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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 A.G. Scott Pruitt opted out of a settlement against the nation’s largest mortgage banks, making Oklahoma the only state not to join the agreement. Moody’s bond rating service declined to lower Oklahoma’s cost of borrowing citing the state’s efforts to eliminate its income tax as a potential threat to its fiscal future. Oklahoma was one of ten states granted a waiver from some requirements of the education law known as No Child Left Behind.
The Oklahoma Insurance Department apologized for including sexist comments in an official email to insurance agents. Oklahoma’s mental health commissioner urged lawmakers to restore millions of dollars that have been cut from the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services in recent years. The OK Policy Blog highlighted the bills filed this session that deserve a spot on the state’s blooper reel.
The Number of the Day is the amount of money the state saves over five years for every $1 it invests in public health prevention programs. In today’s Policy Note, the National Academy of State Health Policy (NASHP) spotlighted an Oklahoma program that uses cutting edge technology to improve care coordination for children with or at risk for developmental delays.
In The News
Did Oklahoma A.G. Scott Pruitt, Mortgage Settlement Holdout, Sell Out His State for Wall Street?
Pruitt claims that his state will get the same amount of money in their settlement as they would have in the national settlement, and that he broke off of the national settlement on principle (the same way he tried to sue the Obama administration to overturn Obama’s health care policies). To be fair, Oklahoma’s foreclosure rate isn’t among the worst in the country. But: In Oklahoma’s settlement, only 930 people would be the recipients of $20,000 (directly or indirectly) in aid. In 2011, in Tulsa, Oklahoma alone, 5,453 houses entered foreclosure proceedings. Again—just in Tulsa—one in every 72 homes were in foreclosure.
Read more from the New York Observer at http://www.observer.com/2012/02/oklahoma-mortgage-settlement-scott-pruitt-02092012/
Moody’s declines to boost Oklahoma’s debt rating
A New York bond rating service has declined to lower Oklahoma’s cost of borrowing in part because of the state’s efforts to eliminate its income tax. Moody’s kept the state’s bond rating at Aa2, citing the tax-cut plan as one concern about the state’s financial future. The rating agency, in its report on the state, also cited volatility in the energy industry and the state constitution’s limit on the Legislature’s ability to raise taxes. The decision’s immediate effect is that the cost of state borrowing through bond issues won’t get any cheaper, but on a political level it suggests that an objective financial analyst is wondering about the wisdom of state’s tax-cutting efforts.
Read more from the Tulsa World at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=12&articleid=20120210_11_A16_OKLAHO810866
Oklahoma granted waiver on No Child Left Behind law
Oklahoma is one of ten states that will be granted a waiver on Thursday from some requirements of the education law known as No Child Left Behind, a White House official confirmed. The state was one of 11 that applied last year for relief from stringent mandates. Oklahoma pledged to the U.S. Department of Education that, by 2020, all children in the state would graduate from high school “college, career and citizen ready.”
Read more from NewsOK at http://newsok.com/oklahoma-granted-waiver-on-no-child-left-behind-law/article/3647478
Oklahoma Insurance Department Apologizes For Bawdy Email
The insurance department promptly apologized for sending out a draft email the agency mistakenly issued that contained “offensive and unacceptable language.” The widely distributed email seeks nominations for five awards given at the National Tornado Preparedness Summit in Oklahoma City next month. According to the email, the Insurance Commissioner’s Award will be presented to “the girl with the biggest [breasts].” State Democrats immediately used the email to signal a continued “Republican pattern of immature and perverted behavior of our state officials.” In a statement, Wallace Collins, chairman of the Oklahoma Democrat Party, called for Doak’s resignation.
Read more from Property Casualty 360 at http://www.propertycasualty360.com/2012/02/10/oklahoma-insurance-department-apologizes-for-bawdy?t=regulation-legislation
Commissioner seeks more for mental health
Oklahoma’s mental health commissioner urged state lawmakers Thursday to restore millions of dollars that have been cut from her agency in recent years to increase services for the thousands of people suffering from mental illness or substance abuse in the state. About $36.5 million has been trimmed over the past three years from the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services’ budget, forcing the elimination of behavioral health and substance abuse treatment units, Commissioner Terri White said.
Read more from the Norman Transcript at http://normantranscript.com/headlines/x991870198/Commissioner-seeks-more-for-mental-health
Bills, Bills, Bills: The weird, delightful, and truly strange
The state legislature is back in session with a slate of serious (we would argue dire) propositions. In search of comic relief, we’ve decided once again to highlight the bills filed this session that deserve a spot on the blooper reel. Many of these bills tickled our funny bone, but most of them had us doing a double take – say what now? If you have any insight, please enlighten us in the comment section below.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog at https://okpolicy.org/bills-bills-bills-the-weird-delightful-and-truly-strange/
Quote of the Day
We have huge needs and a lot of people out their suffering. You will spend more taxpayer dollars on the consequences than if you had funded these in the first place.
Terri White, Commissioner of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services
Number of the Day
$5.22
Amount of money the state saves over five years for every $1 it invests in public health prevention programs to curb obesity, inactivity, and smoking.
Source: Trust for America’s Health
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Oklahoma’s Web Portal: Fostering Care Coordination Between Primary Care and Community Service Providers
This brief describes the new web-based referral and tracking system that Oklahoma built into its pre-existing Preventive Service Reminder System (PSRS). The state designed this web portal to improve care coordination for children with or at risk for developmental delays. The web portal is being used in the state’s four ABCD III pilot counties. The state is already considering ways to adapt the web portal to coordinate care for other populations.
Read more from NASHP at http://www.nashp.org/publication/oklahomas-web-portal-fostering-care-coordination-between-primary-care-and-community
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