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 released a new blog post and fact sheet explaining the basics of the state’s Rainy Day Fund. We blogged about two state ballot questions and explained why their new caps and exemptions on property taxes could actually result in a property tax increase for many Oklahomans.
The OK Policy Blog discussed path-breaking new research which shows conclusively that access to Medicaid dramatically improves families’ health and financial stability. Read David Blatt’s column in the Journal Record explaining how low income Oklahoma families will reap those same benefits if Medicaid is expanded.
Lastly, we hosted a guest post from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) on new evidence that the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is even better for children than previously thought, helping them succeed both as students and, in adulthood, as workers.
In The Know, Policy Notes
- ProPublica breaks-down the composition of ‘fracking’ water with an interactive infographic; the tool uses data from a 2011 congressional report on oil and natural gas drilling.
- The Brennan Center for Justice examines the difficulties that millions of eligible voters face to obtain photo ID in ten states with unprecedentedly restrictive voter ID laws.
- The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy provides four tax policy ideas that do more to promote jobs than would upper income tax cuts.
- The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities debunks the latest attempt to derail the health care reform law on a technicality.
- Economist Nancy Folbre discusses why the United States provides far less support for child-rearing than other advanced industrial countries.
- 8.9 percent – The unemployment rate in Oklahoma for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, compared to 6.2 percent unemployment for the state overall during the same period, 2011
- $306.8M – Amount deposited this fiscal year into the state’s Rainy Day Fund, surpassing an earlier record for largest deposit set before the recession.
- 48 percent – Percentage of working-age Oklahoma adults living below the poverty line that are uninsured, 2011
- 50th – Oklahoma’s rank nationally for voter turnout in the 2010 midterm elections, 29.9 percent of the voting eligible population
- 6,653 – The net number of migrants moving to Oklahoma from Texas between 2009 and 2010.
