OKPOLICY.ORG
Today we released our long-awaited Online Budget Guide, a comprehensive resource exploring how Oklahoma’s state and local government collect and spend money to provide public services. While the Guide is packed full of facts and figures and works as both an introduction for citizens and students and a quick-reference for legislators, public managers, advocates, and reporters, it is about more than basic information. It’s also about some basic concerns we want to share with our fellow Oklahomans. Matt Guillory, OK Policy’s Executive Director, said:
At Oklahoma Policy Institute, we report and comment on budget and tax issues and on poverty and other problems we face as a state, but we’re also an advocate for change. We want to see more transparent and accountable government, a structure where we can rely on effective public services, and a way to improve fairness in who we tax and who our programs serve. The Online Budget Guide helps explain why these issues are so important.
Those who share our concern for Oklahoma’s future prosperity may especially want to see these guide pages:
- Oklahoma ranked 50th among the states in spending per person, spending $885 per person less than the average state in 2005. We spent less than average in education, health and social services and every other government service.
- By many measures, Oklahoma falls behind other states in accomplishments as well. Here you can see representative effectiveness measures for education, health and social services, public safety, transportation, general government, and natural resources and regulatory affairs.
- Oklahoma ranked 42nd in total state and local taxes in 2006 and ranked among the middle and lower states for most specific tax sources.
- Oklahoma governments face a long-term fiscal gap, where we will not be able to afford our current level of services. The Guide offers some ways of addressing this significant problem.
- Oklahoma’s tax structure is not fair to all income groups. The Guide suggests some options that could improve tax fairness.
If you go to https://okpolicy.org/online-budget-guide, you’ll find the introductory page of the Guide. Use the menu on the left, or the table of contents, or the navigation pages at the bottom to find your way around. On the right-hand panel you’ll find a box where you can search the Guide, a place to leave comments (such as questions, corrections, or requests for further information), and an icon where you can print the current page through your web browser. If you just want to get a printed highlights version, you can download the “Talking Points” version.
So, if you want to know where Oklahoma stands, what we spend, what we’re accomplishing, who we tax, and how we build budgets, the Online Budget Guide is the right place for you. We won’t be where we are for long, however, and we expect the Guide to inform the discussion of where we’re headed.
