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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 legislative session again put Tribal sovereignty in the spotlight: State governments and Tribal Nations both have a responsibility for the well-being of their constituents. To help communities change existing government systems to best work on behalf of all people, Tribal governments and state governments should communicate, cooperate, and take action together. [Vivian Morris / OK Policy]
Fact check: SB 484 that would limit homelessness services in Oklahoma communities: On Tuesday, March 25, 2025, the Oklahoma State Senate passed Senate Bill 484, by Sen. Lisa Standridge, R-Norman. SB 484 now advances to the House. SB 484 would prohibit any Oklahoma city with a population less than 300,000 from building a homeless shelter within 3,000 feet of a school. The following is a fact check of statements made during the debate. [Sabine Brown / OK Policy]
Statement: DOGE-OK recommends health care cuts that are harmful, counterintuitive: Taxpayer dollars should be spent wisely, but cutting health care funds is both counterproductive and harmful. Oklahoma already ranks among the worst in health outcomes – cutting dollars that could be used to improve public health will only shift these costs elsewhere. Short-term savings will lead to far greater costs in the future, both in dollars and lives. [OK Policy]
Raising the minimum wage means more Oklahomans could afford housing: It’s been 16 years since Congress raised the minimum wage. Since then, rents have risen by 60 percent. The predictable result of this mismatch is drastic increases in eviction filings and homelessness. Low-wage workers – not just minimum wage workers – struggle to afford housing. [Sabine Brown / OK Policy]
Policy Matters: Tell our leaders – Prioritize people over profits: The governor consistently touts his vision for making Oklahoma the best state for business. The reality is that these plans put businesses first and Oklahomans second. Tax cuts and corporate perks might make CEOs happy, but they don’t solve our economy’s biggest problem: making Oklahoma a place where workers and their families want to call home. [Shiloh Kantz / The Journal Record]
Bill would create state business court (Capitol Update): Although a similar effort was authorized in 2004, business courts were never created or funded; now, with backing from a legislative task force and the governor, Oklahoma appears ready to join 25 other states with specialized business courts. [Steve Lewis / Capitol Update]
OK Policy in the News
The Serial Evictors: How and Why Landlords File Multiple Evictions Against the Same Tenants Without Forcing Them to Move: Oklahoma Policy Institute and Legal Aid Services Oklahoma regularly scour court records, collecting data on which landlords file the most eviction cases and which tenants are being serially evicted. [Oklahoma Watch]
Weekly What’s That
The Legacy Capital Financing (LCF) Fund is a fund created in 2023 by the Oklahoma Legislature to provide increased self-financing and liquidity options for the state’s current and future capital needs. The Fund is administered by the the Oklahoma Capitol Improvement Authority (OICA). According to a memo from House staff, the Fund was created as a way to use one-time cash that the state had available to finance capital projects as an alternative to debt financing. State agencies are provided up-front, interest-free money to achieve major construction projects with an agreement to repay the capital outlays to LCF over 20 years.
The LCF Fund received an initial $600 million appropriation in 2023, of which $351 million was immediately allocated to support ten projects. The Legislature appropriated an additional $177 million for the Legacy Capital Financing Fund in 2024; along with money carried over from the previous year, the 2024 appropriation was intended to finance $371.5 million for seven projects at universities and law enforcement agencies.
Look up more key terms to understand Oklahoma politics and government here.
Quote of the Week
“It’s in our economic best interest, beyond the moral interest of taking care of people that are sick. What about the economic cause of improving the business climate in our state? The best investment in our state, in our business climate, is to have a healthier population, because then businesses are more likely to come here.”
– Oklahoma State Medical Association President Dr. Sumit Nanda, speaking about a DOGE-OK proposal to return federal money that would support public health measures. [KOSU]
Editorial of the Week
Opinion: Oklahoma’s mental health and substance abuse agency seems to be imploding
Oklahoma’s mental health and addiction infrastructure appears to be on the brink of a breakdown, with looming federal funding freezes, a state shortfall of up to $43 million, revenue withholdings from certain providers and a state agency meeting that had a commissioner in tears.
It’s an ever-evolving situation that has Oklahomans anxious about losing their care and treatment.
Providers are announcing the elimination of programs and the scaling back of services, particularly in rural areas. Services paid for by the state include mobile health crisis units, detox centers, counseling programs for alternative courts and outpatient addiction therapy.
These cuts will end up costing more money as Oklahomans get sicker and require more intensive treatment, according to a Healthy Minds Policy Initiative report released Tuesday. Responding to mental health needs through emergency rooms and inpatient treatment is costing Oklahomans about $817 million a year. But $417 million could be saved with more mobile crisis units, alternative courts and short-term beds.
Numbers of the Week
- 4 – In the currently sitting 119th Congress, only four of the 533 members of the U.S. House and Senate identify as Native American or Alaska Native. [Pew Research]
- 1,294 – Number of Americans older than 100 who were receiving benefits from Social Security as of Feb. 19, according to internal agency records obtained by The Washington Post. Elon Musk had earlier alleged that more than 20 million Americans over age 100 receive Social Security checks. [Washington Post]
- 60% – The minimum wage has not been raised since 2009, and since then, the median rent in Oklahoma has increased 60 percent. [U.S. Census via OK Policy]
- >23% – The average effective tariff rate on U.S. imports under the tariff policies unveiled Wednesday by President Trump. That’s the highest rate since before World War I, posing a more than fourfold increase from the sub-5% tariff rates set for the last three decades. [Forbes]
- $5.5 billion – Oklahoma reported more $5.5 billion in total exports from more than 2,989 Oklahoma exporters. Small- and medium-sized firms account for 85% of Oklahoma’s exporters. [Oklahoma Department of Commerce]
What We’re Reading
- Tribes, long shut out from their own health data, fight for access and sovereignty: U.S. tribes — which are sovereign nations — seek to own and maintain control over their data, including health statistics. The concept, known as data sovereignty, is important amid the harrowing health disparities seen in tribal people, rooted in forced assimilation dating back more than a century. Often, data gathered by and about tribes has been shared with state and federal agencies; but those same agencies haven’t always shared their tribal-related statistics in return. The lack of tribe-specific data has hindered tribes from fully taking care of their members and clouded their work on public health responses to disease outbreaks. [Stateline]
- Social Security Stability Remains at Risk: The Washington Post reported last week that “Social Security is breaking down,” describing several website crashes from overloaded servers, “complicated benefits cases … falling by the wayside,” “online claims … piling up” due to employee reductions, and “a series of rapid-fire policy changes that have created chaos for front-line staff.” Unfortunately, these developments are unsurprising, given the approach President Trump, Elon Musk, and the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) have taken with Social Security and the dangers they present. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
- Nearly half of U.S workers will live in states with at least a $15 minimum wage by 2027: Policymakers and voters throughout the country have all recognized the need to set minimum wages at $15 or more. Further, the strong consensus of high-quality minimum wage research is that increasing the minimum wage increases workers’ earnings without increasing unemployment or other significant negative economic effects. Unfortunately, there are still state lawmakers who are choosing to deny higher pay for workers in their states. [Economic Policy Institute]
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Tariffs—Everything you need to know but were afraid to ask: This FAQ provides information on the likely effects of historically large and broad-based tariffs and, crucially, the effects that will not occur due to these tariffs. [Economic Policy Institute]
- EPI statement on the reciprocal tariffs announced by the Trump administration [Economic Policy Institute]
- Republican Agenda’s “Triple Threat” to Low- and Moderate-Income Family Well-Being: The Trump Administration and Republican majorities in both houses of Congress are advancing a policy agenda that deeply threatens millions of families’ ability to afford the basics by making it harder for them to secure health coverage, buy groceries, or afford everyday goods — all while pursuing expensive tax cuts that are skewed toward the wealthy. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
