DHS lifts freeze on child-care subsidies, By Ginnie Graham, July 1, 2016, Tulsa World: “After reviewing next year’s budget, officials at the Oklahoma Department of Human Services have decided to lift the freeze on child-care subsidies starting Friday. The original date to resume applications was to be Aug. 15, but DHS Director Ed Lake said many schools districts are opening enrollment earlier and subsidies will be needed. As reported in the Tulsa World on Tuesday, the program had stopped taking new clients after the worsening state revenue failure showed it would run out of money. It is funded through a combination of the federal Child Care Development grant and state matching funds…”
Tag: Oklahoma
Medicaid Expansion – Oklahoma
In surprising turnabout, Oklahoma eyes Medicaid expansion, By Sean Murray (AP), May 16, 2016, The Oklahoman: “Despite bitter resistance in Oklahoma for years to President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, Republican leaders in this conservative state are now confronting something that alarms them even more: a huge $1.3 billion hole in the budget that threatens to do widespread damage to the state’s health care system. So, in what would be the grandest about-face among rightward leaning states, Oklahoma is now moving toward a plan to expand its Medicaid program to bring in billions of federal dollars from Obama’s new health care system. What’s more, GOP leaders are considering a tax hike to cover the state’s share of the costs…”
State Minimum Wage – Oklahoma
Minimum wage increase by other states puts spotlight on Oklahoma law, By Cary Aspinwall and Curtis Killman, November 10, 2014, Tulsa World: “Lori Pearson spent a year working at Whataburger before leaving a few months ago to take a job cleaning clothes at Blue Monday Coin Laundry and Dry Cleaners. Both jobs in Tulsa were for minimum wage. Neither one came with insurance or benefits, she said, while sorting customers’ soiled laundry. ‘I love my job, I really do,’ Pearson said. ‘I have a wonderful boss. But it would be nice to get paid more than minimum wage.’ Voters in four states this past Tuesday approved increases of their minimum wage, including neighboring Arkansas. With Tuesday’s votes, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota joined 24 others plus the District of Columbia that have raised their state minimum wages beyond the federal minimum wage. Voters in Alaska, where the minimum wage rate already exceeded the federal minimum, also approved a measure Tuesday to increase the rate from $7.75 an hour to $9.75 an hour by 2016. But Oklahoma is holding steady at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Earlier this year, the state even passed a law forbidding any of its cities or counties from increasing the minimum wage beyond the federal minimum wage…”