In The Know: Lawmakers’ familiar foe joins Oklahoma Supreme Court tax challenges

In The Know is your daily briefing on Oklahoma policy-related news. Inclusion of a story does not necessarily mean endorsement by the Oklahoma Policy Institute. Click here to subscribe to In The Know and see past editions.

Today In The News

Lawmakers’ familiar foe joins Oklahoma Supreme Court tax challenges: Jerry Fent, who has a history of suing the state over fiscal matters, has lodged his support for two lawsuits targeting new taxes and fees. In both cases, he filed an entry of appearance for support — a simple two-page document that informs the court that he agrees with the original petitions and is not accepting payment. He did not include his own brief or arguments. Fent joined tobacco companies that are challenging a $1.50 fee on cigarette packs, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Gary Richardson, who is seeking to strike down three new laws that include a sales tax on automobile purchases [NewsOK]. The budget is sitting on shaky constitutional foundations [OK Policy].

With budget uncertainty, schools tighten spending plans: As the state waits to see whether the Oklahoma Supreme Court will rule against several measures that are slated to add $370 million to the state’s coffers, school superintendents said they’re tightening their belts in anticipation. Like most other government organizations in Oklahoma, school districts must solidify their budgets when the new fiscal year begins on July 1. For districts, that means deciding whether to hire more teachers, whether to make infrastructure investments and how many courses to offer [Journal Record]. However you count it, Oklahoma’s per pupil education funding is way down [OK Policy].

Prosperity Policy: Leading in the wrong direction: For years, Oklahoma has led the nation in cuts to state aid funding of pre-K through 12th-grade schools. Oklahoma has cut state aid per student 26.9 percent since 2008. That’s almost twice as much as the next worst state, Alabama. The results are clear. Many of our best teachers are leaving for other states, nearly one in five school districts are going to four-day weeks, class sizes are growing, and arts, athletics, and STEM programs are being cut. These problems have gotten attention in state and national media – so much that Gov. Mary Fallin says she is having trouble convincing businesses to come to Oklahoma because of them [Gene Perry / Journal Record].

Race issues, failing schools grab Oklahoma City Council’s attention: Simmering issues of race, failing schools and intergovernmental decorum broke into the open at Wednesday’s city council meeting, as Ward 2 Councilman Ed Shadid took Ward 7 Councilman John Pettis to task for remarks Pettis made to the Oklahoma City School Board last week. “I don’t apologize for anything I said,” said Pettis, who was critical of plans to close a school. “Every single school that’s an Oklahoma City public school, that’s in Ward 7, is falling behind.” [NewsOK]

Despite dangerous prison conditions, lawmakers remain dumb on crime: Oklahoma has too many people in prison and too little money to keep them there. The situation is dangerous for inmates, prison workers and the public. Corrections Director Joe Allbaugh outlined the situation for the state corrections board last week in stark terms. “You can’t pack people into facilities that are decrepit and expect everybody to behave,” Allbaugh said. “You can only push this balloon so far. Something is going to pop.” [Editorial Writers / Tulsa World] The debate surrounding criminal justice reform in Oklahoma generally focuses on one question: How do we reduce our very high incarceration rates without jeopardizing public safety?  [OK Policy]

Health care is increasingly central to Oklahoma’s economy: If you ask a person on the street what Oklahoma’s economy is known for, two industries likely to come to mind are oil and gas drilling and agriculture. Yet when we look at the jobs Oklahomans are working in today, those industries play a much smaller role than that common understanding might assume. Agricultural jobs almost vanished in the 1990s and never came back, and today the industry is barely more than one percent of the state’s GDP. Oil and gas mining still makes up a sizable portion of the state GDP, and that sector provides a large segment of Oklahoma’s highest-paying jobs [OK Policy].

Documentary’s riot-era films depicting Greenwood District portray inaccuracies, critics say: A historical documentary that premiered on the Smithsonian Channel last weekend has drawn criticism from Tulsans who say it misrepresents the history of the Greenwood District. The criticism surfaced on blogs and social media after the Tulsa World published an article announcing that the documentary, “America in Color,” includes rare footage showing the Greenwood community before what has become known as the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot [Tulsa World].

BMX to build arena, world headquarters in Tulsa at Evans-Fintube industrial site: Downtown’s long-empty Evans-Fintube industrial site will be the home of USA BMX and a new indoor arena with hopes to host BMX Olympic trials by 2020, officials said Wednesday. City officials scrambled to identify a new site after the Vision Tulsa plan to place it at the Tulsa Fairgrounds fell through last month. The next steps are ongoing environmental cleanup and taking the design of an Olympic-grade facility past the current conceptual phase [Tulsa World].

Republican Tulsa lawmaker to seek Oklahoma insurance post: A Republican state legislator from Tulsa has filed candidacy paperwork indicating he plans to run for Oklahoma Insurance Commissioner in 2018. State Rep. Glen Mulready filed a Statement of Organization form over the weekend with the Oklahoma Ethics Commission. A longtime insurance professional, the 56-year-old Mulready is in his fourth term as a state lawmaker and currently serves as majority floor leader in the House [AP].

State senator accused of groping Uber driver: Another Oklahoma senator is being accused of sexual misconduct, this time for allegedly grabbing a female Uber driver and kissing her neck in transit. A woman filed a police report on June 28 about the incident that allegedly occurred two days before. According to the report, she said she was transporting state Sen. Bryce Marlatt, R-Woodward, along Hefner Parkway to a hotel at about 10 p.m. June 26. It says he started “grabbing her forcefully and kissing (her) on the neck while she was driving.” [Journal Record]

Hobby Lobby agrees to forfeit ancient artifacts, pay $3 million to government: Hobby Lobby, the Oklahoma City-based retail giant, announced Wednesday it has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to forfeit thousands of ancient artifacts the government says the company illegally imported from the Middle East. According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York, Hobby Lobby in about 2009 began importing thousands of ancient clay tablets, cylinder seals and other cultural items that were shipped to Hobby Lobby locations in Oklahoma [Tulsa World].

Quote of the Day

“They have to move forward with their budget and have faith that if the courts do strike all of part of the new revenue, the Legislature will go to special session immediately (to find a way to replace the money). I know there’s a lot of angst and anxiety from all parts of state government around the lawsuits.”

– Sean Hime, executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association, on school districts’ difficulties building their budgets for the upcoming school year (Source)

Number of the Day

74,000

Non-elderly Oklahomans with disabilities participating in SNAP in an average month, 2015

Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

See previous Numbers of the Day here.

Policy Note

Escaping Poverty Requires Almost 20 Years With Nearly Nothing Going Wrong: A lot of factors have contributed to American inequality: slavery, economic policy, technological change, the power of lobbying, globalization, and so on. In their wake, what’s left? That’s the question at the heart of a new book, The Vanishing Middle Class: Prejudice and Power in a Dual Economy, by Peter Temin, an economist from MIT. Temin argues that, following decades of growing inequality, America is now left with what is more or less a two-class system: One small, predominantly white upper class that wields a disproportionate share of money, power, and political influence and a much larger, minority-heavy (but still mostly white) lower class that is all too frequently subject to the first group’s whims [The Atlantic].

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