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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.
Today you should know that a state Supreme Court referee will hear arguments this week on a lawsuit challenging changes to Oklahoma’s gross production taxes. Oklahoma State Treasurer Ken Miller said a trigger that could impose more income tax cuts in 2016 and 2018 doesn’t make economic sense. The state Attorney General’s Office says it gave “incorrect” advice related to the Open Meeting Act to members of the state Workers Compensation Commission, raising questions about whether the agency’s recent layoffs of 16 employees and other actions in past meetings are valid.
The Tulsa World examined how the violence fueling a surge in child refugees from Central America has been fueled by the U.S. drug trade. Two Lawton churches are partnering to provide weekly Catholic Masses for the migrant children being housed at Fort Sill. OK Policy previously debunked several of the myths that have emerged around those children. In the first episode of a new weekly OK Policy podcast, we discuss the children at Fort Sill, examine one of the largest business subsidies in Oklahoma, and more.
A recent graduate from Tulsa County drug court, which provides supervised substance abuse treatment as an alternative to incarceration, said the program saved his life. The Oklahoma Department of Corrections is expanding regional training academies to have fewer untrained officers working in state prisons. A spokesman for Gov. Fallin says the governor wants investigators looking into Oklahoma’s recent botched execution to consider problems that have occurred in other states such as Ohio and Arizona.
Food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters across Oklahoma are scrambling to meet demand for food from kids who can’t get the free and discounted meals offered when schools are in session. UCO Business Dean Mickey Hepner wrote in the Edmond Sun that Oklahoma’s cuts to the health care safety net could have been avoided by legislators. The OK Policy Blog previously shared how Oklahoma is hiking fees on the poorest and sickest citizens. An additional $210,000 from city council and a $20,000 donation will prevent planned fare hikes and service cuts to Tulsa Transit this year. The Tulsa World examined statistics on suicides in the Tulsa area, which have been nearly twice as common as homicides.
Five counties in Oklahoma are among the nation’s fastest-growing, according to a newly released compilation by the U.S. Census Bureau. The Oklahoma Supreme Court says Republican state Rep. Fred Jordan is eligible to run for Tulsa County’s district attorney, even though a raise for prosecutors was approved during his term in the Legislature. A group of Oklahomans are suing restaurants across the state, claiming it is illegal for them to not include liquor tax in the menu price for mixed drinks. After a record-breaking 63 people died of the flu in the 2013-14 flu season, Oklahoma health officials says they expect the same flu strains this season.
The Number of the Day is how many bushels of soybeans were produced by Oklahoma farmers in 2013. In today’s Policy Note, Vox reports that from the start of the health reform debate to when the law was passed, Congress never considered or debated over excluding federally-facilitated health exchanges from offering tax credits to purchase insurance, as lawsuits trying to block the tax credits are now claiming.
In The News
Arguments heat up in lawsuit over oil and gas tax rate
Arguments are heating up in a lawsuit challenging the increase in gross production taxes. Oklahoma City attorney Jerry Fent filed suit in June challenging House Bill 2562. Fent, who has successfully challenged a number of laws, alleges the measure is a revenue bill. As such, it must secure three-fourths support in the Legislature, which it did not, he alleges. His suit also alleges it is unconstitutional because revenue measures can’t be passed during the last week of the legislative session, which this one was.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Oklahoma treasurer calls income tax reduction measure ‘clear as mud’
Almost two months after Oklahoma lawmakers ended their legislative session, the status of a state income tax reduction measure that is often pointed to as one of their top accomplishments is fraught with uncertainty. Oklahoma taxpayers could get a small cut in their state income taxes beginning in 2016, but nobody can say whether that’s even likely to happen. It’s all based on a complicated revenue-based “trigger” built in to the measure. So complicated, in fact, that even state Treasurer Ken Miller, who holds a doctorate in economics, said it’s about as “clear as mud.”
State AG’s office: Workers comp commission actions based on ‘incorrect’ advice
The state Attorney General’s Office says it gave “incorrect” advice related to the Open Meeting Act to members of the state Workers Compensation Commission, raising questions about whether the agency’s recent layoffs of 16 employees and other actions in past meetings are valid. Aaron Cooper, a spokesman for Attorney General Scott Pruitt, said Pruitt’s office reviewed issues raised in a Tulsa World investigation of the commission. Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater said he met with Pruitt’s office Friday afternoon to discuss the commission’s actions.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Central American child immigrant surge has U.S. drug-trade link
From San Pedro Sula in northern Honduras to McAllen, Texas, is 1,000 miles as the crow flies. By foot, by van, by the long-haul freight train called “The Beast,” it is even farther. And by other measures it is farther still. San Pedro Sula is the epicenter of the recent surge in juvenile migration to the United States. It is by many accounts the most violent city in the world and, according to the New York Times, sent more than 2,000 minors to the U.S. over the past year. Fort Sill in Lawton is among three military facilities being leased by the U.S. Health and Human Services Administration to house a wave of undocumented children and youths detained at the border.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Mass gives unaccompanied children a taste of home
The services have all the elements of a typical Sunday Mass — singing, scripture, a sermon, prayers, communion and worship. But the weekly Masses celebrated by Fathers Philip Seeton and Nerio Espinoza since the end of June are unique for their location, at Fort Sill, and their congregants, who are hundreds of Hispanic children hungry for the familiarity of their Catholic faith. Seeton and Espinoza, who lead Holy Family Catholic Church in Lawton, are partnering with a second parish, Blessed Sacrament, to provide religious services at the request of federal contractors who oversee the youth immigration holding facility at Fort Sill.
Read more from the Stillwater News Press.
See also: Debunking myths about migrant children at Ft. Sill from the OK Policy Blog.
The OK Policy Podcast: Episode 1
Here’s the first episode of a new weekly podcast from OK Policy. This week, we share some of the most important Oklahoma headlines, bust some myths surrounding the migrant children at Fort Sill, and discuss one of the largest business subsidies in Oklahoma.
Tulsa County Drug Court a life-saver, new graduate says
Drug Court saved Clark Dagnall’s life. In return, the 26-year-old Sand Springs resident took the stage at the program’s most recent graduation and promised to pay it forward by helping others. “My goal is just to help the next addict,” he told the crowd of graduates’ friends and family members. “Maybe I can get through to somebody that nobody else could.” He was among 54 drug, DUI, special needs and veterans treatment court defendants who were recognized at a ceremony Friday for completing the nearly two-year program.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Prisons expand their reach to train new officers
Joshua Drake once was offered the chance to be a corrections officer but turned it down because he didn’t want to leave his wife and aging parents for six weeks to train hundreds of miles away in El Reno. Then the Oklahoma Department of Corrections made Drake, 35, an offer he couldn’t refuse: Attend a local training academy during the day and return home to the Muskogee area each night. That accommodation, he said, was “the reason I took this job.” So, each morning, Drake and nine other cadets, who work together at the Eddie Warrior Correctional Center in Taft, pile into a borrowed Department of Corrections van and carpool the 70 or so miles to McAlester.
Fallin Wants Probe to Include Botched Executions
A spokesman for Gov. Mary Fallin says the governor wants investigators looking into Oklahoma’s recent flawed execution to consider problems that have popped up in other states such as Ohio and Arizona. Spokesman Alex Weintz said Friday that an investigation into Oklahoma’s execution should consider what other states have done “both successfully and unsuccessfully.” Fallin ordered the Department of Public Safety to conduct a thorough investigation into the April 29 botched lethal injection of Clayton Lockett. The review also is to determine if prison officials followed the state’s execution protocols and what changes should be made to those protocols.
Read more from Public Radio Tulsa.
Oklahoma shelters, food pantries scrambling to meet demand for food during summer months
Food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters across Oklahoma are scrambling to meet demand for food from, among other groups, kids left in the lurch because they can’t get the free and discounted meals offered when schools are in session, several agency workers said this week. Supplies of protein-rich items like meat and dairy are particularly in high demand during the summer months — a period when donations to food banks and related agencies tend to dip and needier families are forced to deal with spikes in season-related expenses, such as higher utility bills. Often, that means going without food.
Read more from the Associated Press.
Healthier and Wealthier? Not in Oklahoma
Increased copays, decreased coverage, diminished health care access, reduced provider budgets and increased frustration are all the outcomes of the Legislature’s 2014 health care funding decisions. Unlike some years in the past when a languishing state economy forced legislators into making cuts, the undesirable outcomes this year could easily have been avoided. Of all the decisions made by the Legislature as they crafted this year’s budget, perhaps few are as controversial as the decisions that impact the state’s Medicaid program. Not only did state officials once again forego the opportunity to use federal funds to expand the state’s Medicaid program — and provide health insurance to an additional 150,000 Oklahomans — but they also did not allocate sufficient funds to offset the increased costs the agency projects to incur this year.
Read more from The Edmond Sun.
See also: Oklahoma could hike fees on the poorest and sickest citizens from the OK Policy Blog.
No Cuts, But Tulsa Transit Makes “Tweak” to Lift Service
Extra funding means Tulsa Transit no longer has to cut hours, but Lift service passengers will see a small difference. An additional $210,000 from city council and a $20,000 donation meant Tulsa Transit could avoid fare hikes AND service cuts. Assistant General Manager Debbie Ruggles said a review showed buses were routinely getting back after their out-of-service time. “And so while we were funded up to the 9 p.m. as we had been promised, we discovered that we needed to tweak our pickup times just slightly so that we could stay within our budget,” Ruggles said. The last pickup window for Lift will now be 7:45 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Read more from Public Radio Tulsa.
Tulsans committing suicides at nearly twice the rate of homicides in 2014
Imagine being able to prevent every homicide Tulsa will see in a given year. Imagine being able to do even more than that. Tulsa is quietly seeing an abnormally high number of suicides this year, with 50 through July 25, a figure that dwarfs the city’s homicide count almost two-to-one. And every one of those suicides is preventable. “Absolutely they are preventable,” said Amanda Bradley, director for the Family and Children’s Services’ COPES (Community Outreach Psychiatric Emergency Services) program. “We know we can stop them.”
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Five Oklahoma Counties in U.S. Top 100
Five counties in Oklahoma are among the nation’s fastest-growing, according to a newly released compilation by the U.S. Census Bureau. Custer, Canadian, Woodward, McClain and Texas counties made a list of the top 100 fastest-growing counties with populations of 10,000 or more from July 2012 through July 2013, the bureau reported. Custer and Canadian had the highest population increases at 2.9 percent, followed by Woodward at 2.8 percent, McClain at 2.6 percent and Texas at 2.4 percent. This growth isn’t concentrated in one part of the state.
Read more from Oklahoma Watch.
Okla. Supreme Court says Lawmaker can Serve as DA
The Oklahoma Supreme Court says Republican state Rep. Fred Jordan of Jenks is eligible to become Tulsa County’s district attorney, even though a raise for prosecutors was approved during his term in the Legislature. In a 5-1 ruling on Friday, the state’s highest court ruled that a provision of the constitution did not apply to Jordan, since he wouldn’t become district attorney until after his legislative term ends. Jordan’s candidacy had been challenged by his opponent in the Aug. 26 Republican primary runoff, Steve Kunzweiler, who is the chief of the Tulsa County district attorney’s criminal division.
Oklahoma restaurants, consumer activists continue fight over mixed drink tax
For six years or so, former attorney Tom Erbar traveled across the state, buying mixed drinks at more than 2,000 restaurants and bars. Often, he took along his mother, Gladys Erbar. An acquaintance, John Truel, was doing the same, along with eight others who call themselves consumer activists. They claim they were charged too much for their alcohol hundreds of times. In February 2011, Truel and his group sued more than 750 businesses and asked a judge to make their lawsuit a class-action case. Two weeks later, Tom Erbar and Gladys Erbar filed a separate lawsuit against many of the same businesses.
Oklahoma Health Officials Prepare For Flu Season
After a record-breaking 63 people died as a result of the flu during the 2013-14 flu season, Oklahoma health officials preparing for the coming season say educating the public is key to reducing both the deaths and the number of people who contract the virus. Oklahoma State Department of Health epidemiologist Becky Coffman says public awareness and persuading residents to get a flu shot are vital. The flu season is late September through early May and Coffman says the strains expected this season are the same as last season.
Quote of the Day
“Hunger doesn’t take a summer vacation. We are seeing more people — the working poor, the homeless, families with kids because school isn’t in session. (More) people are coming because it’s summer, and money gets tighter.”
– Meghann Ray, spokeswoman for Iron Gate, a soup kitchen and food pantry in downtown Tulsa (Source: http://bit.ly/1plcoqL)
Number of the Day
10,050,000
Bushels of soybeans produced by Oklahoma farmers in 2013.
Source: United States Department of Agriculture, National Agriculture Statistics Service
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Congress had lots of Obamacare fights. Ending some subsidies wasn’t one of them.
A large press corps covered the health reform debate from its start in 2009. I was, and am, still part of it. We covered the ins and outs of the legislative debate. And much of that debate was about how the subsidies would work. “Creating a workable subsidy,” former Senate aide and current Harvard professor John McDonough writes in his excellent book on the health reform debate, “was one of the most important and difficult policy challenges in crafting a health reform law.” Congress battled over how generous the tax credits ought to be. There was a vicious argument over whether they would cover abortions. But Congress never debated whether they would limit the subsidies to states that built their own exchanges. The subsidies were seen as so fundamental to making the Affordable Care Act work, that, as former Republican staffer Chris Condeluci put it to me, “we never argued over this particular provision.”
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