Quick Take: March revenue collections

Yesterday, State Finance Director Preston Doerflinger announced that March General Revenue (GR) collections came in 9.3 percent above March 2010 and 10.5 percent above the certified estimate.  This marked the 11th straight month that GR showed improvement over the prior… Read more [More...]

Quick Take: February revenue collections show continued growth but full recovery remains far off

Yesterday, State Finance Director Preston Doerflinger announced state General Revenue (GR) collections for February.  The news was generally positive. February’s collections came in 12.0 percent higher than one year ago; this was the eleventh straight month that monthly GR collections… Read more [More...]

Unfair, inefficient, and bad for business: Why Oklahoma needs sales tax reform

Oklahoma’s tax system is broken. Despite a recovering economy, the state is unable to raise enough revenue to sustain core public services. The strains will only increase over time as we cope with a rapidly aging population, unfunded pension obligations,… Read more [More...]

The Weekly Wonk

Since it’s such a busy time for Oklahoma Policy Institute, we’ve decided to dedicate a blog post to this week’s events, publications, and blog posts. In state budget news, Tuesday’s blog reviews the latest monthly report of General Revenue (GR)… Read more [More...]

Quick Take: Revenues rebounding – – except for the income tax

The latest monthly report of General Revenue (GR) collections announced by Treasurer Ken Miller provided the strongest indications yet that state revenues are on a firm path to recovery. For the 11th time in the past 12 months, monthly revenue… Read more [More...]

Quick Take: Latest revenue figures show progress, but steep climb remains

On his first full day on the job, new State Treasurer Ken Miller got to announce relatively good news on the state revenue front. December General Revenue (GR) collections were up 13.0 percent from one year ago and were 4.3… Read more [More...]

Not too shabby: Comparing our revenue forecasts and theirs

Earlier this month, we released a brief that provided our projections for state revenue collections for Fiscal Years 2011 through 2014.  Last week, the State Board of Equalization certified its official preliminary revenue estimates for FY ’12, along with updated… Read more [More...]

State Revenues: One-third full or two-thirds empty?

Yesterday’s announcement of state General Revenue (GR) collections for the month of November showed that the state continues to recover only slowly and partially from the depths of the downturn. Outgoing State Treasurer Scott Meacham chose to highlight that November… Read more [More...]

Not a pretty picture: National outlook for state budgets looks a lot like Oklahoma's

We’re nowhere close to being out of the woods. That’s been our message of late on the state’s budget outlook (you can take a look here at our blog post analyzing of the most recent monthly revenue collections and here… Read more [More...]

Quick Take: Revenue collections recovering very slowly

The latest revenue collections announced today (PDF) by Treasurer Scott Meacham continue to confirm that while revenues are recovering from their precipitous drop during the worst of the downturn, the recovery is slow and far from complete. September’s General Revenue… Read more [More...]