OKPOLICY.ORG
What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk is dedicated to this week’s events, publications, and blog posts.
This week OK Policy released a new fact sheet analyzing a tax reform task force’s proposal to cut the top income tax rate by raising taxes on a majority of Oklahomans. This blog post explains why their proposal is a bad deal for working families and seniors in Oklahoma. Our director David Blatt writes in the Tulsa World about why cutting or eliminating the state’s largest revenue source in the face of significant financial obligations is fiscally irresponsible.
Also this week on our blog, we compared Oklahoma’s public and private universities and community colleges on two important measures of value. Credit counseler Jennifer Wallis offered tips for improving credit scores and financial security. Watch a short video on how IDAs help low and moderate income earners save for important assets like a college education, a home, or a business. Urban Tulsa Weekly used OK Policy analysis in an article on the state’s troubled health.
- 13.5 percent – Percentage increase in initial unemployment claims in Oklahoma during December 2011.
- 50 percent – Amount by which oil consumption in Oklahoma exceeds the state’s production.
- 1 in 3 – Oklahomans live in ‘high-poverty’ neighborhoods, census tracts in which the poverty rate is twenty percent or higher.
- 1.7 million – Metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions prevented by ENERGY STAR appliances in Oklahoma as of 2007, equivalent to the emissions of 1 million vehicles.
- 342,231 – Number of filers in Oklahoma who claimed the federal earned income tax credit (EITC) on returns filed in 2011.
In The Know, Policy Notes
- The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explains why a push to deny unemployment insurance to workers without GEDs is an appalling idea.
- Stateline previews how coming federal budget cuts will affect the states.
- Education Sector shows that even auto mechanics are becoming more likely to have college degrees.
- The Nation discusses how Right to Work hasn’t worked to protect Oklahoma manufacturing jobs.
- State Impact Oklahoma investigates the causes and consequences of persistent poverty in one of the poorest counties in the state.
