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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.
The Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department is considering more state park closures as the state faces a budget hole of more than $600 million dollars. A children’s mental health program at Hillcrest Medical Center is shutting down due to a loss of federal funding because of Oklahoma’s refusal to accept Medicaid expansion dollars. Tulsa Public Schools made the White House’s top 100 list for U.S. school districts at risk of taking the largest federal funding hit if House Republicans succeed with a measure to limit the federal role in public education.
On the OK Policy Blog, Steve Lewis commented on 5 ideas to fix the state budget. OK Policy’s Gene Perry wrote an op-ed in The Oklahoman on why Oklahoma needs to remove barriers to rebuilding a life after prison. We previously discussed this issue at greater length on the OK Policy Blog. Oklahoma charges one of the highest rates in the US to friends and family members who want to make a phone call to their loved ones in prison. The Oklahoma Health Care Authority board voted to clarify rules that limit some adult Medicaid recipients to one pharmacy and one physician when obtaining powerful painkillers and anti-anxiety medications.
At least three bills have been filed in the Legislature to eliminate the state’s nearly six-decade ban on carrying switchblades. The Tulsa World examined how Oklahoma has spent nearly $70 million on an initiative to encourage marriage. An OK Policy Blog series previously discussed whether the state of Oklahoma should be promoting marriage with funds meant to fight poverty. The Oklahoma Standards Setting Steering Committee will hold a forum Monday and Tuesday to hear from national experts on the processes used in other states to set K-12 academic standards. Two workers who were injured on the job have filed a legal challenge to a provision that allows employers to opt out of Oklahoma’s workers’ compensation system.
NewsOK spoke to an obesity researcher at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center about how rates of obesity got so bad in Oklahoma. A former Tulsa County sheriff’s deputy was bound over for trial for alleged sex crimes involving two women he encountered while on duty. New federal research says small earthquakes shaking Oklahoma and southern Kansas daily are dramatically increasing the chance of bigger and dangerous quakes. Scientists have linked these quakes to the wastewater disposal wells used by the oil and gas industry. Oklahoman editorial board editor J.E. McReynolds announced his retirement.
The Number of the Day is how many years Oklahoma has gone without raising its gas tax, second only to Alaska. In today’s Policy Note, the American Conservative explains why Virginia’s Republican ex-attorney general is taking on the incarceration state.
In The News
Budget Cuts Might Mean More State Park Closures in 2015
Oklahoma is facing a budget hole of more than $600 million dollars. And what looked like state agency cuts of 6.2 percent earlier this month, could double to around 12 percent to fill the gap. To deal with the cut, the Tourism and Recreation Department is considering state park closures, and it wouldn’t be the first time. After losing about a quarter of its appropriation between 2009 and 2012, the tourism department cast off seven parks. And last year, when dealing with a 5.5 percent cut, Walnut Creek State Park got the axe.
Children’s mental health program at Tulsa hospital to close
A children’s mental health program at Hillcrest Medical Center is shutting down and some say the move will put kids at risk. Hillcrest officials told FOX23 they average about 40 young, mentally ill patients each day. Many stay for weeks at a time in the Hillcrest Child and Adolescent Behavioral Services Unit. Employees were notified earlier this week that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services discontinued funding for the unit, mainly due to the fact that Oklahoma has opted out of Medicaid expansion.
Tulsa schools on federal ‘hit’ list of top 100 districts at risk of federal funding cuts
Tulsa Public Schools made the White House’s top 100 list for U.S. school districts at risk of taking the largest federal funding hit if House Republicans succeed with a measure to limit the federal role in public education. “We are not intimately familiar with every aspect of the cuts recommended in House Resolution 5,” Tulsa Superintendent Keith Ballard told the Tulsa World. “However, I can tell you that TPS has already suffered from substantial cuts to federal Title I dollars, and we have done our best to cover these losses. Any further losses in Title I dollars would be absolutely devastating to the district.”
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Thoughts on 5 ways to fix the budget
Last week Wayne Greene of the Tulsa World wrote a commentary in which he offered 5 suggestions to “reform” the state budget process. None would require a constitutional amendment or vote of the people. I think he has some good ideas. The bad news is, as I’m sure Wayne knows, all 5 of his suggestions will never happen, at least all at once. The good news is they don’t have to — in pure form and every year.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
Those released from Oklahoma prisons need help, too
For years, experts have warned that Oklahoma’s overcrowded prisons were creating huge costs for taxpayers while, perversely, possibly increasing crime. These warnings were mostly ignored, but the situation may have finally gotten so bad that lawmakers will pay attention. House Speaker Jeff Hickman recently commented that Oklahoma risks losing control of its prison system to the federal government if we don’t manage the system more responsibly.
See also: Every sentence is a life sentence: 3 barriers to life after prison from the OK Policy Blog.
Families Pay Steep Prices for Inmates’ Phone Calls
In Oklahoma, residential telephone service costs anywhere from $10 to $30 a month. A pre-paid cell phone plan with eight hours of calls can cost $35 a month, or seven cents a minute. There is no charge to activate the service. In prison or jail, it’s a different story. Prisoners cannot receive calls, but can make calls with money drawn from telephone accounts created and funded by family members or friends – a service offered by a for-profit vendor. Critics say prisons and jails are gouging offenders and their families for calls.
Read more from Oklahoma Watch.
Oklahoma pharmacy lock-in rules are given clarification
One prescriber, one pharmacy. Those are essentially the rules that a small percentage of adult Medicaid recipients must follow to receive prescriptions of powerful painkillers and anti-anxiety medications. The Oklahoma Health Care Authority implemented its pharmacy lock-in program years ago, targeted at Medicaid recipients who the agency flags as at risk of misusing prescribed controlled substances. Thursday, the agency’s board voted to clarify the program’s rules further.
Oklahoma Legislature may rumble over switchblade ban
The switchblades may come out at the Capitol this year. At least three bills — one in the House and two in the Senate — have been filed to eliminate the state’s nearly six-decade ban on carrying what are more properly called automatic knives. The impetus for repeal comes from OK2A, a Second Amendment advocacy organization that has supported much of the gun-rights legislation enacted in recent years.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
How strong are Oklahoma marriages? State has spent nearly $70 million to improve relationships
Married couples are not “consciously uncoupling,” restructuring their matrimony or going in different directions like in past generations. No matter how divorce is sugarcoated, the good news is that it is hitting some 40-year lows. The popular notion that half of all marriages don’t last is no longer true. But it’s not all about wedding bliss staying intact. During this same time, the rate of marriage has been declining.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
See also: OK Policy Roundtable: Should the state of Oklahoma be promoting marriage?
Steering committee to hold forums on Oklahoma academic standards
The Oklahoma Standards Setting Steering Committee will hold a forum Monday and Tuesday to hear from national experts on the processes used in other states to set K-12 academic standards. The State Board of Education established the committee to develop new standards in math and English/language arts by 2016 after a law passed last summer repealing Common Core standards. The two-day forum will be held in the conference room of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, 655 Research Parkway, Suite 200, in Oklahoma City.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Injured Oklahoma workers challenge workers’ comp law
Two workers who were injured on the job have filed a legal challenge over changes to Oklahoma’s workers’ compensation laws that were approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature in 2013. The constitutional challenge was filed Friday, and the plaintiffs are asking the Oklahoma Supreme Court to take up the case. The plaintiffs contend a portion of the law is unconstitutional that allows employers with their own workers’ compensation benefits plan to “opt out” of the new administrative workers’ compensation system.
Obese Oklahoma: How did we get here?
Allen Knehans has been studying obesity since before Oklahoma had an obesity epidemic. So when trying to explain why Oklahoma’s obesity rate is so bad, Knehans’ office inside the College of Allied Health at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center is a good place to start. Ask Knehans — the chairman of the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the school, and an obesity researcher since 1979 — to explain how we got to where we are, and he lays out the steps of the rapid ascension in plain English.
Former Tulsa County sheriff’s deputy bound over for trial on sexual battery, indecent exposure charges
A former Tulsa County sheriff’s deputy was bound over for trial on four criminal counts Friday for alleged sex crimes involving two women he encountered while on duty. Gerald Nuckolls, 26, was scheduled for district court arraignment on two counts each of sexual battery and indecent exposure at his preliminary hearing, presided over by Special Judge Cliff Smith. At the hearing, prosecutors dropped one count of sexual battery involving a third woman who failed to appear for court but added another involving a different alleged victim.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Oklahoma’s Daily Small Quakes Raise Risk Of Big Ones
New federal research says small earthquakes shaking Oklahoma and southern Kansas daily are dramatically increasing the chance of bigger and dangerous quakes. Scientists link many of these quakes to the deep underground injections of wastewater after drilling for energy in a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Federal records show Oklahoma has had nearly 200 quakes that people have felt since Jan. 1.
J.E. McReynolds: After 4,000-plus editorials, it’s off to retirement
Do you know me? Starting in the 1970s, American Express used that tagline for a series of TV spots featuring people who were successful but not necessarily recognizable. Garfield creator Jim Davis was one. Los Angeles Rams owner Georgia Frontiere was another. Do you know me? Editorial writers sometimes ask the same question.
Quote of the Day
“It’s a racket. You’re sitting here, you’re free, and he’s sitting in jail. What are you going to do when you’re a parent? You’re going to pay it, and they know it. It breaks my heart.”
– Brenda Baker, a Florida resident whose son was in prison in Oklahoma and is now in a halfway house. Baker estimates that she has spent $1,500 to keep in touch with her son since July 2014. Of every $3.00 required for a 15-minute call, $2.30 goes to the Department of Corrections, one of the highest rates of commission in the US (Source)
Number of the Day
27.8
Years Oklahoma has gone without raising its gas tax, second only to Alaska.
Source: Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
A Republican against prisons
Mass incarceration is a bad thing that we’ve become exceptionally good at in the United States. This dismal statistic may already be familiar: we are 5 percent of the world’s population, yet we lock up 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. Our reliance on imprisonment as a tool of social policy is horrifying more and more people across the political spectrum. Last September, the Brennan Center for Justice put on a blockbuster conference at NYU Law School to examine this everyday crisis. How can law enforcement priorities, from policing to sentencing, be shifted to reverse the 40-year trend of skyrocketing incarceration?
Read more from The American Conservative.
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