employers who don’t provide qualified health insurance to their employees, but employers with fewer than 50 workers are exempt from the tax. Oklahoma Employment Security Commission statistics for the fourth quarter of 2011 show that 87,895 establishments had 49 or fewer employees. That’s 94.5 percent of the state’s employers, according to the commission. Some 644,098 people work for the small employers – 42.1 percent of the average annual work force, the commission reports. Although small employers are exempt from the tax penalties for not providing health insurance, some of them are eligible for tax benefits if they do provide health insurance.
Read more from The Tulsa World.
See also: Think tank: Okie opposition to Obamacare is unhealthy from KRMG; David Blatt: Beyond the rhetoric on health reform from The Journal Record
Oklahoma receives $12 million for public health and health care emergency preparedness
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded more than $971 million to continue improving preparedness and health outcomes for a wide range of public health threats within every state, eight U.S. territories, and four of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, including more than $12 million for Oklahoma health care and public health preparedness. “Health care and public health systems that are prepared to respond successfully to emergencies and recover quickly from all hazards are also able to deliver services more effectively and efficiently every day,” said Dr. Nicole Lurie, HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response. The funding awards included a total of approximately $352 million awarded for the Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP) cooperative agreement. Of that, $4,363,077 has been awarded in Oklahoma. Of the more than $619 million awarded for the Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) cooperative agreement, $7,895,438 has been awarded in Oklahoma.
New Oklahoma teacher evaluation system to begin test year
The 2012-13 school year is the test year for the new Teacher and Leader Effectiveness evaluation system, which grades teachers on everything from student progress to classroom management. But as the first day of school closes in, administrators are frustrated that they don’t have enough time or money to train their staff correctly. Districts had to choose a training model by April, but they couldn’t find their own trainers because of state contract rules, said Alicia Currin-Moore, executive director of teacher and leader effectiveness for the state Education Department. So everything was on hold until the bids came back. When the bids came back too high — $4.3 million to fit into a $1.5 million slot — state officials negotiated for better deals, she said. The contractors made better offers, but the cost was still about $200,000 over budget, Currin-Moore said. That’s when officials decided to parcel out the training money to the districts, which will have to fill in the gaps.
Justice Department probes Chesapeake, rival for possible collusion
The U.S. Justice Department is probing Chesapeake Energy Corp and Encana Corp for possible collusion after a Reuters report showed that top executives of the two rivals plotted in 2010 to avoid bidding against each other in Michigan land deals, a source close to the probe said. The report uncovered emails showing that the two natural gas companies repeatedly discussed how to avoid bidding against each other in a public land auction in Michigan and in nine prospective deals with private land owners in the state. The source, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said the Justice Department probe could last for months, if not longer.
Obama administration lawsuit could finally decide Cherokee freedmen issue
The Obama administration’s move to force a judicial decision about Cherokee freedmen means a resolution may finally be reached in the long-running case, Cherokee Nation officials said Tuesday. “Now we can move forward on this issue,” Principal Chief Bill John Baker said in a statement. “We will have everyone at the table, and all issues will be presented so we can get a definitive ruling.” Jon Velie, a Norman attorney who has represented the freedmen in a case in Washington and the current one in Tulsa, also applauded the countersuit filed Monday by the U.S. Department of Interior. The administration took the side of the freedmen, saying an 1866 treaty that allowed the freed slaves of individual Cherokees to be members of the tribe is still in effect for the descendants of those freed slaves.
New rules could increase projected pension liabilities for Oklahoma
New rules by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board could have a significant impact on the reporting of state pension obligations, including those in Oklahoma. The rules, which would take effect in 2013, change how states report pension assets and liabilities, likely increasing the latter. State pensions discount liabilities based on assumed long-term yields on assets, typically assuming an 8 percent yield. That number has exceeded market performance in recent years, potentially disguising the severity of state shortfalls. It’s also lower than the discount rates used in the corporate world. One of the biggest changes in GASB’s rules would force underfunded plans to use a lower discount rate. Oklahoma would likely be among those affected.
OG&E reaches settlement in rate case
A settlement agreement appears poised to end Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co.’s long-running rate case, the company announced Monday. The utility company stands to get about a $4 million rate increase, although residential customers are expected to see their bills drop slightly. The settlement agreement will slash about 9 cents a month off the average residential customer’s bill, while increasing the cost for highly subsidized municipal and security lighting customers, according to OG&E. Consumer and industrial groups objected to OG&E’s initial $73 million rate hike request, leading to talks that resulted in Monday’s settlement. OG&E’s original request would have added about $6.50 to the average residential customer’s monthly electric bill.
Thinking about the proposed airport tax
As readers may know, leading elements of the Tulsa business community, the City Council, the Mayor’s office and a variety of other direct stakeholders are in the midst of putting together an airport/aerospace improvement package. This is the first in a two-part look on what some are calling the aero-space or airport tax. I’ve tried to cover some of these topics in previous pieces in Cityscape. These two new pieces are my best attempt to get at the core of what’s being proposed and maybe some of what should be proposed. While time is running out for putting anything on a November ballot for voter approval, it seems clear that we need something ambitious and imaginative to backstop Green Country’s grand posse of aerospace workers, the bevy of strong local aerospace companies and the small army of contractors and vendors who now populate T-Town.
Read more from Urban Tulsa Weekly.
Previously: It matters who guards the henhouse from OK Policy Blog
Watch This: Black Wall Street – Prosperity Turns to Poverty
This 10-minute video takes a look at the lives of people living in the Greenwood district of Tulsa, before and after their homes, businesses, and community were destroyed by a fire started in anger by the city’s white residents. The short film was made by a middle school student, and won first prize at the Oklahoma History Day Competition.
Watch the video at the OK Policy Blog.
Oklahoma DHS Commisioner Jay Dee Chase has died
Oklahoma Department of Human Services Commissioner Jay Dee Chase, 82, of Norman, died Sunday following a short struggle with pneumonia, family members said. Fellow Commissioners Aneta Wilkinson and Richard DeVaughn remembered their friend with fondness. “It has been a pleasure to serve on the commission with Jay Dee these past few years,” Wilkinson said. “We became such good friends and I will miss him greatly. Jay Dee was dedicated to this agency and the people we serve. He has been criticized recently for being outspoken over issues but his heart was always in the right place.”
Young politicians not waiting to make their mark
As he campaigned this spring for a seat in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, Justin Freeland Wood’s hand shaking and kibitzing didn’t always go as expected. More than once, a senior citizen whose vote Wood was courting would reach up and gently slide his fingers behind the candidate’s ear. “You’re wet behind the ears,” the man would say. Wood’s bid to become an elected state official at an age when many of his contemporaries are scrambling to even settle on a field of collegiate study would seem to make him rarity: A 20-something already tuned into politics and turned on by public service. Actually, Wood has company — lots of it. Three current state representatives are 25 or younger. And this year, 20 candidates 30 or younger sought seats in the Oklahoma Legislature.
Read more from Urban Tulsa Weekly.
Quote of the Day
All of the success and effectiveness of this reform is based on the effective implementation. … The Legislature, in adopting reform, also has to commit the resources to make that reform effective.
–Norman Superintendent Joseph Siano, on a new teacher evaluation system that is being mandated for Oklahoma schools even though the Legislature has not provided funds to fully cover implementation
Number of the Day
$49,179,753
Amount Oklahomans on Medicare have saved on their prescription medications since 2010 from rebates and discounts enacted by the Affordable Care Act
Source: Dept. of Health and Human Services
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Who would fall between the cracks?
State rules on who qualifies for Medicaid vary widely. The Affordable Care Act would bring all states up to the same standard: Everyone with incomes at 133 percent of the federal poverty level would receive coverage. But the Supreme Court ruled that states can’t be penalized if they don’t go along with the expansion. In states that opt out, poor people who would otherwise have been newly eligible for Medicaid would not receive it. Still, because of a quirk in the law, the most well-off of these people — those with incomes between the federal poverty level and 133 percent of that level — would become eligible for an alternative: federal subsidies to buy private insurance plans in state-based marketplaces, or exchanges, created by the law.
Read more from The Washington Post.
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