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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.
State election officials are finalizing a November ballot that will include only three state questions, all referred to voters by the Oklahoma Legislature. The Oklahoman shared a list of numerous state officials that will take office without opposition in the general election. Although Oklahoma’s statewide unemployment rate has remained among the lowest in the nation over the past year, tens of thousands remain “underemployed,” unable to find a full-time job.
The Tulsa World examined controversy around Oklahoma’s numerous business tax breaks and incentives, after it was revealed that Macy’s will receive about $21 million in state and local subsidies to build a distribution center in the Tulsa area. An OK Policy report previously raised questions about the oversight of the Quality Jobs Program, one of the largest business subsidies in the state. The Oklahoman reported on how the state’s education troubles are becoming an issue in the governor’s race. The okeducationtruths blog wrote that Oklahoma’s loss of its No Child Left Behind Waiver is a big deal that could lead to staff cuts at high-poverty schools. The latest episode of the OKPolicyCast discusses research on how Oklahoma education compares to some of the highest achieving countries.
Judges in at least two Oklahoma counties have said they will levy minimum $1,000 fines in all felony cases to fund their court budgets. Defense attorneys say the policy will end up filling jails with poor people who cannot afford to pay higher fines. The Oklahoma Corrections Department Director Robert Patton testified that the largest women’s prison in Oklahoma showed the highest rates of sexual assault in the nation largely because inmates were making accusations to get moved or get someone punished. His testimony came two days after a former guard was sentenced to 20 years in prison for first- and second-degree rape of female inmates.
Records released last week show death-row inmate Clayton Lockett had toxic blood levels of a drug not included in Oklahoma’s execution protocol — and reference an execution chamber camera that corrections officials say doesn’t exist. The Tulsa World wrote that the documents reveal the state had no idea what was happening in the execution chamber.
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Bill John Baker offered his State of the Nation address Saturday, delivering a message that the Cherokee Nation is not just surviving but thriving in northeastern Oklahoma 175 years after the Trail of Tears. The OETA Board of Directors discussed scenarios for a report requested by the Legislature on how they would operate without state funding. A “beetle ranch” near Ada is helping ease pressure on an endangered species which has had habitats disrupted by oil and gas drilling. A Labor Day editorial in the Tulsa World discussed how a half-century after the federal Fair Pay Act became law, the wage gulf between male and female workers remains unbridged.
The Number of the Day is Oklahoma’s ranking nationwide for the rate of African-Americans killed by law enforcement. In today’s Policy Note, Vox discusses why labor unions play a critical role in making capitalism work.
In The News
State election officials finalizing short list of state questions
Backers of measures to place storm shelters in schools and legalize marijuana for recreational use have run out of time to place these issues before voters in the Nov. 4 general election. The ballot will include only three measures, all referred to voters by the Oklahoma Legislature. Election workers are now proofreading the November ballot in a process designed to get it to the printer early enough so that absentee ballots can be sent to servicemen and other citizens overseas. The overseas ballots are legally required to be mailed out by Sept. 19.
See also: Federal, statewide and legislative races decided before the Nov. 4 general election from NewsOK
Thousands of Oklahomans ‘underemployed’
Although Oklahoma’s statewide unemployment rate has hovered around 5 percent over the past year — a figure many economists consider full employment, not all of those workers are working full-time. For the 12 months ending in July 2014, there were 55,700 Oklahomans who were working part-time hours for “economic reasons” out of a workforce of about 1.68 million, according to U.S. Census Bureau data compiled for the the U.S. Department of Labor. “I would define these persons as ‘underemployed’ because they want full-time employment but are unable to find such employment,” said Lynn Gray, chief economist for the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.
State, local job incentives get scrutiny
When Macy’s announced in December that it will build a $170 million distribution center in the Tulsa area, the deal was sweetened with a shopping bag full of incentives. In return for creating at least 1,500 jobs, the retailer was lured with $1.5 million from Gov. Mary Fallin’s Quick-Action Closing Fund, $500,000 for infrastructure from Cherokee Nation Businesses, $500,000 from the state Department of Transportation and $500,000 in hotel tax money from the city of Owasso. Tulsa County also agreed to create a “tax incentive district” for five years that exempts Macy’s from having to pay property taxes on new construction.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
See also: Report examines one of the largest business subsidies in Oklahoma from Oklahoma Policy Institute
Oklahoma education ills an issue in governor race
An underfunded, little-known Democratic candidate for governor has a new tool to use in attacking the Republican incumbent now that the federal government stripped Oklahoma of its authority to decide how to spend millions in education funds following the state’s repeal of national academic standards. State Rep. Joe Dorman of Rush Springs said Republican Gov. Mary Fallin’s role in the repeal of the Common Core English and math standards and its consequences for public schoolchildren are the latest examples of a lack of leadership and flip-flopping, citing important issues such as storm shelters for public schools and the creation of a state health insurance exchange.
Loss of NCLB waiver is a big deal
Thursday’s announcement that Oklahoma has lost its No Child Left Behind Waiver was a bombshell that we knew was coming, ever since Governor Fallin signed HB 3399 into law in June. On the day before Fallin signed the bill, the SDE made a presentation at the CCOSA conference explaining what would happen if we lost the waiver. Then in July, at the Vision 2020 conference, the SDE gave a more polished presentation explaining what would happen. Two pieces are most relevant to many Oklahoma schools.
Read more from the okeducationtruths blog.
OKPolicyCast: Episode 5
We’re back from vacation, rested and ready to share the most important Oklahoma news and analysis. This week, we discuss a recent book by journalist Amanda Ripley, “The Smartest Kids in the World and How They Got that Way.” The book looks at what countries with the highest performing education systems are doing right, and Oklahoma plays a prominent role in the story. We also talk about the loss of Oklahoma’s No Child Left Behind waiver, new details on the investigation of a botched execution, numbers of the week, and more.
Hear the podcast on the OK Policy Blog.
Muskogee County judge orders $1,000 minimum fine in all felony cases
Judges in at least two Oklahoma counties have said they will levy minimum $1,000 fines in felony cases, apparently sparked by a panel discussion on court budgets at a recent judicial conference, records show. Defense attorneys say such a policy is unfair to criminal defendants and will end up filling jails with poor people who cannot afford to pay higher fines. A fine set in advance that applies to all cases would also violate a judge’s responsibility to consider the facts in each case, defense attorneys said.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Corrections chief downplays reports of sexual assault at women’s prisons
The largest women’s prison in Oklahoma topped a survey of reported sexual attacks two years ago largely because inmates were making accusations to get moved or get someone punished, the head of the state’s Corrections Department said here Thursday. “At Mabel Bassett, sexual assault and harassment reporting became a tool for offenders to manipulate each other and staff to achieve desired outcomes,” corrections chief Robert Patton told a special panel on prison rape at the Department of Justice. Patton’s testimony came two days after Jamie Baker, a former guard at Mabel Bassett, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for first- and second-degree rape of female inmates. Another former guard pleaded guilty in March to having sex with inmates and received a suspended sentence.
Questions, inconsistencies remain about Clayton Lockett execution
Records released last week show death-row inmate Clayton Lockett had toxic blood levels of a drug not included in Oklahoma’s execution protocol — and reference an execution chamber camera that corrections officials say doesn’t exist. The Tulsa World sent the Oklahoma Department of Corrections a series of questions regarding inconsistencies in records released last week regarding the April 29 execution of Lockett. A spokesman said the agency won’t answer any questions until results of the state’s investigation become public.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
See also: Records show the state didn’t know what was happening at Lockett execution from the Tulsa World
Cherokee Nation principal chief says tribe thriving after Trail of Tears 175 years ago
Principal Chief Bill John Baker offered his State of the Nation address Saturday, delivering a message that the Cherokee Nation is not just surviving but thriving in northeastern Oklahoma 175 years after the Trail of Tears. A crowd gathered on the lawn of the Cherokee National Courthouse to hear Baker highlight investments by the Cherokee Nation, such as building new homes, expanding health centers and services, and increasing hope through job creation. “It was 175 years ago we arrived here in eastern Oklahoma and began our greatest chapter — building the largest, most advanced tribal government in the United States,” Baker said.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
OETA Board discusses scenarios for operating without state funding
The Oklahoma Television Authority Board of Directors discussed options for the ‘3-5-7’ plan and ramifications of loss of state funding during their Tuesday meeting. The plan, or scenarios as they were referred to in the meeting, is a report requested by the Legislature that projects the impacts of the organization operating without specific amounts of state funding over the course of three, five, or seven years. The mandate for the report was added by Sen. Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, as an amendment to HB3198.
Oklahoma ‘beetle ranch’ eases pressure on endangered species, energy industry
Terry McKenzie’s beetle ranch is on 3,000 acres east of Ada, somewhere between Allen and Centrahoma. It probably has the happiest beetles around. Technically, the ranch is not just a ranch. It is a conservation bank. But the basic fact is that it is paradise on earth for the endangered American burying beetle. The grass is burned off periodically, the fire ants are scalded out of their dens with boiling water, and the beetles have plenty of small birds and animals to gnaw. And the ranch, properly known as the Muddy Boggy Conservation Bank, could be a lifesaver for some sectors of the oil and gas business.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
This Labor Day half the workforce still isn’t being paid fairly
On this Labor Day, a half-century after the federal Fair Pay Act became law, the wage gulf between male and female workers remains unbridged. By how much is disputed, but the fact a gap exists at all is fundamentally unfair. In 1963, women workers represented 37 percent of the workforce and earned 59 cents for every dollar men earned. Today, women, better trained and educated than ever before and often their family’s breadwinner, make up about 50 percent of the workforce, yet earn less than 77 cents, on average, for every dollar earned by men, according to U.S. Department of Labor math.
Read more from the Tulsa World.
Quote of the Day
“What is discussed in that letter is unconstitutional. It’s pre-judging cases and you just can’t do that. … Our next step is to go to the Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals … and ask them to address that letter. If we have a judge who has pre-determined what a fine should be in a case, then my agency doesn’t want that judge on the case.”
-Joe Robertson, executive director of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System, speaking about a Muskogee County judge who ordered a minimum $1,000 fine in all felony cases to help fund the courts’ budget (Source: http://bit.ly/1CmjCld)
Number of the Day
1st
Oklahoma’s ranking nationwide for the rate of African-Americans killed by law enforcement, 1999-2011.
Source: Sunlight Foundation
See previous Numbers of the Day here.
Policy Note
Three sentences no one should forget about unions
Ex-union strategist Richard Yeselson makes a crucial point in his discussion of organized labor with the New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn: “What’s ironic about that is that unions are inherently conservative institutions, which historically developed parallel with the development of capitalism itself. They are as much a part of capitalism as Henry Ford or Apple. Unions use contracts — and there’s nothing more intrinsic to capitalism than the right of contract — to link their members to the fortunes of the companies they contract with.” This is a point often lost in the debate about unions: they’re an international phenomenon that has flourished almost everywhere that capitalism has flourished. And that’s because they’ve played a critical role in making capitalism work for the people who make capitalism work.
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