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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. You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.
Updated numbers show that more than 95,000 Oklahomans have signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act during this year’s enrollment period. The Cherokee Nation will sign a deal with the federal government this week that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars in health-care funding over the next several decades. The Muscogee (Creek) Nation announced it will build a $22 million golf-themed entertainment complex at the RiverWalk Crossing in Jenks. Gov. Mary Fallin issued an executive order establishing a panel to look for ways to better treat nonviolent offenders with substance abuse problems and mental health issues. OK Policy previously discussed evidence that Gov. Fallin was preparing to take a more constructive approach to criminal justice reform.
A new national study shows that low and middle-income Oklahomans pay over two times more in taxes as a percentage of their income compared to the state’s wealthiest residents. The study found that Oklahoma has the 16th most unfair state and local tax system in the country. You can read the full report here and see the fact sheet on Oklahoma’s tax distribution here. An op-ed in the Duncan Banner examined how Oklahoma’s recently triggered cut to the top income tax rate is worsening the state’s budget perils. The Oklahoman editorial board wrote that the budget shortfall facing lawmakers is of their own creation.
Medical experts and lawyers expressed concern that Oklahoma plans to attempt more executions with the same drug combination used in the botched execution of Clayton Lockett. David Blatt’s Journal Record column warned against a push coming in Oklahoma and other states that could lead to radical changes to the U.S. Constitution. A proposed bill in the Oklahoma state Senate seeks to allow schools to offer “an elective course in the objective study of religion or the Bible” without fear of legal liability. The Oklahoman editorial board condemned Rep. John Bennet’s (R-Sallisaw) latest attacks on Muslims and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Oklahoma City police will take part in a pilot program in which officers will wear body cameras.
The Number of the Day is how many Oklahomans have signed up for health insurance or been automatically re-enrolled on Healthcare.gov since November 15. In today’s Policy Note, a new study finds that children who received expanded Medicaid benefits in the 1980s and 1990s contributed more to the U.S. tax system, were more likely to attend college, and less likely to die prematurely in adulthood.
In The News
More than 95,000 Oklahomans sign up for health insurance
More than 95,000 Oklahomans have signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act during this enrollment period, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As of Friday, 95,165 Oklahomans had signed up in the federal marketplace since Nov. 15, and 82 percent of them were eligible for financial assistance, according to the department.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
See also: Open Enrollment Week 8: January 3, 2015 – January 9, 2015 from the US Dept. of Health and Human Services.
Cherokee Nation to sign deal worth millions in federal funding for hospital
The Cherokee Nation will sign a deal with the federal government this week that could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars in health-care funding over the next several decades, officials confirmed Wednesday. Details will be announced Thursday, but tribal officials have been working behind the scenes for at least a couple of years to secure a “Joint Venture Construction Program,” in which the federal Indian Health Service will help fund the operation of a new hospital in Tahlequah if the tribe pays for the construction.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Creek Nation Reveals Plans For $22 Million Revitalization To Jenks RiverWalk
The Muscogee (Creek) Nation on Wednesday announced it will build a $22 million golf-themed entertainment complex at the RiverWalk Crossing in Jenks. Just across the Arkansas River from the Creek casino and Margaritaville, the tribe plans to build a new attraction. It will be a restaurant, family game center, high-tech virtual golf range, sports bar, party spaces and corporate meeting rooms.
Gov. Mary Fallin sets up panel to work on justice reform in Oklahoma
Keeping the focus on Oklahoma’s overcrowded prisons, Gov. Mary Fallin issued an executive order Wednesday establishing a panel to look for ways to better treat nonviolent offenders with substance abuse problems and mental health issues. Oklahoma’s incarceration rate is among the highest in the country.
See also: Has Governor Fallin turned a corner on criminal justice reform? from the OK Policy Blog.
Low- and middle-income Oklahomans pay highest state and local taxes
A new study released today by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and Oklahoma Policy Institute finds that low and middle-income Oklahomans pay over two times more in taxes as a percentage of their income compared to the state’s wealthiest residents. The study, “Who Pays?”, analyzes tax systems in all 50 states and factors in all major state and local taxes, including personal and corporate income taxes, property taxes, sales and other excise taxes.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
Oklahoma has the 16th most unfair state and local sales tax system, report says
Oklahoma has the 16th most unfair state and local tax system in the country, says a report released Wednesday. In Oklahoma, the bottom 80 percent of taxpayers are paying between 8.6 percent and 10.5 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes, according to the “2015 Who Pays: A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All Fifty States” from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Oklahoma tax ‘trigger’ equals budget perils
On April 15, 2012, in a blog by Oklahoma Policy Institute, Gene Perry wrote about the blindness of both our governor and legislature to set in law an automatic one-quarter percent Income Tax Deduction, to be “triggered” each time this state’s income reached five percent greater than the previous year. Now the “Law of the Land,” this reduction was “set aside” until now for lack of funds to cover the state’s operating expenses. Primarily benefiting the most prosperous of Oklahoma’s population and businesses, we are told it will go into effect in 2016.
Read more from The Duncan Banner.
Politics creates many budget challenges for Oklahoma lawmakers
The amount of money available for lawmakers to spend this year is technically around $300 million less than they spent last year. Simultaneously, some officials suggest that having budget-only legislative sessions every two years would improve the system. That’s an idea worth debating, but no one should get their hopes up.
‘Truly experimentation’: Oklahoma leaves drug cocktail unchanged in first executions since botched procedure
The last time Oklahoma executed a prisoner, Clayton Lockett in April 2014, the triple-cocktail procedure unraveled into scenes that even a skilled horror film-maker would be hard pressed to emulate. Blood squirted all over the doctor jabbing at the inmate’s groin in a desperate attempt to find a vein, Lockett writhed and groaned on the gurney as he took 43 minutes to die, eyewitnesses were traumatised long after the event.
Convention a wild card
A proposal that could lead to radical changes to America’s time-tested constitution is being pushed across the country. Oklahoma would be well-advised to resist jumping aboard this particular train. In Oklahoma and other states, bills have been introduced calling for a convention to amend the U.S. Constitution.
Read more from the Journal Record.
Oklahoma Bill Seeks To Protect Schools That Want To Teach Bible Classes
A proposed bill in the Oklahoma state Senate seeks to allow schools to offer “an elective course in the objective study of religion or the Bible” without fear of legal liability. Senate Bill 48 was introduced by state Sen. Kyle Loveless (R-Oklahoma City) after Mustang Public Schools had difficulty offering an elective course on the Bible. Loveless says his bill would mean schools could not be sued for offering courses about religion or the Bible.
Read more from the Huffington Post.
Oklahoma House member takes misuse of media office to a new low
A state lawmaker and an Islamic advocacy group engaged in a war of words last year following news that ISIS was on the march in Iraq. In their latest dustup, state Rep. John Bennett and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are again battling over words — specifically words in Islam’s holy book. What Rep. John Bennett, R-Sallisaw, has done in his latest expression of outrage takes street theater to a new level. The lawmaker has clearly crossed a line into demagoguery that taints him and any who would defend him.
OKC Police To Test Body Cameras
Oklahoma City police will take part in a pilot program in which officers will wear body cameras. Police Chief Bill Citty says 100 cameras will be used by officers on patrol for one year. The program will then be evaluated to determine if an how the cameras would be used by all the city’s officers.
Quote of the Day
“This will go down as one of the greatest days in the history of the modern Cherokee Nation. Our partnership with IHS will improve the health outcomes of Cherokees for the next two to three generations and beyond. It’s a proud, proud day in the Cherokee Nation.”
-Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker, speaking about a new agreement that will bring in hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government to fund a new hospital in Tahlequah (Source: http://bit.ly/1u6wz1P)
Number of the Day
95,165
Number of Oklahomans who have signed up for health insurance or been automatically re-enrolled on Healthcare.gov since November 15.
Source: US Department of Health and Human Services.
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Children eligible for expanded Medicaid contribute more in taxes as adults
A new study finds that children who received expanded Medicaid benefits in the 1980s and 1990s contributed more to the U.S. tax system as adults. They also were more likely to attend college and less likely to die prematurely in adulthood. The study is based on an analysis of tax returns for nearly all children born in the United States from 1981 to 1984. It compared children from similar backgrounds who were eligible for Medicaid for different lengths of time, depending on where and when they were born.
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