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.
OK Policy released a statement about Insurance Commissioner John Doak’s claims that insurance premiums will “skyrocket” next year due to the Affordable Care Act. OK Policy Director David Blatt’s Journal Record column explained the three simple reforms at the heart of Obamacare.
A new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that Oklahoma has made the deepest cuts to school funding in the nation since the start of the recession. Policy Analyst Gene Perry was quoted on Public Radio Tulsa and by the Lawton Constitution discussing the report. Perry also gave his thoughts on the report during an interview with Emory Bryan, a Newson6 reporter.
The OK Policy Blog looked at Oklahoma’s uneven progress on reforming the child welfare system and noted that the temporary extension of Insure Oklahoma revealed a longer-term solution to the state’s high uninsurance rate – if the state is willing to accept it. We also discussed how the arms race to offer businesses ever-more generous tax breaks is lose-lose for cities and states. Lastly we announced that Policy Analyst Tiece Dempsey and Outreach Coordinator Megan Benn will be leaving OK Policy within the next few weeks.
- $30.8 million – Amount of funding schools districts will lose in 2013 as a result of the ban on intangible property taxes, which primarily benefits telecommunications companies and electric companies
- 6th – Oklahoma’s rank among the states for the share of aged 50+ households with a person that has any disability, 42.1 percent versus 33 .7 percent nationally
- 69.7 percent – Oklahoma’s average loan-to-value (LTV) ratio for residential mortgages (loan balance/current property value), versus 62.5 percent nationally; the higher the LTV, the riskier the loan is for the lender.
- 49.9 percent – The percentage of Medicaid-enrolled kids in Oklahoma who do not receive dental care
- $810 – Amount per student cut from K-12 education in Oklahoma between 2008 and 2014
Policy Notes
- The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities announced a new website providing an in-depth guide to the major provisions of the Affordable Care Act.
- Wonkblog discussed how the cult of shareholder value has wrecked American business.
- Reuters examineed how Missouri Governor Jay Nixon won a battle to prevent tax cuts that threatened to gut funding for education and other services.
- Good Jobs First explained how ‘big-box’ development undermines local business and sticks taxpayers with the tab for employees who end up needing public assistance because their working wages are so low.
