What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk is dedicated to this week’s events, publications, and blog posts.

This week at OK Policy, we reported that June General Revenue (GR) collections came in $66.2 million, or 13.0 percent, above the official certified estimate.  While revenues are on an upwards swing, they still face a steep upward climb and will have little, if any, impact on the current year budget.

Also this week, we detailed the toll of budget cuts to education on programs promoting high-quality teaching and schools.  If Oklahoma is to have any chance of improving our students’ educational performance, we need to support excellence in our teachers and administrators.  Read an interview on OK Policy’s Blog with Dr. Thomas Benediktson about the University of Tulsa’s new focus on urban education. Read the rest of this entry »

If Oklahoma is to have any chance of improving our students’ educational performance, we need to support excellence in our teachers and administrators. In recent years, Oklahoma has made such a commitment by investing in research-based professional development programs for teachers and school leaders. Unfortunately, three such successful programs – Literacy First, Great Expectations, and A+ Schools – have fallen victim to the  budget axe and are set to lose all state funding in the upcoming budget year.

The decision to eliminate funding for these programs must be viewed within the state Department of Education’s budget context. This year the Legislature cut appropriations to the Department of Education by $108 million, or 4.5 percent, compared to FY ’11. Within the total Common Education budget, the Legislature allocates a set amount for “the support of public school activities”, which encompasses the costs of the flexible benefit allowance for teachers and support staff, the teachers retirement credit, and all the educational programs that are funded outside the state aid formula. The FY ’12 allocation of $401.2 million is $18.7 million less than that of FY ’11 and $57.4 million, or 12.5 percent, less than FY ’10.  For the second straight year, the Legislature chose not to provide line-item allocations within the Activities Budget, leaving it in the hands of Superintendent Janet Barresi and the Board of Education to manage the shortfall. Read the rest of this entry »

State Finance Director Preston Doerflinger yesterday announced that June General Revenue (GR) collections came in $78.1 million, or 15.7 percent, above last year and $66.2 million, or 13.0 percent, above the official certified estimate. The June collections brought to an end the 2011 fiscal year and confirmed the increasingly solid recovery of Oklahoma’s tax collections that has been apparent over the course of the year. As can be seen from the first chart, the final quarter of FY ’11 marked the second quarter in a row where revenues exceeded the prior year by over 12 percent and the fifth straight quarter of year-over-year quarterly revenue growth.

For the full year, General Revenue increased by $487.1 million, or 10.5 percent, from the depths of FY ’10. However, as we can see, revenue collections remain substantially below pre-downturn levels. This year’s GR came in 14.2 percent below FY ’08 and remains considerably below collections of five years ago, FY ’06. Read the rest of this entry »

What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk is dedicated to this week’s events, publications, and blog posts.

This week at OK Policy, we presented interactive charts tracking state agencies’ share of the budget over time.  A series of visualizations show that while revenues have fallen over the past decade and the overall budget pie has shrunk, the distribution of that pie among agencies has remained relatively unchanged (with a couple notable exceptions). Read the rest of this entry »

The Oklahoma Department of Human Services this week approved changes to the state’s child care subsidy program that  will increase hardships for struggling low-income working families, threaten access to quality child care, and harm child care providers who serve low-income children. [UPDATE: In late July, the Commission decided to defer a vote on these changes until November]

DHS’ actions were precipitated by budget shortfalls for the upcoming year exceeding $30 million. The Legislature reduced state appropriations to DHS  for FY ’12 by a modest $6.0 million, or 1.1 percent, compared to FY ’11. However, the agency also faces the loss of one-time funding in this year’s budget, expected increases in program utilization, and higher employee benefit costs. To balance its budget, DHS proposed a series of  measures, which included voluntary buyouts of 231 positions, mostly within its field operations division for children and family services, and cuts in contracts for various social services. Read the rest of this entry »

With the 2011 legislative session now wrapped up, we are pleased to release our FY ’12 Budget Highlights, a one-page summary analysis of the budget for the upcoming year, along with eight detailed charts and tables on revenues and appropriations.

A couple of the notable charts are excerpted below.

The state’s annual appropriated budget for FY ’12 is $6.511 billion. This is the third straight year of decreased funding for state agencies; total appropriations for next year will be $250 million less than in FY ’07. Read the rest of this entry »

What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk is dedicated to this week’s events, publications, and blog posts.

This week at OK Policy we reviewed the state’s FY ’12 budget agreement on our blog.  We applaud leadership for protecting our most vulnerable populations by targeting available funds for Medicaid, human services, and mental health, but ask if state agencies facing a third consecutive year of budget cuts are being provided enough resources to continue to perform their core missions.

OK Policy has long called for a balanced approach to the state budget and we urged leaders to avoid further cuts to key public services by choosing among an array of fiscal tools for closing the budget shortfall.  Click here for our spreadsheet tracking state agency appropriations from FY’09 to FY ’12.  Click below to watch OK Policy Director David Blatt discuss the state budget on ONR (Oklahoma News Report) this week on OETA: Read the rest of this entry »

On Tuesday, Governor Fallin and the Republican leadership of the House and Senate announced an agreement on the FY ’12 budget. Total state appropriations for next year will be $6.511 billion, which is $254 million, or 3.8 percent less than this year’s final budget.

To make the budget balance and limit the magnitude of cuts, the agreement includes some $370 million more revenue than what was certified as available for appropriation by the Board of Equalization in February. Although full details have not been spelled out, the main revenue enhancements appear to be: $120 million in cash balances that have accumulated this year; some $100 million from the final round of federal stimulus money approved by Congress last summer; and a $100 million transfer from the State Transportation Fund that will be partly made up for by a $70 million bond issue for the Department of Transportation. Additional revenues include transfers from the Unclaimed Property Fund and agency reserve funds, increased tax compliance efforts, and diversion of tax revenues slated for the ROADS program to the General Revenue fund. Read the rest of this entry »

In a recent article on state budget negotiations, House Speaker Kris Steele said he and other state leaders are “doing our best to minimize the cuts” to core agencies. He contrasted the treatment of core agencies to the larger cuts that would be made to other areas of government.

This is a red herring. Perhaps education will be cut 5 percent, compared to, say, a 10 percent cut to the Department of Environmental Quality. But those areas identified as core services (education, health and human services, public safety, and transportation) already make up almost 90 percent of state appropriations.

The real issue is not how the vast majority of the budget is treated compared to a few of the smallest state agencies. Speaker Steele and other lawmakers cannot claim in good faith to be protecting core services while ignoring revenue options and voting to make the problem worse. Read the rest of this entry »

After two straight years of cuts, the state’s budget situation remains dire. Despite the economic recovery and improving revenue collections, the state faces a huge shortfall for next year. The substantial non-recurring revenues that were used to balance the budget over the past two years, including federal stimulus dollars, state reserve funds, and assorted one-time revenue enhancements,  have mostly dried up.  The Board of Equalization has certified some $500 million less in available revenue for FY ’12 than what was appropriated for the current year budget. As we stated in our recent issue brief on protecting core services:

The impact (of budget cuts) is being felt by Oklahoma families, businesses and communities in far-ranging ways… Deeper cuts will further impinge the ability of state agencies to fulfill their core missions and may seriously affect the well-being of schoolchildren, seniors, persons with disabilities, correctional and public safety officers, and other members of our communities.

In this context, the Governor and legislative leaders are actively considering additional ongoing or one-time revenue sources that could avert truly catastrophic cuts to core services. One option being discussed is appropriating this year’s “5 percent money” for next year’s budget.  This post explains the “5 percent option” and suggests why, on balance, we think a portion of this money should be used, along with other revenue solutions. Read the rest of this entry »

In two years of recession and slow recovery, Oklahoma’s public services have struggled to get by with less. Oklahoma families, businesses and communities are feeling the impact in far-ranging ways, including increased class sizes, higher tuition rates, fewer mental health treatment services, critically understaffed correctional facilities, and more. Even as revenues recover, they remain far below pre-downturn levels, and another large budget shortfall is looming for next year’s budget. Legislative leaders are now warning of cuts from 3 to 7 percent for all agencies, with some agencies facing cuts as high as 10 percent.

Governor Fallin has has made some efforts to minimize cuts to state agencies, especially the core public services of education, law enforcement, health, transportation and corrections. After some of her revenue proposals did not find traction in the legislature, Fallin stated, “If they have a different way of being able to fund the budget and make up for the $500 million budget shortfall, I invite them to bring those ideas forth. There’s room for all kinds of ideas.” Read the rest of this entry »

What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk is dedicated to this week’s events, publications, and blog posts.

This week at OK Policy we marked the one-year anniversary of the Affordable Care Act with a post on how Oklahomans are benefiting from health care reform.  According to Families USA, 50,000 uninsured Oklahomans under the age of 26 are now eligible to remain on their parents’ health insurance plans and over 65,000 Oklahoma children with pre-existing health conditions can no longer be denied coverage by their insurance company.  Oklahoma was one of only seven states to receive a $54 million dollar Early Innovator Grant to develop a high-quality health insurance exchange that will facilitate and coordinate the purchase of insurance by individuals and small businesses beginning in 2014.  As we reported in a blog post this morning, Governor Fallin defended her decision to proceed with implementing insurance exchanges and other key elements of health care reform, telling insurance industry representatives yesterday, “I don’t like it, but it’s still the law of the land.” Read the rest of this entry »