In The Know: Fallin rejects lawmaker’s call for ‘Catastrophic Health Emergency’ over migrant children

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 or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, or RSS. The podcast theme music is by Zébre.

Today you should know that Governor Fallin rejected a call by Rep. Mike Ritze to declare a Catastrophic Health Emergency related to the immigrant children being held at Fort Sill. The OK Policy Blog debunked several myths that have emerged about these children. Tax credits that help 55,000 Oklahomans purchase insurance on the federal marketplace were thrown into question when separate federal appeals courts came down on opposite sides of the issue. OK Policy released a statement on the rulings. Oklahoma Watch shared a Q&A on how the rulings will affect Oklahomans.

Rep. Mike Shelton requested an Attorney General’s opinion on the constitutionality of legislation that diverted $5 million from a fund earmarked for trauma care assistance. Backers of school tornado shelters and legalized marijuana are quickly running out of time to place these issues before voters in November. About 600 of the 800 Tulsa third graders who failed a state reading test should soon learn how they did on a make-up test. The Tulsa World praised the efforts of the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma to address huge problems of hunger in Oklahoma.

The Enid News & Eagle reported on OK Policy awarding our annual Good Sense/Good Cents award to former Governor Henry Bellmon. Creek County Rural Water District No. 2, which serves about 4,700 customers in south Tulsa, Jenks, Mounds, Glenpool and Sapulpa, has violated drinking water standards going back to 2012. Tulsa came in at number four on a list of cities with high rates of fatal DUI accidents.

The Number of the Day is the number of laboratory-confirmed cases of rabies in Oklahoma during 2013. In today’s Policy Note, the New Yorker examines how in some cases the “alternatives to incarceration” industry is profiting by sending Americans who can’t afford traffic fines into deeper debt.

In The News

Fallin rejects lawmaker’s call for ‘Catastrophic Health Emergency’ over migrant children

Governor Mary Fallin’s office on Tuesday rejected a call by Rep. Mike Ritze to declare a Catastrophic Health Emergency to address issues related to the immigrant children being held at Fort Sill. “It is our belief that the (Catastrophic Health Emergency Act) offers a very narrow interpretation of what a ‘health emergency’ is and when a CHE can be declared by the governor, wrote Steve Mullins, Fallin’s general counsel, in a Tuesday letter to Ritze. “We do not believe that the current health concerns at Fort Sill have met that threshold.”

Read more from KGOU.

Debunking myths about migrant children at Ft. Sill

As most Oklahomans have heard and seen on the news, there are currently between 1,000 and 1,500 migrant children being housed in dormitories on Fort Sill, an Army base in southwestern Oklahoma near Lawton (among other places across the country). The vast majority are from three Central American countries: Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. These children’s entry into the U.S. and into Oklahoma has sparked a large amount of commentary and speculation about their situation. In the hopes of providing some clarity for Oklahomans interested in these developments, this post responds to some common misconceptions about who they are, why they came, and what’s being done.

Read more from the OK Policy blog.

Courts issue contradictory rulings on Affordable Care Act

A key component of the Affordable Care Act utilized by 55,000 Oklahomans was thrown into question Tuesday when separate federal appeals courts came down on opposite sides of the issue. Oklahoma Republicans and opponents of the ACA were quick to proclaim victory over the ruling favorable to their cause, but they were largely silent over the second decision. In a 2-1 opinion, a three-judge panel from the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled that a glitch in the law bars the Internal Revenue Service from distributing premium subsidies to those buying health insurance on federally run exchanges, as opposed to state exchanges.

Read more from the Tulsa World.

See also: Statement: Lawsuit threatens health care for working Oklahomans from OK Policy.

Q&A: How Appeals Courts’ Rulings on ‘Obamacare’ Subsidies Might Affect Oklahoma

On Tuesday, two federal appeals courts issued conflicting rulings on the legality of tax subsidies being provided to people who bought “Obamacare” health insurance policies in Oklahoma and 35 other states. About 55,000 Oklahomans already are receiving tax subsidies for private health plans purchased through the federally operated exchange in this state. Thousands more might qualify if the subsidies are not struck down. They would not lose their policies if the D.C. ruling were to stand. But their monthly premiums would go up, in some cases dramatically.

Read more from Oklahoma Watch.

Legislator Requests AG’s Opinion on Legality Of Trauma Care Funds Diversion

A state House minority leader Friday requested an Attorney General’s opinion on the constitutionality of legislation that diverted $5 million from a fund earmarked for trauma care assistance. Specifically, Rep. Mike Shelton, an assistant minority floor leader, asked Attorney General Scott Pruitt whether Section 162 of Senate Bill 2127 violates Article 10, Section 19, of the Oklahoma Constitution. Section X-19 of the Constitution decrees, in part, that “no tax levied and collected for one purpose shall ever be devoted to another purpose.”

Read more from the Daily Ardmoreite.

Time is running out in Oklahoma to qualify key ballot measures

Backers of school tornado shelters and legalized marijuana are quickly running out of time to place these issues before voters in November. Supporters only recently began the official, 90-day period of collecting the tens of thousands of signatures needed to qualify these measures for the statewide ballot. However, state election officials will be finalizing the Nov. 4 ballot the first week of September. That means the signatures would have to be in hand in August — long before the collection period is over — so they could be counted and verified.

Read more from NewsOK.

TPS 3rd graders await result of alternate reading test

Third graders at Tulsa Public Schools who failed a state reading test earlier this year should soon learn how they did on a make-up test, district officials said. About 800 TPS third graders, or one-third, failed the state reading test. About 600 of them took an alternate test in summer school. The alternate test is one of six exemptions that allows students to still be promoted to the fourth grade, if they pass. Educators are in the process of figuring out how many students now qualify for promotion. Students can take another alternate test on August 12th.

Read more from KJRH.

Feeding the hungry: Food bank comes through

The Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma finished its fiscal year with some impressive numbers. The nonprofit set a record for distribution — 17.3 million meals provided from 20.8 million pounds of food. That’s an amazing accomplishment by an organization whose partner agencies cover 24 counties. We’re glad these nonprofits are there to help a lot of people in need. Yet, it’s less than encouraging to find that there are that many hungry people in the area — a 21 percent increase over last fiscal year. And it’s downright discouraging to hear from Eileen Bradshaw, executive director of the food bank, that the full need is not being met.

Read more from the Tulsa World.

Group will honor Henry Bellmon

Billings native and longtime Oklahoma politician Henry Bellmon is the focus of a panel discussion and awards ceremony next month. Oklahoma Policy Institute, a state policy think tank, will honor Bellmon with the 2014 Good Sense/GoodCents Award Aug. 4 in Tulsa. Bellmon served as governor of Oklahoma in the 1960s and later was elected as a U.S. senator. He then won a second term for governor in 1987. He died in 2009 at the age of 88. As the first GOP chief executive in state history, Bellmon is considered by many to be a statesman who upheld the best political traditions, said OK Policy Executive Director David Blatt.

Read more from the Enid News & Eagle.

Creek County Rural Water District No. 2 violates drinking water standards

Creek County Rural Water District No. 2 recently violated drinking water standards, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality has reported. Testing results received April 2013 through March show that the district exceeded the standard or maximum contaminant level (MCL) for total trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids, the DEQ said. The district exceeded the standard as far back as January 2012. Rural Water District No. 2, headquartered within the Jenks fenceline, serves about 4,700 customers, including some in south Tulsa, Jenks, Mounds, Glenpool and Sapulpa, a spokeswoman said.

Read more from the Jenks World.

Tulsa No. 4 in U.S. for Rate of DUI Fatalities

Tulsa comes in at number four on a list of cities with high rates of fatal DUI accidents. John Kuo, an analyst for the financial website NerdWallet said Tulsa had 74 deadly crashes from 2010 to 2012 — as many as some much larger cities. “Tulsa actually has as many alcohol-related fatal crashes as Oklahoma City, which is a city that has almost 200,000 more residents than Tulsa,” Kuo said. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, there were 205 drunk driving deaths statewide in 2012, about one-third of all traffic deaths. San Bernardino, Calif., was at the top of NerdWallet’s list. And getting a DUI in Tulsa is less costly in the long run than it is in many other cities.

Read more from Public Radio Tulsa.

Quote of the Day

“[Eliminating the subsidies] will be devastating to tens of thousands of Oklahomans who have been able to purchase health insurance through the federal exchange. [They] will be perplexed why their attorney general is going to court to prevent them from having affordable health care.”

– OK Policy Executive Director David Blatt, speaking about a federal court ruling that threatens to take away tax credits for purchasing health insurance from more than 55,000 Oklahomans. State Attorney General Scott Pruitt has filed a similar lawsuit attempting to block the tax credits (Source: http://bit.ly/1r75tB3)

Number of the Day

85

Number of laboratory-confirmed cases of rabies in Oklahoma during 2013.

Source: Oklahoma State Department of Health.

See previous Numbers of the Day here.

Policy Note

Get Out of Jail, Inc.

On a cold November afternoon, Harriet Cleveland, a forty-nine-year-old mother of three, waved me over from the steps of her pink cottage in Montgomery, Alabama. She was off to her part-time job as a custodian at a local day-care center, looking practical but confectionary: pink lipstick, a pastel yellow-and-pink tunic, and dangly pink earrings. We’d need to start walking soon, she explained. The job, which paid seven dollars and twenty-five cents an hour, was the only one she’d been able to find for some time, and was four and a half miles away. As we set off beneath loblolly pines, she recounted the events that had led me to her doorstep: her arrest and jailing for a string of traffic tickets that she was unable to pay. It was, in part, a story of poverty and constraint, but it was also a story of the lucrative and fast-growing “alternatives to incarceration” industry.

Read more from the New Yorker.

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