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State agencies in Oklahoma are being told to brace for budget cuts after a state board led by Gov. Mary Fallin certified that the Legislature will have $611 million less to spend this year. OK Policy released a statement that the budget shortfall cannot be blamed only on the slowdown in the energy industry, as legislators have repeatedly voted to cut taxes and expand tax breaks. State officials said all options are on the table to address the budget hole, but ruled out canceling a cut to the top income rate that adds $50 million to the shortfall this year.
Two bills that would require stricter oversight of various state tax credits and incentives have cleared a Senate committee. Members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education approved measures that would boost teacher salaries and pump more money into Oklahoma classrooms, while acknowledging they do not know how to pay for them. Together Oklahoma discussed seven ways to get your legislators’ attention about an issue.
An Oklahoma Watch investigation showed how two private companies that provide banking services in prisons are extracting onerous fees from inmates’ family members. Tulsa has seen a rash of self-defense shootings this year by civilians or security guards. A House committee moved forward two bills that would discontinue state marriage licenses and forbid state and local government employees, including judges, from complying with federal rulings on same-sex marriage. Another Oklahoma bill would require couples to prove they don’t have a communicable disease before getting a marriage license.
Oklahoma’s attorney general is praising a ruling by a federal judge in South Texas who has temporarily blocked President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration. The number of heroin deaths increased tenfold during a recent five-year period, according to a recently updated state Health Department report, but the increase could be due to both more heroin usage and better reporting. Chesapeake Energy Corp filed suit Tuesday alleging its founder and former chief executive, Aubrey K. McClendon, stole confidential company data during his last months on the job in order to launch his new oil and gas empire.
Oklahoma City is looking at building a 29-mile pipeline to move more water from reservoirs in the south to the drought-stricken north side of the city. Efforts to save monarch butterflies in Oklahoma and nationwide are underway after years of declining population. The Number of the Day is the estimated lifetime earnings of an Oklahoma City Public Schools teacher, lowest out of all 125 large districts studied in a national report. In today’s Policy Note, Vox debunks the myth that there are more black men in prison than in college.
In The News
Oklahoma budget hole reaches $611 million
State agencies in Oklahoma are being told to brace for budget cuts after a state board led by Gov. Mary Fallin certified that the Legislature will have $611 million less to spend this year. The State Board of Equalization met Tuesday in Oklahoma City and formally certified the amount of revenue that is available for the Legislature to appropriate to state agencies for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
STATEMENT: Bleak revenue estimate shows need to look at all options
This news that Oklahoma’s revenue picture has gone from bad to worse cannot be blamed only on the slowdown in the energy industry. Choices by the Legislature and Governor have helped dig this budget hole. State leaders need to make better choices to avoid calamitous cuts to our children’s schools, our health care safety net, and public safety.
Oklahoma officials say all options are on the table (except canceling tax cuts) to close king-size budget gap
Oklahomans will receive an income tax cut Jan. 1 even though the state is facing a $611.3 million budget shortfall, leaders said Tuesday after a board confirmed an oil industry downturn has blown a hole in state revenue projections. Everything else apparently will be on the table — from state travel to stress balls — as officials try to close the gap. State Finance Secretary Preston Doerflinger compared the predicament to one faced by scientists in the “Apollo 13” movie as they looked through a box of items to determine what could be used to bring the damaged spacecraft home safely.
Measures Seek Stricter Tax Credit Oversight In Oklahoma
Two bills that would require stricter oversight of various state tax credits and incentives have cleared a Senate committee. The Senate Finance Committee approved both bills by Senate President Pro Tem Brian Bingman on Tuesday. The measures now proceed to the full Senate.
House Appropriations Subcommittee Approves Oklahoma Ed. Funding, Lottery Legislation
Measures that would boost teacher salaries and pump more money into Oklahoma classrooms have been approved by a state House subcommittee. Members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education approved the measures Tuesday while acknowledging they do not know how to pay for them. The subcommittee voted 9-0 for a measure that would increase classroom funding by $600 million over 10 years. Board members also voted 9-0 for a bill supported by Superintendent of Schools Joy Hofmeister that would increase teacher pay by more than $5,000 over five years and add five more days to the public school calendar.
Seven Ways to Get Your Legislators’ Attention
Does this sound familiar? You hear about some out-there proposal at the state Legislature, or you know about some good idea that’s not getting done, and you get inspired to mobilize – to speak up so our elected officials will hear you. What do you? The first answer that comes to many of our minds is “Let’s march to the Capitol and have a rally!” A crowd waving signs is what so many of us associate with politics. But is that the only or the best option?
Read more from Together Oklahoma.
Prison Bankers Exact Fees, Profits From Families
In Oklahoma’s prison system, inmates spend millions of dollars a year from their trust accounts, buying canteen items and paying restitution, fines and other costs. Much of that money comes from family members. They deposit funds into inmates’ “trust fund accounts” that are part of the Department of Corrections’ offender banking system. They also pay a price for that giving. Two private companies that provide banking services in prisons under state contract tack on fees, and family members say those fees, paid over time, are onerous.
Read more from the Oklahoma Watch.
Justified or not? Tulsa sees rash of self-defense shootings this year
Of the 11 homicide victims so far this year, five have been killed by civilians or security guards in shootings Tulsa police have deemed self-defense. For comparison’s sake, only eight such homicides occurred in all of 2014, and six of those involved Tulsa police officers. Tulsa police have not been involved in a shooting yet this year.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Bills targeting same-sex marriage advanced by Oklahoma House panel
Bills discontinuing state marriage licenses and forbidding state and local government employees, including judges, from complying with federal rulings on same-sex marriage advanced from the Oklahoma House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. The two bills are in response to recent federal court decisions and the possibility those decisions will be affirmed later this year by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Proposed Bill: Couples Must Prove They Don’t Have STDs Before Marriage In OK
A controversial bill could require couples to prove they don’t have certain diseases, including STD’s before getting a marriage license. Under this new provision, if a person has a disease that can passed to another person, they basically won’t be able to get married in Oklahoma. Each year many Oklahomans file a marriage license. It doesn’t take much, but state lawmakers are working to change that process and to include very personal health information, making what’s now private under HIPAA laws public.
Oklahoma Attorney General Praises Immigration Ruling
Oklahoma’s attorney general is praising a ruling by a federal judge in South Texas who has temporarily blocked President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration. Attorney General Scott Pruitt said in a statement Tuesday the judge’s decision will help undo what he called “unlawful actions” on immigration by the president. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen’s decision late Monday puts on hold Obama’s orders that could spare from deportation as many as 5 million people who are in the U.S. illegally.
Heroin deaths increased tenfold in Oklahoma
The number of heroin deaths increased tenfold during a recent five-year period, according to a recently updated state Health Department report. Oklahoma’s heroin deaths increased from three deaths in 2007 to 29 in 2012. The report notes, in previous years, heroin deaths might have been underestimated and misclassified as morphine. The increase in deaths could be due to both more heroin usage and better reporting.
Chesapeake Energy Sues Founder, Former CEO McClendon
Chesapeake Energy Corp filed suit Tuesday alleging its founder and former chief executive, Aubrey K. McClendon, stole confidential company data during his last months on the job in order to launch his new oil and gas empire. McClendon, 55, “misappropriated highly sensitive trade secrets from Chesapeake” and “subsequently used these trade secrets for the benefit of” a company he founded in 2013, American Energy Partners LP, according to the civil complaint filed by Chesapeake in Oklahoma County District Court.
Oklahoma City officials look to pipeline project to help mitigate drought
Take a walk at Lake Overholser or Lake Hefner, and it’s easy to see the toll the multiyear drought has taken on Oklahoma City’s drinking water supply. Water levels at both north Oklahoma City reservoirs have dropped, leaving the lakes ringed by exposed mud flats that normally would be under water. Now, city officials are working to move more water from reservoirs in the south, where it is more plentiful, to customers on the north side of the city.
Effort to save monarch butterflies is underway in Oklahoma, nationwide
Their bright orange and black wings are a familiar sight each fall as they stop in Oklahoma on their annual migration south to Mexico. Efforts to save the monarch butterflies are underway after years of declining population, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced. Since 1990, about 970 million have vanished as a result of farmers and homeowners spraying herbicides on milkweed plants, according to the agency.
Quote of the Day
“The gap more than doubled. We were prepared to climb the hill we faced before and we’re prepared to climb the mountain we face now. It will be difficult, but all options are on the table and the state will meet the challenge.”
-State Secretary of Finance Preston Doerflinger, speaking about Oklahoma’s $611 million budget shortfall for next year. Doerflinger and other state leaders said “all options” does not include canceling a scheduled cut to the top income tax rate, which adds $50 million to the budget shortfall (Source)
Number of the Day
$1.46 million
The estimated lifetime earnings of an Oklahoma City Public Schools teacher, lowest out of all 125 large districts studied in a national report.
Source: National Council on Teacher Quality via the Tulsa World.
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
The myth that there are more black men in prison than in college, debunked in one chart
“There are more black men in jail than in college.”Ivory A. Toldson — Howard University professor, senior research analyst for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, and deputy director of the White House Initiative on HBCUs — called this, in a 2013 column for the Root, “the most frequently quoted statistic about black men in the United States.” It’s also dead wrong.
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