Housing Insecurity Forcing Oklahoma Seniors To Move Oklahoma has many privately owned housing options for seniors, along with public housing and project-based housing complexes. But the over-60 demographic is growing faster than houses are being built in the state. "About 40% of seniors are relying solely on Social Security for their income," said Sabine Brown, a senior policy analyst at Oklahoma Policy Institute. "And rent has just greatly outpaced Social Security income." [Oklahoma Watch] |
$4.2 trillion - Extending the expiring 2017 federal tax cuts would cost $4.2 trillion over the decade 2026-2035. Roughly half the benefits would go to people with incomes in the top 5 percent of the income distribution, and 30 percent to households with incomes in the top 1 percent. [U.S. Department of the Treasury] 8th - Oklahoma had the nation's eighth highest increase of the number of childhood vaccine exemptions during the 2023-24 school year, rising by one percentage point to 5.7% when compared to the previous year. Oklahoma had the nation's 9th highest rate for childhood vaccination exemptions. [Centers for Disease Control]
25.8% - Black people represent more than 1 in 4 people (25.8%) who are in Oklahoma prisons and jails, while representing only 7 percent of the state's population. [Economic Policy Institute]
$52,000 - Oklahoma City paid a little over $52,000 to add boulders, lighting, and other anti-homelessness features to deter people from congregating in one area under the Oklahoma City Boulevard bridge over Classen Boulevard. [Fox 25] |
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Shell Bill A shell bill is a bill that is introduced at the beginning of the legislative session with little or no substantive language. Shell bills are intended to serve as placeholders for legislative proposals to be filled in later. Shell bills will typically include nothing more than a title that describes the section of law being changed or some meaningless wording changes. Historically, a large number of shell bills have been introduced in each chamber. In some sessions, a majority of introduced House bills are shell bills, with the Speaker alone introducing several hundred. Committee chairs frequently file multiple shell bills related to their committee's area of jurisdiction. Shell bills are generally assigned to the House Rules Committee and cannot be heard in committee until substantive language is added as a "committee substitute." The Senate adopted a rule prohibiting the introduction of shell bills as of 2015. Most appropriations bills, which are introduced later in session and assigned to the Joint Committee on Appropriations and Budget (JCAB), are initially shell bills. An example of a typical shell bill from the 2023 session was HB 2300 authored by Rep. John Pfeiffer, that read in whole: SECTION 1. NEW LAW A new section of law not to be codified in the Oklahoma Statutes reads as follows: This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Criminal Law Act of 2023″. SECTION 2. This act shall become effective November 1, 2023 HB 2300 was assigned to and died in the Rules committee. Look up more key terms to understand Oklahoma politics and government here. |
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Editorial: Laws that harm homeless people are anti-Oklahoma Standard An alarming trend of mean-spirited and stigmatizing legislation is popping up that would harm people who are experiencing homelessness and would drive a wedge further between urban and rural communities. For years, state leaders have bragged about the Oklahoma Standard, referring to our values of helping each other and showing compassion for people in need. Legislation that does not reach that level ought not get a committee hearing, much less be made law. This includes the latest from Sen. Lisa Standridge, R-Norman, with Senate Bill 484, which would forbid cities (except for Tulsa and Oklahoma City) from using funds to pay for homeless shelters or outreach programs that help people get back into housing. Standridge is following her husband's approach of taking out personal frustrations with the Norman City Council by using state legislation. She won his seat last year after he termed out. When Norman councilors opted to use public safety funds for mental health programs, Rob Standridge got a bill passed to ban all cities from doing that. Now that Norman councilors are considering putting an emergency homeless shelter near their downtown, Lisa Standridge is seeking the state hammer to stop all but the state's two metro cities from doing that. It's an abuse of state power and condemnation of local control. [Read the full editorial from Tulsa World] |
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Federal Policy Debates in 2025 Carry High Stakes: A series of high-stakes federal policy debates will take place this year as President Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress seek to implement their policy agenda and address looming deadlines in areas such as the debt limit and the federal tax code. The decisions that policymakers make — possibly starting early in the year and through both legislation and executive action — could leave many millions of people much worse off while extending and increasing tax breaks for wealthy households and profitable businesses. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
Childhood Vaccination Rates, a Rare Health Bright Spot in Struggling States, Are Slipping: During the 2023-24 school year, the percentage of kindergartners exempted from one or more vaccinations rose to 3.3%, the highest ever reported, with increases in 40 states and Washington, D.C., according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Tennessee and Mississippi were among those with increases. Nearly all exemptions nationally were for nonmedical reasons. [KFF]
Forced prison labor in the "Land of the Free": Despite producing billions of dollars in value for the benefit of prisons and the private sector, incarcerated workers have almost no labor rights and are paid very little—if they are paid at all—for menial, exploitative, and at times dangerous work that fails to prepare them for life beyond incarceration. These dynamics are particularly extreme in the South, which incarcerates people—primarily Black men—at the highest rates in the world and is more likely than other regions to force incarcerated people to work for nothing at all. Prison labor not only masks the true costs of mass incarceration but also locks states into inhumane, regressive, and inefficient forms of revenue generation while deepening racial inequities and imposing high fiscal and social costs on local economies. [Economic Policy Institute]
Tenant Protections Can Fuel Family Upward Mobility and Community Stability: Many communities across the country want to help residents exit poverty and achieve economic success. One critical predictor of economic and social success under the Upward Mobility Framework is housing stability. With many households still at risk of eviction and housing instability, what do local policymakers need to know about how tenant protections support upward mobility? And what are cities doing to leverage housing policy for residents' benefit? [Housing Matters] |
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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. |
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