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 interviewed business taxation expert Michael Mazerov, with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, on how Oklahoma can put an end to tax dodging by corporations in the state. We blogged about key decisions looming for state leaders on the federal health law and required state-based insurance exchanges.
Also this week, the OK Policy Blog explored the critical role of affordable credit in helping Oklahomans maintain financial security. Click here to access Oklahoma Assets’ newly-released paper on affordable credit. Watch an hour-long OETA documentary on our blog highlighting creativity in education in four Oklahoma schools.
OK Policy Director David Blatt wrote an editorial for NewsOK on why the Affordable Care Act will benefit Oklahoma families at little cost to the state. The op-ed is based on our issue brief about health reform and the state budget.
In the Know, Policy Notes
- The Center for American Progress explains how Congress is helping create unemployment.
- Economix discusses a new report on the “unbanked,” households who don’t have a checking or savings account.
- The Economix blog shows that since 2000, the typical American worker did not share much in the country’s growing wealth even when the economy was good.
- Amnesty International finds that Native American women are 2.5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than other women in the U.S and the perpetrators are more likely to evade punishment.
- 6th – Oklahoma’s rank nationally in per capita personal income growth; per capita personal income grew 2.2 percent between the 2nd qtr of 2010 and 2011, compared to 1.6 percent nationally.
- 8.1 percent – Percentage growth in manufacturing employment in Oklahoma since the start of 2011; the state has added 10,800 manufacturing jobs to the economy.
- 5 – Number of years on average it took for a full-time student seeking a bachelor’s degree in Oklahoma to complete their course work in 2008; the average for all states was 4.8 years.
- 27, 340 – Number of practicing nurses in Oklahoma in 2009 – that’s 742 nurses for every 100,000 Oklahomans.
- $10,256 – Amount the federal government spent per Oklahoma resident last year – $38.5 billion in federal dollars came into the state in total.
