OKPOLICY.ORG
“The storm clouds gathering on state government’s budgetary horizon are ominous. For the fourth consecutive month – and fifth time in six months – state revenue collections in August were less than the year before. Oklahoma’s unemployment rate is but a half percentage point below the national rate – after eight years of being significantly lower. Chesapeake Energy this week announced 740 layoffs – 15 percent of its workforce – including 562 in Oklahoma City. A Dallas company’s purchase of the Williams Cos. casts doubt on the fate of 1,000 Tulsa workers. State government’s fiscal experts know what’s coming – a collective migraine not experienced since the last great oil bust in the early 1980s.”
– Arnold Hamilton, Editor of the Oklahoma Observer, writing in the Journal Record (Source)
