OKPOLICY.ORG
The Weekly Wonk is a summary of Oklahoma Policy Institute’s events, publications, blog posts, and coverage. Numbers of the Day and Policy Notes are from our daily news briefing, In The Know. Click here to subscribe to In The Know.
We’ve released the OK Policy 2014 Legislative Primer in preparation for the start of the the Oklahoma legislative session on Monday. KWGS interviewed OK Policy Executive Director David Blatt about the upcoming session. Video of Blatt’s presentation “11 Things You Should Know About Oklahoma Budget and Taxes” from our State Budget Summit is now online.
Oklahoma Assets Network Coordinator Kate Richey wrote that nearly half of Oklahoma households are one misstep away from financial insecurity. Blatt reported that bold measures will be needed to avoid potentially devastating cuts to vital public health services. He discussed the same topic in his Journal Record column. The newest post in our “Neglected Oklahoma” series profiled an Oklahoma woman struggling with student loan debt. An OK Policy Research Fellow argued that economic development incentives tend to ‘crowd out’ expenditures on public goods.
ThinkProgress Climate and Oklahoma Watchdog cited OK Policy in their coverage of House Speaker T.W. Shannon’s proposed permanent horizontal drilling tax breaks . We’ve discussed about those tax breaks before. Public Radio Tulsa quoted Blatt in its discussion of the same topic. Blatt was also quoted in a NewsOK article and a piece from Public Radio Tulsa discussing the income tax cut Governor Fallin is expected to propose in Monday’s State of the State speech. We’ve written about income tax cuts in Oklahoma previously.
- 226.7 percent – Increase in Oklahoma’s diabetes rate from 1995-2010, the largest relative increase in the nation
- $1.43 – Average monthly SNAP or ‘food stamp’ benefit per person, per meal in Oklahoma
- $38,400 – The base salary for members of the Oklahoma Legislature. The President Pro-Tem of the Senate and Speaker of the House receive an additional $17,932.
- 23.5% – Share of the unemployed in Oklahoma who have been jobless for 27 weeks or more
- 1,362 – The number of homeless people counted in an overnight Oklahoma City census in 2013
- Economix discusses paid family leave.
- Wonkblog describes the proposed conservative alternative to Obamacare.
- A new report from the Associated Press illustrates the changing demographics of food stamp recipients in America.
- Metrotrends finds that most job growth has been concentrated in low-wage, low-skill jobs.
- The health insurance coverage gap disproportionately impacts low-income women, according to the National Women’s Law Center.
