OKPOLICY.ORG
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.
Over the past two decades, Oklahoma’s Quality Jobs Program has paid out $949 million in taxpayer funds to companies that said they would create as many as 235,841 new jobs for state residents, but an Oklahoma Watch investigation found that the number of jobs actually created were less than half of initial projections touted in press releases, and state spending on the program has grown more than three times as fast as the tax revenues that support it. You can see Oklahoma’s Quality Jobs payouts by company here. An OK Policy report from July previously examined problems with the lack of oversight and growing cost of the program. House Speaker Jeff Hickman said a looming $300 million budget hole may lead to greater scrutiny of the $1.7 billion the state gives away each year on tax credits, incentives and exemptions.
More than 44,000 Oklahomans signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act during the first month of open enrollment for the 2015 period. About 82 percent of them were eligible for financial assistance to lower their monthly premiums, though Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt is suing to take away that assistance. NewsOK shared comments from OK Policy Executive Director David Blatt and others on what was the biggest Oklahoma health story of 2014. Morton Comprehensive Health Services CEO John Silva wrote that Oklahoma’s health care infrastructure continues to crash and burn because lawmakers have gutted reimbursements for caring for the uninsured while continuing to refuse federal funds.
A parent-guardian association representing residents of a state institution for individuals with severe developmental disabilities has filed a lawsuit in an effort to prevent the closing of the Southern Oklahoma Resource Center in Pauls Valley. In NewsOK, Jaclyn Cosgrove shared stories of families who have lost loved ones to mental illness. While the majority of overdoses occur in Oklahoma and Tulsa counties each year, prescription drug overdoses are a growing problem in Oklahoma’s rural counties.
The number female homicide victims and domestic violence-related deaths in Tulsa reached a 26-year high in 2014. The number of bank robberies in Oklahoma declined significantly in 2014 compared with the year before. Oklahoma posted one of the highest numbers of gambling-related embezzlement cases last year and remains at “high risk” of embezzlement because of gambling, according to a recent study. The National Weather Service says just 16 tornadoes were recorded in Oklahoma in 2014, fewer than any year on record.
OK Policy shared our 11 most popular blog posts in 2014. Oklahoma could join a list of states where it is illegal to wear a hoodie in public, if a state senator’s proposed bill goes through. The state agency that enforces campaign-finance rules has failed to collect a large majority of late-filing fees from political groups and candidates and this year stopped assessing the fees altogether. On the OK Policy Blog, Steve Lewis examined an early controversy in the Legislature over consolidating rural schools. A private prison in Hinton, Oklahoma that has been vacant since 2010 is set to reopen with federal inmates.
The Number of the Day is the number of tornadoes in Oklahoma in 2014, the fewest of any year on record. In today’s Policy Note, Quartz examines how the U.S. is shortchanging the most gifted students in high-poverty schools, so that some of America’s most gifted kids wind up in prison.
In The News
Results from Oklahoma’s Quality Jobs payments fall far short of promises
Over the past two decades, Oklahoma’s Quality Jobs Program has paid out $949 million in taxpayer funds to companies that said they would create as many as 235,841 new jobs for state residents. An Oklahoma Watch data analysis shows that the number of jobs actually created fell far below initial projections. Fewer than half of the jobs projected materialized by the required deadline and qualified for subsidies. The analysis also shows that state spending on the program has grown more than three times as fast as the tax revenues that support it.
Read more from Oklahoma Watch.
See also: Interactive: Quality Jobs Payouts by Company from Oklahoma Watch; Report examines growing cost of Quality Jobs program from OK Policy.
Oklahoma’s budget hole could lead to greater scrutiny of tax incentives, dedicated funding
A looming $300 million budget hole may lead to greater scrutiny of the $1.7 billion the state gives away each year on tax credits, incentives and exemptions, House Speaker Jeff Hickman said Friday. “We don’t have a problem in terms of revenue,” he said. “We have a problem in terms of some expenditures. We need to look at the billion plus we’re giving away. If we ever hope to make significant reductions in the income tax you have to look at those things.” He said it also may be time to create a fair system to determine whether an incentive is actually sparking economic growth and stability.
First month of ACA open enrollment draws more than 44,000 Oklahomans
More than 44,000 Oklahomans signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act during the first month of open enrollment for the 2015 period, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday. Between Nov. 15 and Dec. 15, the agency said, 44,129 residents of the state selected plans in the marketplace. About 82 percent of them were eligible for financial assistance to lower their monthly premiums and 45 percent were re-enrolling after signing up last year, the first time ACA coverage was available.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
See also: What was the biggest Oklahoma health story of 2014? from NewsOK.
Is state failure to fund uncompensated care pool the beginning of the end?
I really never thought it would come to this. Sure, the loss of State Uncompensated Care Pool payments sent serious tremors through our system. True, when state pool payments resumed this fall they were based upon a new, severely discounted system and represented less than 20 percent of actual uncompensated care costs which didn’t help the situation.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
See also: Flatline: Funding cuts threaten Oklahoma’s community health centers from the OK Policy Blog.
Lawsuit filed to halt closure of Oklahoma residential center
A parent-guardian association representing residents of a state institution for individuals with severe developmental disabilities has filed a lawsuit in an effort to prevent the closing of the Southern Oklahoma Resource Center in Pauls Valley. “A shocking percentage of clients who have been moved from institutions like SORC to private community settings have suffered disastrous consequences,” the parent-guardian association said in the lawsuit filed this week in Garvin County District Court.
Families remember the lives of loved ones who struggled with mental illness
When her son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, Labeth Nall knew more about the disease than her first go-round. Nall’s daughter, Amy, had been in recovery for about three years when Aaron was diagnosed with the same disease. In some ways, Nall felt relief, finally knowing why Aaron had struggled so much with alcoholism and paranoia.
Drug overdoses are growing problem in rural Oklahoma
Five years ago, an Oklahoma woman was found dead inside an empty bathtub in her family home. On the counter, just a few feet from the body, police found a syringe with a sterile wipe lying next to it. Another syringe was found on the ground near the toilet. Police would later remove “a sack full” of prescription medication and additional syringes from the woman’s bathroom.
Number of female homicide victims, domestic violence-related deaths up in Tulsa in 2014
Still wearing blood-covered clothes as he sat on his front porch, Arthur Devaughn told Tulsa police on a cold February night that he had stabbed and killed his mother, Glenda Castaneda, during a dispute over her prescription medication. Castaneda’s killing was the first of 12 homicides the Tulsa Police Department classified as resulting from domestic violence last year. The majority of those victims were women, and the total number of women killed in Tulsa last year — 20 — was a 26-year high, an ignominious figure for a city that’s seen at least 10 women killed in each of the last four years.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Number of bank robberies in Oklahoma declines in 2014
The number of bank robberies in Oklahoma declined significantly in 2014 compared with the year before. In 2014, there were 43 bank robberies statewide, the FBI reported Wednesday. That is a drop from 2013, when the FBI reported more than 60 bank robberies in the state. The number of bank robberies has fluctuated from year to year, records show.
State Among Top in Gambling-Related Embezzlement
Oklahoma posted one of the highest numbers of gambling-related embezzlement cases last year and remains at “high risk” of embezzlement because of gambling, according to a recent study. The Marquet Report on Embezzlement, released in December, listed gambling as the second most likely motivating factor in embezzlement in 2013.
Read more from Oklahoma Watch.
Oklahoma had Fewer Tornadoes in 2014 than Any Year
The National Weather Service says just 16 tornadoes were recorded in Oklahoma in 2014, fewer than any year on record. The Oklahoman reports that last year’s strongest tornado was an EF2 storm on April 27th that cut an 11-mile path through Ottawa County and Cherokee County, Kansas.
Read more from Public Radio Tulsa.
Our 11 most popular blog posts in 2014
This year OK Policy reached more people through our web site than ever before. Visitors over the course of the year were up 70 percent from 2013, and we averaged more than 25,000 visitors per month. Of those, 65.1 percent of our visitors came from Oklahoma, 7.2 percent came from Texas, and 2.7 percent from California. No other state or country brought more than 2 percent of the visitors to our site.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
Oklahoma Legislator Proposes Hoodie Ban
Oklahoma could join a list of states where it is illegal to wear a hoodie in public, if a state senator’s proposed bill goes through. Republican state senator Don Barrington has authored a bill to ban wearing a mask, hood or other face-covering in order to hide one’s identity in a public space, Oklahoma’s Channel 6 reports.
State Ethics Agency Fails to Collect Most Fees
The state agency that enforces campaign-finance rules has failed to collect a large majority of late-filing fees from political groups and candidates and this year stopped assessing the fees altogether, according to state records and interviews. As of early 2014, candidates, their campaigns and other organizations owed the Oklahoma Ethics Commission more than $200,000 in unpaid fees for late or no filing of statements of income and spending, commission records show.
Read more from Oklahoma Watch.
The “C-word” debate ignites pre-session passions
Although many legislators like to wait until the deadline to file all their bills, a few House and Senate bills have already been filed for the 2015 session. One interesting proposal is Senate Bill 15, the “Rural Education Empowerment Act,” filed by Senator Kyle Loveless, an Oklahoma City Republican serving his first term.
Read more from the OK Policy Blog.
Private prison in Hinton to reopen with federal inmates
An Oklahoma private prison facility that has been vacant since 2010 is set to reopen after the prison’s corporate owner signed a contract this week to house federal inmates. The Great Plains Correctional Facility in Hinton, owned by the Boca Raton, Fla.-based Geo Group, was awarded a 10-year, $361 million contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons on Monday.
Quote of the Day
“That 70 percent would qualify for Medicaid tomorrow if Oklahoma accepted Medicaid expansion. This population consists of the working poor, and they find themselves in a Twilight Zone: They make too little to get coverage from one source of insurance, and they make too much to get coverage from the other available source. All the while our state leaders sit on their hands hoping fervently that this whole health care thing goes away. This passive-aggressive state posture simply cannot go on. There are ways to address issues of public responsibility, and we seem to have lost the willingness to try.”
-Morton Comprehensive Health Services CEO John M. Silva, who said Oklahoma lawmakers’ decision to slash the uncompensated care fund while continuing to refuse federal dollars to expand Medicaid is forcing his clinics to severely reduce services and stop accepting new uninsured patients, who likely have nowhere else to go (Source: http://bit.ly/1wPVbWN).
Number of the Day
16
Number of tornadoes in Oklahoma in 2014, the fewest of any year on record.
Source: National Weather Service via Public Radio Tulsa.
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
How some of America’s most gifted kids wind up in prison
Our table at La Casa Del Mofongo, a Dominican restaurant in Washington Heights, New York, buzzed with excitement as we reunited with our former students, whom neither of us had seen in a year, since we transitioned to other jobs. While the other graduating seniors fretted about college loans, Lamont regaled us with plans for attending a selective liberal-arts college in New York State, which had offered him a full scholarship. Glancing at an empty seat at our table, we inquired about creative, sensitive and idiosyncratic Manny. Lamont averted his eyes and regretfully informed us, “Manny dropped out.” (Names are pseudonyms.)
You can sign up here to receive In The Know by e-mail.
