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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 Rep. David Dank, chair of the House Taxation and Revenue committee, said reducing the state personal income tax rate just below 5 percent may be the most lawmakers can do this session absent any willingness to eliminate tax credits and deductions. Some policymakers and industry observers are are questioning whether Oklahoma’s oil and gas industry should continue to receive huge tax incentives. The OK Policy Blog discusses the threat that rapidly growing payments for horizontal drilling may starve the state budget.
An Oklahoma judge struck down a state law requiring women seeking abortions to undergo an ultrasound and view the image before the procedure. The U.S. Supreme Court vacated an Oklahoma City woman’s life sentence for shoplifting two purses. A measure to help the Oklahoma Innocence Project at Oklahoma City University was passed by a Senate committee, with lawmakers expressing some concerns. The House voted not to take up a proposed code of ethics and guidelines on how complaints can be made against House members for improper behavior.
DHS Commissioner Aneta Wilkinson wrote a letter accusing Commissioner Steven Dow of misconduct, saying he is encouraging a lawsuit against the agency. Tulsa’s McLain Junior High and High School for Science and Technology is expected to be identified Thursday as one of about 10 low-performing schools to be targeted with unprecedented intervention efforts by the Oklahoma State Department of Education. Oklahomans’ personal income growth was among the nation’s best last year, but remains less than the national average.
The Number of the Day is the percentage of the state’s gross domestic product (GDP) accounted for by economic activity in the three largest metropolitan areas – Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Lawton. In today’s Policy Note, The New Republic discusses why the Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act is not likely to be as crudely political as some observers are predicting.
In The News
Significant cut in Oklahoma’s income tax doubtful, legislator says
Reducing the state personal income tax rate just below 5 percent may be the best lawmakers can do this session, a key legislator involved in efforts to slash the tax said Wednesday. “I don’t know what we’re going to come out with, but it’s going to be a lot less reduction in income tax than what the one side wants and probably a little more what we want,” said Rep. David Dank after two proposals to reduce the personal income tax won approval from a House budget committee. “The main thing is that the Legislature is going to have to deal with the credits and the exemptions and the deductions and if they don’t do that then probably there will be very, very minor cuts in the income tax,” said Dank, R-Oklahoma City. “We’re threadbare right now. We just don’t have the extra money unless you put the cuts in there. “And we can’t just pull some number out of the air and say it’s going to generate this much growth,” he said.
Energy industry tax incentives questioned
With crude oil prices soaring and state budgets still tight, some policymakers and industry observers are questioning whether the oil and gas industry should continue to receive some of the tax incentives it has enjoyed. The Oklahoma Policy Institute, a nonprofit group that analyzes state government spending, on Wednesday called for the Legislature to consider reducing, capping or eliminating a tax incentive for producers who use horizontal drilling techniques. “There was a time when horizontal drilling was a new technique that required new equipment,” said Oklahoma Policy Institute Director David Blatt. “But now most of the drilling in Oklahoma is horizontal drilling. The companies have invested in this technology. The procedures are established. It is much less risky than it was before, and at least on the oil side, producers are making record profits.” Oil and natural gas producers, however, say the tax incentives are still necessary.
Stand back, we don’t know how big these things may get
In the final days of the 2010 session, when legislative leaders were faced with historic revenue shortfalls and were desperate for ways to balance the budget, a deal was struck with representatives of the energy industry on oil and gas drilling incentives. The industry agreed to defer payment of credits on horizontal and deep well drilling for twenty-four months, until July 2012, and then to pay out over the next three years the credits that accrued during this period. In return, the legislature adopted several changes to how drilling is taxed that were sought by the industry. At the time, it was anticipated that deferring the payment of credits on horizontal and deep well drilling for two years would put the state on the hook for $150 million. Instead, when oil and gas companies submitted their claims in late 2011, the price tag turned out to be nearly double: $297 million. The announcement that tax breaks for horizontal and deep well drilling amounted to nearly $150 million per year in 2010 and 2011 should serve as a wake up call to Oklahoma policymakers and the public. The generous tax treatment we provide this form of drilling threatens to compound our budget woes and hamper our efforts to provide adequate funding of core public services.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
Oklahoma court strikes down ultrasound abortion law
An Oklahoma judge on Wednesday struck down a state law requiring women seeking abortions to have an ultrasound image placed in front of them and to listen to a detailed description of the fetus before the procedure. District Judge Bryan Dixon ruled the statute passed by the Legislature in 2010 is an unconstitutional special law because it addresses only patients, physicians and sonographers dealing with abortions and does not address them concerning other medical care. Former Democratic Gov. Brad Henry had vetoed the bill after it passed the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature, warning at the time that the measure likely would lead to a “potential futile legal battle.” Republicans managed to override the veto with the help of several anti-abortion Democrats.
US Supreme Court vacates Oklahoma woman’s life sentence for shoplifting
The U.S. Supreme Court has vacated a life sentence for shoplifting being served by an Oklahoma City woman. The Supreme Court on Monday ordered the case of Cecilia Cathleen Rodriguez to be returned to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals for further consideration in light of a recent ruling by justices who vacated a Missouri man’s sentence because he did not receive adequate representation during the plea-bargain process. Rodriguez, 59, was sentenced to life in prison in March 2009 after pleading guilty to grand larceny for stealing a $275 purse and a $380 purse from a Dillard’s department store. Oklahoma County District Court Judge Ray C. Elliott imposed the unusually long term after learning Rodriguez was a heroin addict who had been punished almost 30 other times for theft-related crimes dating to 1971. Oklahoma County prosecutors had offered Rodriguez 17 years in prison as part of a plea agreement, but the offer went unaccepted and she entered a blind plea. Attorneys appealing Rodriguez’s case argued the offer never was adequately conveyed to Rodriguez by her defense attorney.
Committee warily passes bill on Innocence Project
A measure to help the Oklahoma Innocence Project at Oklahoma City University met a skeptical crowd Tuesday in a state Senate committee. The Senate Judiciary Committee took up House Bill 2652 which would create the Oklahoma Innocence Collaboration Program. The program would allow the use of the laboratory services at the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation for private entities and higher education programs’ criminal case work. The collaboration would mainly consist of OSBI, the law school and the Forensic Science Institute at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond where OSBI houses its forensic laboratory. The bill is designed to help out the Oklahoma Innocence Project formed a few years ago by the Oklahoma City University law school, a private university. The project is privately funded, but OSBI Criminalistics Division Director Andrea Swiech told the committee the project has dozens of cases to review. “Oklahoma City University wanted collaboration so they could seek funding,” Swiech said. “They have about 250 cases and short on staff.”
Proposed code of ethics for Oklahoma House given fatal blow
A vote on the House floor Wednesday not to take up a proposed code of ethics and guidelines on how complaints can be made against House members for improper behavior effectively killed them, the author of the legislation said. The 58-36 vote to delay taking up the House ethics rules and a code of conduct is troubling, said Rep. Gary Banz, chairman of the House Ethics Committee. “What the 58 people who voted to table this are saying is we’re willing to take our chances that we won’t have to use this,” said Banz, R-Midwest City. “But what they’re not saying is when those kinds of ethical lapses occur, this chamber has been all too willing to look the other way.” The code of ethics and rules were developed after a special House investigative committee suggested last year that House Speaker Kris Steele form a committee to develop guidelines on ethics. The special panel made the recommendation after it looked into allegations against Rep. Randy Terrill that led to a felony bribery charge being filed against him; the House panel concluded that no punishment or disciplinary action could be taken against the lawmaker unless he is convicted in court.
DHS Commissioner accused of encouraging lawsuit against state
Commissioners responsible for fixing Oklahoma’s troubled child welfare system have been fighting among themselves — with one commissioner going so far as to write a letter to colleagues accusing a fellow commissioner of misconduct. “I firmly believe that the actions of Commissioner (Steven) Dow are unacceptable and are detrimental to OKDHS and this commission,” Commissioner Aneta Wilkinson wrote in a March 2 letter to fellow Department of Human Services commissioners. Dow strongly denied any misconduct and said he thought the letter resulted from “miscommunication” and a misinterpretation of some of his recent information-gathering activities. In the letter, Wilkinson criticized Dow for a Feb. 23 meeting that he and Tulsa civil rights attorney Louis Bullock conducted in Oklahoma City with parents and guardians of severely developmentally disabled residents of the Southern Oklahoma Resource Center in Pauls Valley.
McClain only Tulsa school expected to be target of state intervention
McLain Junior High and High School for Science and Technology is expected to be identified Thursday as one of about 10 low-performing schools to be targeted with unprecedented intervention efforts by the Oklahoma State Department of Education. State legislators from Tulsa began sounding the alarm in January that State Superintendent Janet Barresi was circulating school takeover plans that included Hale High School. But immediate, stern opposition from Tulsa Superintendent Keith Ballard and Tulsa Metro Chamber officials, along with state education officials’ subsequent review of data for all of the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools, led to a shift in the attention and rhetoric of state leaders. Joel Robison, chief of staff at the state Department of Education, told the House Common Education Committee this week that interventions at about 10 chronically low-performing schools around the state would be cooperative partnerships, not takeovers by the state. The state Board of Education is expected to see the list of targeted schools for the first time at a meeting Thursday morning but won’t be asked to vote to approve or disapprove of the intervention plans until a special meeting the second week of April.
Read more from The Tulsa World.
State earnings growth among nation’s strongest, but income remains below average
Oklahomans’ personal income growth was among the nation’s best last year, but remains less than the national average, according to federal figures issued Wednesday. Powered by a burgeoning energy sector, Oklahoma’s personal income ranked among the top four states, on both an aggregate and per capita basis, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis reported. The state’s per capita personal income grew 5.3 percent to $37,277 in 2011 from $35,389 the previous year, the bureau reported. That was the third-highest percentage growth of any state, and topped the national growth rate of 4.3 percent. Total personal income in Oklahoma grew to $141 billion in 2011, up 6.2 percent from $133 billion in 2010. That was the fourth-highest percentage change among the states. Nationally, personal income grew 5.1 percent last year.
Quote of the Day
We’re threadbare right now. We just don’t have the extra money… And we can’t just pull some number out of the air and say it’s going to generate this much growth.
–Rep. David Dank, Chair of the House Revenue and Taxation Committee, who said a significant cut to the income tax is doubtful this session.
Number of the Day
75 percent
Percentage of the state’s gross domestic product (GDP) accounted for by economic activity in the three largest metropolitan areas – Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Lawton.
Source: Oklahoma Employment Security Commission
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Why the Supreme Court Justices Won’t Be Crudely Political When They Rule on Obamacare
In the weeks preceding the Obamacare case, many veteran Supreme Court-watchers could not bring themselves to believe that a majority of the justices would find the individual health insurance mandate unconstitutional. But now that the oral argument is over, the consensus has abruptly shifted, with increased focus on the supposedly ironclad opposition between the five “conservative” justices and the four “liberals.” Indeed, as commentators consider what kind of decision the Court will hand down in June, they have been increasingly tempted to apply a simple “it’s all politics” template: Liberal justice will favor the individual mandate, conservatives will oppose it, case closed. But that’s hardly ever the right way to look at the Court, and it’s certainly wrong now.
Read more from The New Republic.
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