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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
New data shows Oklahoma’s housing crisis is worsening: New data from the National Low Income Housing Coalition confirms what Oklahomans already know: our housing crisis is getting worse. Oklahoma needs nearly 85,000 rental homes to meet the needs of extremely low-income renters. [Sabine Brown / OK Policy]
Policy Matters: New federal budget bill would harm Oklahoma children, families: They’re calling it the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — a name so slick it sounds like a game show prize. But the name attempts to hide a grim reality: it’s a blueprint for hardship, designed to gut health care and food programs for millions of Americans while handing out tax breaks to the ultra-rich. Buried in the fine print, you’ll find a gut punch to everyday folks trying to earn a living, put food on the table, and keep their families healthy. [Shiloh Kantz / The Journal Record]
Oklahoma destined to remain poor state without investments (Capitol Update): It is almost certain those running our state are making a serious mistake with the $340 million tax cut passed by the legislature last week. The best evidence of that is the debate made by the chairman of the Senate Revenue and Tax Committee, Sen. Dave Rader, R-Tulsa, on the floor of the State Senate against House Bill 2764, Gov. Kevin Stitt’s tax cut and “path to zero” plan. [Steve Lewis / Capitol Update]
OK Policy in the News
What’s Next? Lawmakers, Policy Experts Say They Will Continue Fight To Reduce Evictions: In Oklahoma, much has changed since 2016. The population has increased and more people have moved to the state’s urban centers. Oklahoma’s Latino/Hispanic population is up, as is the state’s gross domestic product. Employment is high and the prison population has declined. Yet, eviction filings have skyrocketed. [Oklahoma Watch]
Legal challenge to come against Oklahoma bill capping initiative petition signatures: A new law that alters Oklahoma’s initiative petition process likely will face a legal challenge from opponents who consider it a threat to democracy. [The Oklahoman]
- Gov. Kevin Stitt signs law adding restrictions to initiative petition process [Tulsa World]
Governor signs income tax cut bill as Oklahoma lawmakers prepare to end session: Gov. Kevin on Wednesday signed a bill to cut the state’s top income tax rate. House Bill 2764 reduces the state’s top income tax bracket by .25% from 4.75% from 4.5% and contains a path toward eliminating it entirely. Most Oklahomans fall within the top bracket. The fiscal impact is expected to be about $350 million. [Oklahoma Voice]
Weekly What’s That
General Appropriations (GA) Bill
The General Appropriations (GA) bill is an annual budget bill approved by the Legislature that funds the ongoing operations of state agencies for the next budget year.
The GA bill has two key features that distinguish it from all other legislation:
- It does not need an emergency clause to become effective at the start of the new fiscal year (July 1st);
- It may include funding for multiple government functions and agencies without violating the single-subject rule.
Until the early-2000s, the GA bill was typically passed midway through session and continued the current year’s funding for most agencies for the next year. The legislature would then pass funding for new program in separate bills later in session. In more recent years, the GA bill has included almost all funding agreed to as part of the budget agreement reached by the Governor and legislative leaders and is typically filed and voted on in the final days of session.
The General Appropriations bill for FY 2025, SB 1125, appropriated $11.487 billion, a 1.2% percent increase from the $11.344 billion in the FY 2024 GA bill.
Look up more key terms to understand Oklahoma politics and government here.
Quote of the Week
“If Oklahoma truly values older Oklahomans, our budget should reflect that. It’s time to put people before percentages and dignity before dollars. We should be strengthening the foundations that allow people to age with dignity — not eroding them for short-term tax wins.”
– Karen A. Poteet Brewer, a former Aging Services Director for the State of Oklahoma, writing in an op-ed about how the state’s budget — with flat agency funding and hundreds of millions in lost revenue from tax cuts — will fail to meet the needs of Oklahoma’s aging population. [The Oklahoman]
Editorial of the Week
Editorial: Oklahomans wanting say in policies may have only one hope: Vote Republicans out
Opponents to SB 1027 noted it includes provisions that were previously struck down in federal court. However, a lawsuit has yet to be filed, and the legal process to overturn the law is complicated, lengthy and uncertain to be successful. The only certain option the people of Oklahoma have at this point is to convince their elected representatives to change course or throw them out of office. That will require a level of involvement and participation in the political system that has been lacking. [The Oklahoman Editorial Board]
Numbers of the Day
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1% – The poorest 20% of Americans would receive 1 percent of the net tax cuts in 2026 from the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” while the richest 5 percent would receive 43 percent of the net tax cuts that year. [Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy]
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92% – Share of Medicaid-covered adults under age 65 who are working full or part-time, or not working due to caregiving responsibilities, illness or disability, or school attendance. [KFF]
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$500 billion – If the federal reconciliation bill is enacted into law in its current form, and Congress takes no further action, the increase in the deficit would trigger mandatory cuts, also known as sequestration, under the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010. These cuts would total approximately $500 billion to Medicare from 2026–2034, according to CBO. [KFF]
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84,718 – The number of affordable and available rental units needed in Oklahoma to meet the needs of residents who are considered extremely low income. This includes people with incomes at or below either the federal poverty guideline or 30% of their area median income, whichever is greater. [National Low Income Housing Coalition]
What We’re Reading
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House Republican Tax Bill Is Skewed to Wealthy, Costs More Than Extending 2017 Tax Law, and Fails to Deliver for Families: The tax provisions of the House Republican reconciliation bill double down on the failures of the 2017 tax law, which was skewed in favor of the richest people in the country, further eroded the nation’s revenue base, and didn’t produce the promised economic gains for working people. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
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5 Key Facts About Medicaid Work Requirements: As debate heats up about Medicaid work requirements, data show most Medicaid adults are working or face barriers to work. Many Medicaid adults who are working low-wage jobs are employed by small firms and in industries that have low employer-sponsored insurance offer rates. [KFF]
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Congress is Neglecting its Best Tools for Oversight and Efficiency: For over a century, Congress has relied on nonpartisan support entities to help it gather and process information and monitor the executive branch for waste, fraud, and abuse. Given the growth and prevalence of these sophisticated investigators and analysts, why have problems persisted? One explanation may be that Congress is simply not listening as much as they used to or could be. There has been a decades-long decline in witness testimony and implementation of recommendations from Congress’s key oversight entities: the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and Offices of Inspectors General (OIG). [Bipartisan Policy Center]
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The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes: The nation’s lowest-income renters face a long-standing, systemic shortage of affordable and accessible housing attributable to the inherent limitations of the private market and inadequate public subsidies. This shortage of affordable housing impacts nearly every community in the U.S. and constitutes a crisis that is detrimental to the wellbeing of millions of people, including low-wage workers, seniors, people with disabilities, and single-adult caregivers of young children and family members with disabilities. [National Low Income Housing Coalition] | [PDF, Full Report]
