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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 week, a guest post from Dr. Erin Taylor outlined what she didn’t get from her tax cut. Policy Analyst Carly Putnam wrote that the elimination of the uncompensated care fund put another hole in the state’s safety net. Outreach and Operations Associate Tyler Parette explained how nonprofits can – and should – lobby.
Policy Director shared how a gas tax fix could level Oklahoma’s revenue rollercoaster. In his Capitol Update, Steve Lewis argued that legislators are running out of time to come up with a budget plan. Executive Director David Blatt’s Journal Record column discussed apportioning responsibility for the state’s budget hole.
OK Policy in the News
Perry spoke to Reuters about announced teacher layoffs in Oklahoma City Public Schools as part of the budget crisis. OK Policy was included in a Tulsa & Business Legal News discussion of criminal justice reform supporters.
ATTN College Students: Apply for the 2016 Summer Policy Institute
We are now accepting applications from undergrad and graduate students for our fourth Summer Policy Institute (SPI)! SPI brings together highly-qualified college students from across the state from July 31 to August 3 for a unique opportunity to become better informed about vital Oklahoma policy issues, network with fellow students and leaders in the policy process, and prepare for their future studies and work in public policy-related fields. Learn more and apply here.
Weekly What’s That
Gross Production Tax
The gross production tax, or severance tax, is a value-based tax levied at a basic rate of 7 percent upon the production of oil and gas in Oklahoma. Under legislation approved in 2014 (HB 2562), effective July 1, 2015, oil and gas from newly-spudded wells will be taxed at 2 percent for the first 36 months of production. One percent of gross production tax revenues is divided between counties and school districts, with the remainder going to the state. Read more.
Look up more key terms to understand Oklahoma politics and government here.
Quote of the Week
“We are paying the price for decades of inaction. That’s why I think ultimately we are where we are. People have been sending out the warning and saying, ‘The day will come when it’s going to hit a critical mass.’ And we are at a point now where our criminal justice system cannot handle those that are mentally ill, and we don’t have the appropriate therapeutic beds and facilities to deal with those who are coming into the criminal justice system at a rate that is just completely overwhelming.”
– Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater, speaking about how Oklahoma spends among the least in the nation on its mental health system, despite having some of the highest rates of mental illness and substance abuse in the United States (Source)
Editorial of the Week
Supt. Deborah Gist, The Tulsa World
In 1988, I left Oklahoma and moved to Texas to teach first grade in a public school in Fort Worth. I love Oklahoma, and I adore Tulsa, but I left because I could make $21,000 a year in Texas. In 1988, the starting salary for a first year teacher in Oklahoma was $15,000. It would have taken me more than 10 years of teaching in my home state to match my first-year teacher salary in Texas. Nearly 30 years later, we are still having the same conversation about educator pay, and it has grown increasingly dire.
Numbers of the Day
- 97th – Tulsa’s Community Obesity Ranking for 2014, out of the 100 largest U.S. municipal areas. Oklahoma City was ranked 88th
- 65% – Percent of Oklahomans who say they pray daily, 8th in the US
- 4.5% – Annual unemployment rate in Oklahoma in 2015 (OK ranked 11th in nation, national rate was 6.2%)
- $39.5 billion – Total federal spending in Oklahoma in FY 2014, which amounts to 21.8% of the state’s total gross domestic product
- 88 – Deaths in Oklahoma due to injury per 100,000 of the population. The US median is 74
See previous Numbers of the Day and sources here.
What We’re Reading
- A New Approach to Reversing the Downward Spiral of Low Voter Turnout [Stanford Social Innovation Review]
- The Crucial Element of Criminal Justice Reform That Nobody Is Talking About [Talk Poverty]
- Houston Schools Ban Suspensions in Early Grades [Texas Observer]
- The racial divide in the opioid crisis [Modern Healthcare]
- Low-Income Programs Not Driving Nation’s Long-Term Fiscal Problem [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
You are missing the point. The goal of conservatives is to shrink government. You do that by cutting taxes and reducing the budget. They don’t want to fix this. They are celebrating their success!