Recent Articles

Guest Blog (Connie Cronley): Feeding the hungry, tearing down gates

Editor’s note: Over the past eight months it has been my privilege to spend one hour a week doing food prep at Iron Gate, one of Tulsa’s largest and most active food assistance programs. I invited Connie Cronley,  Iron Gate’s… Read more [More...]

New certification: Law changes led to $305 million of revenue enhancements for next year

Each year, the State Board of Equalization meets three times to review and approve projected revenues for the upcoming fiscal year – in December, February and June. At this year’s June meeting, which took place earlier this week, the Board… Read more [More...]

Guest Blog (John Thompson): An Obamamaniac's critique of the President's educational policies

From time to time, we use the OK Policy blog to post contributions that offer interesting perspectives on important policy issues for the state. John Thompson is an Oklahoma City teacher with 18 years of urban high school experience and… Read more [More...]

Tipped over: State's public broadcaster now doing less with less

For many state agencies, the first rounds of budget cuts over the past two years could be managed without greatly affecting key programs and services for the public. But as funding cuts go deeper and last longer, often a tipping… Read more [More...]

The public safety net at work

Today we released the 19th issue of our monthly Numbers You Need bulletin, which tracks monthly and quarterly data for key economic indicators. As in many recent months, the overall economic news was mixed: a slight increase in employment and… Read more [More...]

If you think this is bad…Federal fiscal relief funds averted budget doomsday

The state’s deep and prolonged budget crisis has taken a serious toll on public services in Oklahoma.  We have seen rate cuts to providers of community-based health services, elimination of violence prevention programs for at-risk youth, closures of facilities for… Read more [More...]

You count on us. We're counting on you

As Oklahoma continue to grapple with the worst economic downturn and fiscal crisis in decades, the stakes for all of us who care about public services and the well-being of the disadvantaged are especially urgent. Oklahoma Policy Institute provides a… Read more [More...]

Pre-K: Oklahoma keeps its ranking as tops in the nation – but will it last?

We’re #1, again! Last month, the National Institute for Early Education Research released the 2009 State Preschool Yearbook,  its annual report on pre-kindergarten education across the nation.  Overall, the report’s press release proclaimed that “Oklahoma was ranked as the leader… Read more [More...]

Over a barrel: HB 2432 makes a flawed system of oil and gas tax subsidies even worse

In their efforts to find additional revenues for the upcoming budget year, legislative leaders and Governor Henry took some strong and politically risky steps to suspend tax credits for various forms of economic activity. But when it came to tax… Read more [More...]

A closer look at the FY '11 budget

As the dust settles on the 2010 legislative session that adjourned on May 28th, we’ve now released a detailed summary of the major highlights of the state budget for the upcoming year.  Our fact sheet includes a set of seven… Read more [More...]