Tag: budget cuts

Cutting into the bone: Impact of falling revenues starting to be felt

Anyone hoping for signs that the state’s budget woes had already hit bottom found little to cheer in Tuesday’s  revenue announcement [PDF] from Treasurer Scott Meacham. August General Revenue (GR) collections came in nearly 32 percent below one year ago.… Read more [More...]

August budget cuts by agency: not quite across-the-board

As a follow-up to our earlier post about the announced cuts to state agencies resulting from the shortfall in July revenue collections, we have prepared a spreadsheet that shows how much of a cut each agency will receive in dollar… Read more [More...]

New Revenue Numbers: The long climb back

As you’ve no doubt already heard, the worst fears about state revenue collections in the beginning of the new fiscal year were confirmed yesterday with the release of July General Revenue (GR) collections. The Treasurer’s office announced that July revenues… Read more [More...]

Coming up short – understanding the revenue shortfall

On Thursday, Treasurer Scott Meacham declared a revenue shortfall for the current budget year, FY ’09, and announced that state agencies would be required to take an across-the-board cut in their allocations for June, the final month of the fiscal… Read more [More...]

It's raining and we're starting to leak

The initial reports on the agreement for the Fy ’10 budget reached on Friday between legislative leaders and the Governor were positive – due to the availability of over $600 million in federal stimulus dollars, key education, health care, and… Read more [More...]

Spring Haircuts

On Friday afternoon, legislative leaders and the Governor announced the outline of a long-awaited budget agreement. This step is necessary to start the flood of bills to fund state agencies, allocate some of the federal stimulus money, and decide what… Read more [More...]

Why not now?

State Rainy Day Funds have one sole purpose: to be used during economic downturns to minimize the extent of cuts to public services and to avert tax increases. Prior to this downturn, Oklahoma has been able to build up our… Read more [More...]

State Budget Update: Bringing the pain

In spite of all the attention paid in Oklahoma in recent weeks to such urgent matters as the Ten Commandments, stem cells, and the Flaming Lips, the real work of the 2009 legislative session has been unfolding largely behind the… Read more [More...]

Step away from the scissors?

Two hundred economists from 37 states–including the University of Tulsa’s Steve Steib have joined the rising chorus of voices cautioning states against solving short-term deficits by cutting budgets and public services.  They’re urging states to: Maintain the public services that… Read more [More...]

The sky is slowly descending!

“The sky is falling!” clearly would make a more compelling headline, but in the case of state agencies trying to deal with the  continuing pressures of rising costs, increasing responsibilities, and flat funding, the reality is less dramatic but no… Read more [More...]