Recent Articles

Numbers You Need: Bad year, good decade for state per capital personal income

Last month, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released its preliminary report on state per capital personal income for 2009. Personal income is the income received by all persons from all sources, and is the most commonly used measure of state… Read more [More...]

Come Party with OK Policy in Norman, May 5th

If you’re a fan, follower, or friend of Oklahoma Policy Institute living in Norman or nearby, we hope you’ll stop by to our reception/fundraiser on May 5th from 5:30 – 7:00 pm. It’s taking place at the Sarkey’s Foundation at… Read more [More...]

Citizens for Tax Justice questions Oklahoman's defence of state income tax break

Last week, the Oklahoman published a “Tax Day” editorial addressing OK Policy’s recent contributions to the debate on the state budget crisis. They began by emphasizing our common ground: Along with the Oklahoma Policy Institute’s David Blatt, we’ve been urging… Read more [More...]

Guest Blog (Sara Waggoner): Can emergency food programs continue to meet growing needs?

From time to time, we use the OK Policy blog to post submissions we receive from Oklahomans who have interesting perspectives on important policy issues for the state. This entry is from Sara Waggoner, Executive Director of the Community Food… Read more [More...]

Health Care Reform (1): Coverage expansion can turn steep cliffs into gentle dips

This is the first of what will be an ongoing series of posts looking at the impact of the new federal health care reform law on Oklahoma and Oklahomans. For full information on health care reform, the Henry J. Kaiser… Read more [More...]

Classic Reruns: No-tax day

This is one of our most widely read and popular blog posts. It was written by Paul Shinn and initially ran on our blog on April 15, 2009. April 15. I’m not a fan of tax day. Who is? After… Read more [More...]

Revenues: Despite improvements, next year’s die is cast… unless the Legislature acts

Today’s announcement of the monthly General Revenue collections brought incontestable good news: State revenue collections in March topped prior year collections for the first time since December 2008 and the official estimate for a second consecutive month, State Treasurer Scott… Read more [More...]

ASPIRE-ing to lifetime savings and building assets

For many of us, the economic events of the past two years have eroded our savings and heightened our sense of economic fragility. Yet for many low- and moderate-income households, savings have long been out of reach. The 2009-10 Assets… Read more [More...]

Listening to the Mann: For Federal Medicaid Director, 2014 starts now

This week I had the pleasure of attending a gathering of policy analysts and advocates from 15 states on “Transforming Health Care Coverage for Children and Families,” convened by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. The conference, which focused… Read more [More...]

Bridging the Gap (4): Controlling runaway tax credits

As Oklahoma faces record budget shortfalls, the threat of massive cuts that would slow the state’s economic recovery and, in the Governor’s words, “have irreparable and damaging effects on our state services infrastructure,” looms large. This post is the fourth … Read more [More...]