OKPOLICY.ORG
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
Vote no on SQ 844 and SQ 846: Protect Oklahoma’s Constitution: On August 25, all Oklahoma voters can help decide on two proposed changes to the state Constitution. Even if you are registered as an independent or don’t have a candidate on your primary runoff ballot, you can still vote on State Questions 844 and 846. The Oklahoma Policy Institute rarely takes positions on state questions. But, after carefully reviewing both proposals, OK Policy is urging voters to vote NO on both state questions. These measures deal with different topics, but they share a big problem. They ask voters to approve changes to the Constitution without knowing how those changes will be implemented in the future. Instead, they leave key details to be determined later by the Legislature. [OK Policy]
SQ 844 & SQ 846 Town Hall (video): OK Policy held a free, nonpartisan town hall on Aug. 15 that explained the two statewide ballot measures and answered audience questions. OK Policy’s Aanahita Irani Ervin spoke about State Question 844, which would change how the state reimburses local governments for certain manufacturing property tax exemptions. ACLU of Oklahoma Executive Director Tamya Cox-Touré shared information on State Question 846, which would amend Oklahoma’s voter identification requirements. [OK Policy]
Policy Matters: Oklahoma voters deserve details, not promises: Business leaders don’t make major decisions without knowing the details. Before signing a contract, investing money, or changing a long-term plan, they want to understand the problem, the proposed solution, and the likely results. Oklahoma voters deserve the same level of information before changing our state Constitution. [Shiloh Kantz / The Journal Record]
Inola aluminum smelter raises health, environmental and security concerns (Capitol Update): Possibly the most consequential news of the week, at least in Eastern Oklahoma, resides in the judicial branch. Attorney General Gentner Drummond filed for an injunction in federal court against the owners of the proposed aluminum smelter in Inola seeking to halt construction while litigation over the smelter’s ownership and potential health and environmental effects proceeds. [Steve Lewis / Capitol Update]
OK Policy in the News
Oklahoma voters to see two state questions on August 25 ballot: All Oklahoma voters will have two state questions on their ballot on August 25. State Question 844 and State Question 846 were both born from resolutions that the Oklahoma legislature passed during the most recent legislative session. [Fox 25]
What’s on your ballot? Breaking down State Question 846: State Question 846 is on the ballot for the August primaries, looking to require proof of identity to vote in any election in any method of voting. A viewer reached out to 2 News to get clarity on what they’re voting on, so we’re breaking it down for you before you cast your vote. [2 News Oklahoma]
- From OK Policy: SQ 846 Fact Sheet | SQ 846 Explainer video
SQ 844 leaves reimbursement decisions to future lawmakers: When Oklahomans cast ballots Tuesday, State Question 844 will ask them to give future legislators more control over payments to schools and other local governments affected by a manufacturing property-tax exemption. [OK Politics Today]
- From OK Policy: SQ 844 Fact Sheet | SQ 844 explainer video
Tribal leaders to discuss healthcare, gaming and elections at Tulsa meeting: Meeting two days after the November ballot is finalized, the Oklahoma Policy Institute and League of Women Voters will preview candidates and state questions. UINO has invited all 2027 gubernatorial and attorney general candidates; Cyndi Munson and Nick Coffey have accepted. [The Journal Record]
Oklahoma’s Aging Population Deserves a Place in the State’s Housing Priorities: Oklahoma is getting older. State housing officials now face the question of whether policy is keeping pace. Oklahomans can weigh in on whether older adults—specifically households age 62 and older—should be formally recognized as a special needs population in the state’s HOME program priorities. [The Henryettan]
Weekly What’s That
Section 287(g) — often called “287(g) agreements” — is a federal program that allows state and local law enforcement agencies to partner with federal immigration authorities. Created in 1996 under the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act, the program lets certain local officers be trained and authorized to carry out specific immigration enforcement functions under the supervision of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Participation in 287(g) is voluntary under federal law, but some states have passed laws requiring local agencies to sign agreements. These agreements can allow local officers to check immigration status, issue immigration detainers, or transfer people in local custody to federal immigration authorities. Depending on the model used, some deputized officers may also question or arrest people they believe have violated immigration law.
Supporters say 287(g) agreements help with immigration enforcement and public safety. Opponents have pointed to research and past experience showing the program can be costly for local governments and divert law enforcement resources from core public safety duties. Studies have also linked 287(g) programs to racial profiling concerns and strained relationships between police and the communities they serve.
In Oklahoma, more than 30 agencies already participate in 287(g) programs (as of February 2026), and state actions have encouraged additional agreements. As discussions continue in Oklahoma, critics argue the program’s track record suggests significant trade-offs for public safety, community trust, and state resources.
Look up more key terms to understand Oklahoma politics and government here.
Quote of the Week
“If we’re on business fronts, they call the police. We get arrested. If we go to the parks, police come. We get arrested… There’s nowhere for us to go, and y’all just coming and taking all of our stuff is not fixing us being here.”
– Brooklynn B., who has experienced homelessness for about seven years, after state troopers ordered her to leave a Norman encampment during Gov. Kevin Stitt’s Operation SAFE. Workers bulldozed tents and belongings even though local shelters were at capacity and the state had not provided alternative housing for those displaced. [The Frontier]
Op-Ed of the Week
Opinion: Showing Oklahoma The Way
Missouri voters get it. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt does not. Nor does gubernatorial wannabe Mike Mazzei.
In case you missed it, Show-Me staters earlier this month soundly rejected two Republican-proposed constitutional amendments that would be familiar to anyone following the shenanigans of Oklahoma’s GOP statehouse supermajority.
One would have eliminated the Missouri income tax. The other potentially would have enabled a minority of voters to derail citizen-proposed constitutional amendments that reach the statewide ballot.
Missourians clearly understood the stakes. They clobbered the would-be income tax killer 83%-17%, the initiative petition killer by 80%-20%.
Neighboring Missouri is a lot like us. Republican-dominated rural areas. Purple urban centers. Yes, Give ‘Em Hell Harry Truman was a Democrat, three quarters of a century ago. But today’s Missouri politics are more Josh Hawley and Rush Limbaugh.
You might think Missouri’s Not Only No, but Hell No response to two of the GOP Legislature’s highest priorities would give Sooner leadership pause.
Sadly, it doesn’t.
One of Stitt’s few legislative victories during his two-terms was to help set the state on a path to eliminating the income tax – the top rate was cut to 4.5% for tax year 2026.
It’s a mantra Oklahoma Republicans chanted for at least a half century: Gotta be more like [no-income-tax] Texas! Let the working folk keep more of their hard-earned money! Only way Oklahoma can truly prosper!
The reality: Eliminating the income tax would wipe out the state’s largest source of revenue. How would we build roads and bridges? Fund public and higher education? Keep troopers on the highway? Prisons operating? The list of goes on and on.
The other Missouri proposal voters rejected would have required that future citizen-led ballot measures win a majority in all eight of the state’s congressional districts to take effect. Oklahoma lawmakers failed to do the same thing, but that isn’t likely to stop them from trying again.
In these two votes, the Show-Me State shows Oklahoma the way to a better, fairer future.
Numbers of the Week
-
1,867 – The number of people experiencing homelessness counted in Oklahoma City during the 2026 Point-in-Time Count. While this represents a 1 percent decrease from 2025 — and the first decline since 2022 — far too many Oklahomans remain without a safe, stable place to call home. [Homeless Alliance]
-
$14.3 billion – The amount Oklahoma received in federal grants in 2024 to support child care, transportation, law enforcement, housing, food security, health care, and more. Because the state takes in far more federal dollars than it sends in taxes, federal cuts — combined with state tax reductions — could have an outsized impact on Oklahoma communities. [Oklahoma Policy Institute]
-
-7 – The gap between Oklahoma fourth graders’ average reading scores and the national average in 2024. Oklahoma was 5 points above average when tracking began in 1992, but scores have declined since 2002. [The Nation’s Report Card]
-
86 – The number of Oklahoma police departments, sheriff’s offices, and state agencies with 287(g) agreements that deputize local officers to help ICE enforce federal immigration law. Under the “task force” model, officers can use that authority during routine policing — not just in jails — making everyday interactions with local law enforcement more frightening and dangerous for immigrant communities. [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement]
-
27.3% – Oklahoma has the nation’s highest food insecurity rate for children at 27.3%, which is more than 1 in 4 children in the state. [Feeding America]
What We’re Reading
-
Trump Policies Would Worsen Homelessness, Attack Basic Freedoms of People Who Can’t Afford Rent: In a nation as wealthy and innovative as ours, no one should be forced to sleep in a park, in a car, or in shelters. But today, millions of people don’t have enough income to cover high housing costs and 3 in 4 households eligible for rental assistance don’t receive it due to chronic underfunding; as a result, hundreds of thousands of people are pushed into homelessness and many more must choose between paying rent and buying food or medications. While President Trump promised to make housing and the cost of living more affordable, the Administration is advancing a set of policies that would make housing less affordable and then punish people for the predictable result, including pressuring states and localities to incarcerate unhoused people and promoting detention-like camps. This double whammy would cause more people to become homeless, undermine people’s basic human rights, and drain local resources. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
-
Most States’ Tax Revenue Falls Below Long-Term Trends Amid Federal Uncertainties: Most states are collecting less tax revenue than their long-term historical patterns would predict, reflecting a broader slowdown in fiscal performance and pushing budgets into tighter territory. This decline constrains state capacity to deliver expanded public services, prepare for recession, or implement tax relief, especially as one-off pandemic-era aid fades and uncertainty at the federal level persists. Without renewed revenue, states may face difficult trade-offs in funding priorities. Sound budget planning now depends on rebuilding fiscal resilience and ensuring sustainability in the face of ongoing volatility. [The Pew Charitable Trusts]
-
How Money Matters: Education Funding and Student Outcomes: A large and growing body of evidence shows that money, when spent equitably and effectively on key school resources, improves student outcomes and closes achievement and opportunity gaps. Research consistently shows that when more money is spent on education, especially for students from low-income families, achievement and graduation rates improve, along with life outcomes such as employment and wages. [Learning Policy Institute]
-
A Deep Dive into the Dangerous 287(g) Task Force Model: As 287(g) agreements rapidly expand across the country, more law enforcement agencies are being radically transformed into a sweeping immigration enforcement machine. Police agencies are choosing to enter into the most expansive and harmful 287(g) agreement available, the Task Force Model. This policy brief provides a breakdown of the Task Force Model and how it provides carte blanche for rampant racial profiling, unbridled civil rights abuses, and little to no federal oversight. [Immigrant Legal Resource Center]
-
New Data Underscore SNAP Cost Shift’s Harm to Low-Income Families and State Budgets: The harmful Republican reconciliation law enacted last July made unprecedented cuts to food assistance through SNAP, including a provision slashing federal funding for SNAP benefits and imposing these costs on state budgets. As states scramble to reduce their exposure to this cost shift and implement the law’s other cuts, SNAP participation has already fallen by more than 4.5 million people, with likely more than 1.5 million children losing access based on available data from 19 states. In other words, SNAP-eligible people are losing out despite not being directly targeted by the new law. Compounding this dire outlook are new data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which indicate that as many as 35 states and one U.S. territory will be required to pay substantial new costs to continue participating in SNAP in fall 2027, with the remaining states at risk of facing this cost shift in future years. Congress should act now to grant all states the same two-year delay that some states received under the reconciliation law. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
