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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.
A federal judge in Oklahoma has allowed the state to press ahead with its restrictions on press access to executions, dismissing a legal challenge brought by the ACLU. Oklahoma’s prison system chief says the state plans to administer the same three drugs used in a botched execution when they execute four inmates early next year. Oklahoma’s State Treasurer Ken Miller and State Auditor and Inspector Gary Jones both criticized a tax cut trigger that has scheduled another reduction in the top income tax rate for 2016 even though Oklahoma is already dealing with a $300 million budget shortfall. On our latest podcast, we talk with David Blatt about the budget and tax outlook and what it all means for regular Oklahomans.
Tulsa sheriff officers are transporting hundreds of mentally ill residents to hospitals across the state each month because there are no nearby mental health facilities. The Oklahoman editorial board wrote that increased mental health funding needs to be a top priority in the state budget. The Norman Transcript reported that health care is becoming more affordable for small business owners and their employees through the Affordable Care Act. A conservative law professor wrote in the Washington Post that Oklahoma and Nebraska’s lawsuit against marijuana legalization in Colorado has dangerous implications.
On the OK Policy Blog, Steve Lewis discussed the appointment of new committee chairs and vice-chairs who will be some of the most influential legislators over particular policy areas next year. The Oklahoma editorial board responded to OK Policy’s report outlining how democracy is broken in Oklahoma and suggesting ways to fix it. You can read the full report here. The Oklahoman reported on how the couple who successfully challenged Oklahoma’s same-sex marriage ban are continuing to work for nationwide marriage equality. The State Board of Education has suspended funding to the Alexis Rainbow Arts Academy charter school until it provides a variety of records and financial reports.
The source of a fuel spill a few dozen miles long on the Arkansas River in the Three Forks area near Muskogee wasn’t located Saturday afternoon, but officials didn’t deem the substance a threat. About 60 demonstrators gathered in front of the Norman City Hall to rally for oil and gas drilling regulations that better protect the city’s drinking water. An overflowing crowd of concerned residents questioned representatives of an oil company at a public meeting about a proposal to drill near Lake Hefner in Oklahoma City. As winter arrives, more than 60 percent of Oklahoma remains in drought.
The Number of the Day is the drop in the number of Oklahoma children receiving subsidized child care under the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) since 2006. In today’s Policy Note, a New York public defender explains how the popular podcast ‘Serial’ missed its chance to show how unfair the criminal justice system really is.
In The News
Judge allows Oklahoma to bar press from seeing executions
A federal judge in Oklahoma has allowed the state to press ahead with its restrictions on press access to executions, dismissing a legal challenge brought by the ACLU that would have opened up the entire lethal injection process to public scrutiny. Joe Heaton, a US district judge for the western district of Oklahoma, on Friday threw out the lawsuit that had been backed by the Guardian, the Oklahoma Observer and journalist Katie Fretland.
Department Of Corrections Director Says State Has Drugs Needed For Executions
Oklahoma’s prison system chief says the state has the drugs it needs to execute four inmates early next year and plans to administer the same three drugs used in a botched execution this spring. Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton told a federal judge Friday the agency plans to use the exact formula used successfully in 11 executions in Florida, one that he believes is “humane.”
Treasurer, state auditor criticize the use of triggers for tax cuts
The announcement last week that most Oklahomans will see a slight reduction in their income taxes in 2016 has renewed the debate about the criteria used to determine whether a tax cut would occur. Designers of the law setting up the process used projected revenue growth over a period of time as criteria to determine whether the rate would drop. One of the critics of that method is State Treasurer Ken Miller, who as a former House member has voted in the past for triggers.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
OK PolicyCast Episode 17: Tax Cut Trigger and a Bad News Budget
Each week the OK PolicyCast brings you the most important news about Oklahoma and what it means. This week, we speak with OK Policy Executive Director David Blatt about the latest predictions for Oklahoma’s state budget, a tax cut that was triggered from 2016, and what it all means for regular Oklahomans. Also in this episode, we share the headlines, some recommended reading, and our closing good news of the week.
Hundreds of Tulsa’s mentally ill transported to hospitals each month
When Tulsa County Sheriff’s Deputy Will Ramsey is transporting someone for a mental health evaluation, there’s always an element of uncertainty. Will they be aggressive? Will they fight, will they struggle? Will they have any idea at all what’s happening? “Sometimes they don’t even recognize you as law enforcement,” Ramsey said of the people he transports to mental health court and mental health facilities across the state. “They’re in a psychotic state; the ride can be very quiet or it can be very chaotic.”
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Oklahoma mental health agency doing good work, but much more needed
The state must begin to deal with mental health concerns in new ways, because making inroads in this area helps drive down the jail and prison populations and reduce Oklahoma’s high rates of drug and alcohol abuse, suicide and other social ills. Gov. Mary Fallin has championed the state’s mental health agency, although this fiscal year — another tight budget period for the state — it received only a $1 million bump. This necessitated cuts of $20 million to a program that provides rehabilitative services for youngsters: The agency didn’t have the funding needed to meet matching requirements for Medicaid.
Health care more affordable for small businesses
Health care is more affordable for small business owners and their employee through the Affordable Care Act, a business and community expert said recently. U.S. Small Business Administration Regional Administrator Yolanda Garcia Olivarez encouraged Oklahoma businesses to participate in the Small Business Health Options Program Marketplace on Dec. 16 at the Plaza Mayor Center Court at the Crossroads Mall in Oklahoma City.
Read more from The Norman Transcript.
Dangerous implications of the Nebraska-Oklahoma lawsuit against marijuana legalization in Colorado
Co-blogger Jonathan Adler and Vanderbilt law professor Robert Mikos have pointed out some of the flaws in the lawsuit filed by Nebraska and Oklahoma urging a federal court to invalidate marijuana legalization in neighboring Colorado. In the unlikely event that the plaintiff states prevail, they will also have set a very dangerous precedent – one that conservatives are likely to rue in other areas.
Read more from The Washington Post.
The committee chair shuffle
We move inexorably toward the next legislative session as some important milestones occurred last week. The first, the deadline for making a bill request passed last Friday, December 12th. That means any member of the House or Senate who plans to introduce a bill next session was required to identify his or her idea for legislation and make the bill drafting request to legislative staff.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
Low voter turnout in Oklahoma doesn’t mean democracy is ‘broken’
Extraordinarily low voter turnout in the November elections remains a subject of concern among some policy experts. Oklahoma Policy Institute executive director David Blatt takes the issue particularly seriously. “It’s hard to escape the conclusion that our democracy is broken,” Blatt said in a news release accompanying rollout of an OK Policy report that examines reasons for the lack of voter participation.
See also: Repairing Oklahoma’s Broken Democracy from Oklahoma Policy Institute.
For Oklahoma’s most well-known same-sex couple, work continues on marriage equality
They don’t interrupt each other or finish each other’s sentences, and each seems genuinely interested in what the other has to say. But that’s not why Sharon Baldwin’s and Mary Bishop’s marriage is so celebrated. Rather, it’s the fact that they spent nearly 10 years fighting Oklahoma’s ban on same-sex marriage and now represent the victory in their home state and around the country.
Board Of Education Suspends Charter School’s Funding
The State Board of Education has suspended its funding to Alexis Rainbow Arts Academy until it has provided the board with a variety of records and financial reports. The board is accusing the northwest Oklahoma City school of 62 students of not producing key administrative and financial records in compliance with state law.
Lengthy fuel spill on Arkansas River near Muskogee not deemed a threat
The source of a fuel spill a few dozen miles long on the Arkansas River in the Three Forks area near Muskogee wasn’t located Saturday afternoon, but officials didn’t deem the substance a threat. Oklahoma Highway Patrol Capt. Paul Timmons said the roughly 46-mile-long spill is narrow, with some of it moving into the area of Three Forks Harbor and the rest downstream.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Crowd Rallies for Clean Water as Norman Committee Considers New Drilling Rules
About 60 demonstrators gathered in front of the Norman City Hall Wednesday evening before the city council’s oversight committee met to discuss changes to the Norman’s oil and gas drilling regulations.The Central Oklahoma Clean Water Coalition hosted the rally. Organizer Casey Holcomb says the current ordinances were written before fracking became so widespread.
Oklahoma City Residents Question Lake Hefner Drilling Plan at Contentious Public Meeting
A rowdy crowd of concerned residents shouted at city officials and questioned representatives of an oil company at a Thursday night meeting about a proposal to drill near Lake Hefner in Oklahoma City. Hundreds showed up for the meeting, which was held at the Will Rogers Conservatory, a venue that was too small for the crowd. People formed a long line and waited in the rain to attend a second overflow meeting held immediately following the first meeting.
As winter arrives, more than 60 percent of Oklahoma remains in drought
When it started raining in the Panhandle last August, it was the first time Bob Apple had seen it in a while. He hasn’t seen much of it since then, either. Apple and his wife, Jane, live on a ranch near Kenton, a few miles from the New Mexico and Colorado borders. Although Kenton, at the western tip of the Panhandle, is routinely one of the driest parts of the state, Apple said things seem worse this year.
Quote of the Day
“Conservatives can argue that Colorado’s marijuana laws inflict greater harm on Nebraska than, say, Virginia’s gun laws inflict on Maryland. The claim that the possible benefits of drug prohibition outweigh the enormous costs of imprisoning large numbers of people and bolstering organized crime by creating black markets is itself dubious. But even if it is true, the proposition that marijuana legalization is more dangerous than gun legalization is unlikely to persuade liberal federal judges, or even many moderate ones.”
-Ilya Somin, a Professor of Law at George Mason University, writing in the Washington Post that Oklahoma and Nebraska’s legal challenge to marijuana legalization in Colorado could set a dangerous precedent that conservatives are likely to regret in other areas (Source: http://wapo.st/1wW5AVA)
Number of the Day
-700
Drop in the number of Oklahoma children receiving subsidized child care under the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) since 2006.
Source: CLASP.
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
‘Serial’ missed its chance to show how unfair the criminal justice system really is
Serial, the popular podcast that ends this week, is about a real-life teenage murder mystery. Reporter Sarah Koenig explores lingering doubts about the case of Adnan Syed, who, as a high-school senior, was convicted of the murder of his ex-girlfriend Hae Min Lee. The prosecutors in the case collected a raft of evidence from the day of the murder, including evidence from 14 cellphone calls. Yet at Syed’s trial, they omitted evidence related to 10 of those calls, even those from the alleged time of the murder itself, because that evidence contradicted their case against Syed. Then and throughout the trial, the prosecution presented to the jury only what supported their story —”which is their prerogative,” Koenig said. “Their job is to put on the strongest possible case.”
Read more from The Washington Post.
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