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 Oklahoma Policy Institute discussed how state revenue forecasts confirm the need for additional caution, with next year’s revenues expected to remain slightly below 2008 levels. NewsOK responded to a post on the OK Policy Blog about what’s really being graded in the new A-F report cards for schools. See our original post here.
The OK Policy Blog discussed Oklahoma’s history of state-sanctioned efforts to appropriate assets from people of color. We blogged about how provisions of the law resolving the ‘fiscal cliff’ affect tax credits for working families. David Blatt’s Journal Record column discussed why Oklahoma’s tax on oil and gas production has almost disappeared.
- 7 – The number of states, including Oklahoma, that have a federally licensed spaceport (a base from which a spacecraft could be launched)
- 1,796,000 – The number of registered library borrowers in Oklahoma in 2009, nearly half (46 percent) the state’s residents
- 6th – Oklahoma’s rank for the rate of female death due to firearms, 4.6 women per 100,000, compared to just 2.8 women nationally
- $555 – Monthly health benefit allowance for an Okla. state legislator, compared to $395 for the average SoonerCare / Medicaid enrollee, FY 2012
Policy Notes
- Economic Policy Institute discussed the economic impact of workplace injuries and illnesses in the U.S.
- Tax Credits for Working Families explains how the fiscal cliff deal impacts the Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, and Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit.
- The St. Louis Post-Dispatch points out that a decade of tax cuts and reduced spending have not helped Missouri’s economy.
