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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 Director David Blatt was quoted in an Oklahoma Watch article discussing the lack of state effort in promoting the new health insurance marketplace in Oklahoma opening Oct. 1st and interviewed by StateImpact Oklahoma regarding the tax subsidies for horizontal drilling. David’s Journal Record column explained how Oklahoma businesses and families are paying the price for state leaders’ obstruction of the new health care law. Policy analyst Tiece Dempsey was featured in the article photo section of an Oklahoma Watch piece providing questions and answers about the new health insurance marketplace.
On our blog we discussed how the number of state employees in Oklahoma remains well below the levels of the decade before the Great Recession. We also released a report outlining action items to improve Oklahoma’s health and discussed three reasons why Oklahoma using state funding for pro-marriage advertisements is a bad idea. Lastly we shared a report from the Economic Analysis and Research Network which found more evidence that a well-educated workforce is the most important factor for states’ productivity and wages.
- $70.7M – Amount of state sales, property & income taxes paid annually by undocumented immigrants in Oklahoma
- 578 – The number of prescription drug overdose deaths in 2012, down from 807 in 2011
- 28,000 – The number of veteran and armed forces families with children that receive the EITC or low-income child tax credit in Oklahoma
- 330,000 – The number of Oklahomans that will be eligible to receive premium assistance tax credits through the state’s new online insurance marketplaces in 2014
- $19,717 – Annual average health allowance for Oklahoma legislators and/or state employees (and their dependents) who receive health insurance as part of their benefit packages.
Policy Notes
- Oklahoma Watch answered common consumer questions about the state’s online health care marketplace.
- The Economic Policy Institute discussed how 50 years after the March on Washington for civil rights and economic justice, the economic gaps between whites and people of color remain as large as ever.
- Dr. Aaron Carroll explained that conservatives don’t have a real alternative to Obamacare because Obamacare is the conservative alternative.
- Wonkblog explained why there’s no good reason to want drug tests for food stamp recipients.
- Wonkblog summarized what you need to know about President Obama’s new proposal to contain college costs.
