OKPOLICY.ORG
What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk shares our most recent publications and other resources to help you stay informed about Oklahoma. Numbers of the Day and Policy Notes are from our daily news briefing, In The Know. Click here to subscribe to In The Know.
This Week from OK Policy
This week we released our 2019 legislative policy priorities focused on providing solutions for Oklahoma’s toughest challenges.
- To improve education in Oklahoma, our policy priorities include increasing PK-12 state aid funding and restoring higher education funding
- To address problems surrounding our criminal justice system, our policy priorities include reforming cash bail and court fines and fees, funding public defenders, making SQ 780 retroactive, and adding racial impact statements on legislation
- To improve access to quality health care, our policy priorities include expanding Medicaid and rejecting ‘junk coverage’
- To expand economic opportunity for all Oklahomans, our policy priorities include strengthening working family tax credits, addressing predatory lending, protecting renters from eviction, and limiting restrictions on occupational licenses
- To strengthen our budget, our policy priorities include protecting our revenue base, ending the capital gains tax break, and removing the supermajority requirement of SQ 640
In his weekly Journal Record column, Executive Director David Blatt reminded us that although the government shutdown is over, there are still millions of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck without the savings to handle even routine financial setbacks.
OK Policy in the News
Public Radio Tulsa covered Blatt’s state budget outlook presentation during our 2019 State Budget Summit. They also reported comments made at the Budget Summit by Senate Appropriations Chair Roger Thompson that he is open to talking about Medicaid expansion this year.
Blatt spoke with the Tulsa World about Oklahoma’s lagging tax revenue. Blatt also spoke with The Journal Record about a bill that would boost the minimum wage to $10.50 an hour. Southwest Oklahoma Field Organizer Jacobi Crowley spoke with KSWO about joining the OK Policy team. The Tulsa World cited OK Policy in its 2019 legislative agenda.
Upcoming Opportunities
Apply now to be a paid communications intern with OK Policy: OK Policy is now accepting applications for a paid, part-time communications internship in our Tulsa office. The internship runs from late-February 2019 through the end of the year. Applications are due no later than 5:00 PM on Wednesday, February 6th. Click here to learn more and to submit your application.
Weekly What’s That
Legislative Service Bureau, What’s That?
The Oklahoma Legislative Service Bureau (LSB) is a nonpartisan legislative service agency serving the members and staff of the Oklahoma House of Representatives and Senate. The LSB is responsible for producing all computer and information processing services for members and staff of the Oklahoma Legislature. Read more about the Oklahoma Legislative Service Bureau.
Look up more key terms to understand Oklahoma politics and government here.
Quote of the Week
“So, the $600 million to $700 million revenue growth could shrink to $250 million to $400 million. That’s still a decent sum of money but not quite the golden ticket that offers all you can eat at the chocolate factory”
-OK Policy Executive Director David Blatt, speaking about next year’s budget outlook for Oklahoma [Source: Public Radio Tulsa]
Editorial of the Week
Hamilton: A symbolic proposal, 2,815 bills and ‘Inman’s Axiom’
In the Oklahoma Legislature, as in most of life, there are workhorses and show horses – those who get things done and those who, well, mostly make noise.One way to discern the difference is to consider media and social media attention given to the 2,815 bills and resolutions submitted in advance of this year’s session.Unfortunately, most of the focus is on ideological screeds unlikely to get a committee hearing, much less win the approval of both houses and reach the governor’s desk. [Arnold Hamilton / Journal Record]
Numbers of the Day
- 30% – Percentage increase in the female prison population in Oklahoma from 2011 to 2016.
- $16,468 – Average salary for paraprofessionals in Oklahoma public schools.
- 2,815 – Number of bills and joint resolutions filed for this year’s session of the Oklahoma Legislature.
- More than $200 – How much an Oklahoma parent with two kids working full-time at $10/hour lost last year because Oklahoma’s Earned Income Tax Credit was made nonrefundable.
See previous Numbers of the Day and sources here.
What We’re Reading
- Unstable Jobs, Unstable Lives: Low-wage work in the United States. [Institute for Research on Poverty]
- A double diagnosis — cancer while poor. [Boston Globe]
- Nearly 10,000 companies contract with shutdown-affected agencies, putting $200 million a week at risk. [Washington Post]
- Working-family tax credits lifted 8.9 million people out of poverty in 2017. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
