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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
Oklahoma agencies outline big needs for next fiscal year (Capitol Update): In his last year in office, Governor Kevin Stitt’s usual admonition to state agencies to submit a flat budget, or budget cuts, for legislative consideration during the upcoming session seems to have had less impact on agency directors than it once did. According to the House Budget Transparency Portal, agencies are asking legislators to appropriate over $1.6 billion in new appropriations for fiscal year 2027. [Steve Lewis / Capitol Update]
Policy Matters: Property tax revenue builds the foundation for our communities: Property taxes don’t pay for your house — they fund the services that keep your neighborhood thriving. Some Oklahoma lawmakers want to end property taxes, but zeroing out this revenue would undermine essential services every Oklahoma family and community depends on. [Shiloh Kantz / The Journal Record]
OK Policy in the News
Federal Benefit Cuts Push Oklahoma Families Into Eviction Crisis: Sabine Brown, OK Policy’s senior policy analyst, said many Oklahoma renters were facing hardship before the cuts started. With many cuts set to continue or worsen with the coming year, as well as another possible government shutdown in January, the problem is about to get worse. [Oklahoma Watch]
Rural homelessness in Oklahoma remains largely unseen, experts say: Rural homelessness is a growing issue in Oklahoma, often overlooked as individuals in these areas tend to stay in cars, sheds, or temporary spaces rather than on city streets. According to the Oklahoma Policy Institute, 5,497 people in the state are experiencing homelessness, but underreporting may mean the actual number is ten times higher. [KTUL]
OK Policy: ACA expirations will hit rural residents harder than urban: Many Oklahomans will see health insurance rate hikes unless Congress extends expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits. Rural residents will be hit hardest, according to a researchers from the Oklahoma Policy Institute. [KOSU]
Weekly What’s That
Consumer Price Index (CPI)
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the main measure of inflation in the United States and is used to assess price changes associated with the cost of living. The CPI, which is calculated and reported monthly by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, measures the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services. The Consumer Price Index is calculated nationally and for various regions.
The monthly CPI report breaks down price changes by major categories, including food, energy, transportation, medical care, shelter, and others.
Look up more key terms to understand Oklahoma politics and government here.
Quote of the Week
“Too many people don’t think there are homeless people here. I’ve practically taken them to where homeless people live. We’ve turned a blind eye to our homeless in rural places. I’m not sure how many there are, but it’s too many. We do not have shelters to get a count. It’s hard to convince people about homeless issues when they can’t see it.”
-Atoka City Councilor Erica Pogue, who is also the director of the Inca Community Action Agency, saying it’s difficult to advocate for public resources for homelessness without facts to show the problem. [Oklahoma Watch]
Op-Ed of the Week
Vandalism of Civil Rights statue should remind Oklahomans that our work isn’t done
I found myself greatly disturbed by the despicable act of vandalism to the new monument in downtown Oklahoma City designed to celebrate our city’s historic role in our nation’s sit-in movement.
As photos in The Oklahoman revealed, less than a month after the monument’s unveiling, someone used “a key or a small pocket knife” to scratch nearly every bronze sculpture in Clare Luper National Sit-in Plaza, which commemorates the first peaceful protest of Clara Luper, an Oklahoma City Public Schools teacher, and 13 Black students.
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of speaking with many of the participants of those sit-ins. I learned first hand from them about the struggles they faced while exercising their right to protest against disparate treatment based solely on race.
I’ve long felt a monument commemorating those peaceful protests was the least we could do so that we never forget that past where we judged people solely by the color of their skin.
The vandalism of the 4-ton bronze sculpture at North Robinson Avenue and West Main Street is unfortunate proof that this work still isn’t done.
[Read the full op-ed from John Thompson in the Oklahoma Voice]
Numbers of the Day
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5.6% – According to HUD’s American Housing Survey (AHS), 5.6%, of homes in rural areas (over 1.4 million) are classified as “inadequate,” and an estimated 368,000 of these homes are “severely inadequate,” lacking in basic plumbing, heating, or electric/wiring, or in need of severe upkeep. [HUD via the National Low Income Housing Coalition]
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620,000 – The number of Oklahomans lifted above the poverty line each year by federal and state safety net programs. These benefits reduce the state’s poverty rate from 27.3% to 10.5% after accounting for taxes and transfers, highlighting the critical role of public assistance in supporting economic stability. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
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35% – The rise in violent crime since 2018 in some of Oklahoma’s small towns, even as violent crime has fallen 11% in Tulsa and 21% in Oklahoma City. Several rural communities now experience per-capita violence levels comparable to those of some of the nation’s largest cities. [Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform]
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996 – The number of immigrants arrested in Oklahoma from February to October 2025 who had no criminal convictions or pending charges. That’s nearly one-third of all ICE arrests in the state during this period. [Deportation Data Project]
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~50% – Nearly half of Americans said they find groceries, utility bills, health care, housing and transportation difficult to afford, according to a recent poll. More than a quarter of respondents, 27 percent, said they have skipped a medical check-up because of costs within the last two years, and 23 percent said they have skipped a prescription dose for the same reason. [Politico]
What We’re Reading
- Homelessness Continues to Increase in the U.S. and in Rural America: Several factors likely contributed to the increasing levels of homelessness in rural areas. Growing inflation rates combined with stagnant lower- and middle-income wages worsened economic hardship for vulnerable populations. Meanwhile, the national housing crisis further decreased access to affordable homes. [Housing Assistance Council]
- About 12 Million Households Receive Both Medicaid and SNAP. The Reconciliation Bill Puts Them At Risk: Households that rely on both Medicaid and SNAP stand to be doubly threatened by the reconciliation bill’s sweeping cuts, which would undermine access to critical healthcare coverage and nutritious food simultaneously. More than a dozen million families receive both benefits, meaning the overlapping losses will intensify financial and community hardship. [Urban Institute]
- The Hidden Crisis: How Poverty Drives Crime in Rural Oklahoma: Pervasive poverty, economic decline, and job loss in many rural Oklahoma counties have fueled sharp increases in violent and property crime — in some small towns, per-capita violence rates now rival those seen in large cities. Widespread substance abuse, mental-health crises, and lack of access to treatment exacerbate crime, while rural residents often face major barriers to services and long travel distances to get help. Communities with shrinking populations and fewer jobs, especially young-adult out-migration, are left vulnerable to destabilization and worsening safety outcomes. Efforts to strengthen rural economies, expand behavioral-health services, and invest in evidence-based treatment and diversion (instead of relying solely on policing) are essential to reversing this trend. [Oklahomans for Criminal Justice Reform]
- Mass Deportation: Analyzing the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Immigrants, Democracy, and America: The Trump administration’s mass-deportation agenda dismantled long-standing immigration protections by stripping legal status from hundreds of thousands of people, expanding deportation powers, and curtailing due-process safeguards. Aggressive enforcement tactics and unprecedented funding heightened fear in immigrant communities and pulled federal agencies into expanded policing roles with limited oversight. These actions weakened democratic norms, eroded civil liberties, and destabilized families, workplaces, and local communities nationwide. Without meaningful checks, the long-term civic and social consequences are profound. [American Immigration Council]
- The missing piece in the affordability debate: Today’s affordability debate focuses almost entirely on prices, as if the only way to make life affordable is to make things cheaper. But that approach misses the bigger picture. Affordability depends on both prices and wages. The roots of today’s affordability crisis actually lie not in recent price spikes, but in the long-term suppression of workers’ pay. [Economic Policy Institute]
