2019 Legislative Policy Priorities: Solutions for Oklahoma’s toughest challenges

• Download fact sheets for all of our policy priorities as a printable pdf here.

As Oklahomans, we hold to the Oklahoma Standard. When disaster strikes, we come together to make sure our neighbors are safe and to rebuild even stronger than before.

We need to bring that spirit of resilience and looking out for each other to take on another kind of disaster. Poverty and the high barriers to opportunity in Oklahoma have already done more damage than the worst tornado or ice storm.

These storms afflict Oklahomans in every part of the state, especially rural families and young parents. Oklahoma’s American Indian, Black, and Hispanic communities disproportionately feel the impact. And when so many families — including many of our state’s youngest children — are denied a chance to reach their full potential, the whole state economy is harmed for years to come.

That’s why OK Policy has developed an agenda for this year’s Legislature focused on addressing Oklahoma’s most difficult barriers to opportunity.

We are offering proven solutions to poverty and the lack of opportunity that holds Oklahoma back from becoming a truly prosperous state. With this agenda and with all of you, we may finally fulfill the Oklahoma Standard and rebuild an economy and society that works for all.

Education

• Increase preK-12 state aid funding to restore school staffing and programs
• Restore higher education funding to ensure a well-educated workforce

Criminal Justice

• Reform cash bail and court fines and fees
• Fund public defenders and courts to reduce caseloads and reliance on fines and fees
• Make the sentencing reforms of SQ 780 retroactive
• Add racial impact statements on criminal justice legislation

Health

• Expand Medicaid
• Safeguard access to quality health care by rejecting ‘junk coverage’

Economic Opportunity

• Strengthen working family tax credits
• Improve regulation and prevent expansion of predatory lending
• Protect renters from eviction if they withhold rent when landlords fail to maintain adequate housing standards
• Limit restrictions on occupational licenses for those with prior felony offenses

Budget & Taxes

• Protect Oklahoma’s revenue base
• End the capital gains tax break
• Remove the supermajority requirement of SQ 640

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