2010 Most Popular Blog Posts

Last year I managed to rouse myself out of my post-Christmas, pre-New Years slumber long enough to pull together a Top 10 list of our most popular blog posts. If this organization, with its rich history dating all the way back to the early months of 2008, stands for anything, it stands for Tradition (swell the “Fiddler” music). So here we go again: Our 10 blog posts that received the most hits in 2010. If you missed any of these the first time around, here’s another chance to take a look.

10. Guest Blog (John F. Gajda): State budget cuts will impact people with developmental disabilities – John  Gajda, the Executive Director of TARC, an advocacy organization for individuals with development disabilities, submitted this piece near the end of the 2010 legislative session, when deep cuts to social services were widely anticipated.  While an agreement on additional revenues averted the worst outcomes, expect the same fears to arise again in 2011.

9. Enhanced Medicaid match extension would help state budget and low-income families – Calling on Congress to get it done and extend additional Medicaid funding to the states. Eventually, it did.

8. State budget outlook: With no more help from Washington, the worst is still yet to come – Just one of the many offerings that earned us the coveted nomination for “Organization Most Likely To Leave You In Need of a Stiff Drink”.

7. Guest blog: Will Oklahoma be first to discriminate against military spouses in divorce? — This piece by two critics of a proposal to change how Oklahoma treats military pensions in divorce topped our 2009 list. It continues to generate traffic and heated responses.

6. SQ 746: Would voter ID proposal solve a problem or create one? – We’re not sure if the 11 State Questions on the November ballot were good for Oklahoma, but they were unquestionably good for generating traffic to our website.

5. A State Question parable –  This post, our final word on State Question 744,  was, according to our trusty widget, shared some 215 times on Facebook – or roughly 210 times more than our typical musings.

4. An expert’s take on Oklahoma’s new sales tax compliance law – My interview with Michael Mazerov on HB 2359, the controversial bill from last session that takes some tentative steps in helping Oklahoma collect the use taxes owed on Internet purchases. From the comments, it appears not everyone’s a fan.

3. Guest Blog (Ryan Kiesel): Voters to decide fate of health care reform. But not really – Kiesel’s post, which questioned the relevance of the constitutional amendment opting out of parts of the new federal health care law, was undoubtedly of critical importance in winning over the 4,000 or so Oklahomans who voted no on SQ 756!

2. New report looks at impact of Oklahoma’s immigration bill HB 1804 – I summarized a report by researchers at the Urban Institute  concluding that HB 1804 has had only minor practical consequences but has contributed to a “culture of fear” among Hispanic immigrants in Oklahoma.

1. Guest blog (Justin Jones): DOC budget cuts and offender growth are affecting public, employee and public safety – This piece by the DOC Director on the critical situation of the state’s correctional system received more than twice as many hits as any other blog post. Perhaps this is how DOC employees occupy themselves on their furlough days?

A heartfelt thanks to everyone who has kept up with this blog and provided us with feedback and comments, as well as guest contributions. Keep those coming, and we look forward to keeping the discussion going in the new year.