Former Executive Director David Blatt joined OK Policy in 2008 and served as its Executive Director from 2010 to 2019. He previously served as Director of Public Policy for Community Action Project of Tulsa County and as a budget analyst for the Oklahoma State Senate. He has a Ph.D. in political science from Cornell University and a B.A. from the University of Alberta. David has been selected as Political Scientist of the Year by the Oklahoma Political Science Association, Local Social Justice Champion by the Dan Allen Center for Social Justice, and Public Citizen of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers.
By: David Blatt
January 14, 2010 // Updated: May 1, 2019
In writing about the state’s current budget woes, I’ve tended to say that Oklahoma is in the midst of its worst fiscal crisis since the oil bust of the 1980’s. Whether we were around during those days or not, I… Read more [More...]
By: David Blatt
January 13, 2010 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Kurt Hochenauer, whose OkieFunk: Notes from the Outback blog provides consistently sharp and perceptive commentary on Oklahoma political issues, recently had a nice piece in the Oklahoma Gazette putting the recent rise in poverty in the state in its historical… Read more [More...]
Just a quick post to let you know that the Oklahoman today ran an op-ed setting out the policy proposals we have developed for managing budget downturns. The op-ed was based on the full issue brief and 1-page summary we… Read more [More...]
By: David Blatt
January 11, 2010 // Updated: May 2, 2019
According to an e-mail that went out late last Friday afternoon from Nico Gomez, the Deputy CEO for External Relations and Communications of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA), the agency will recommend to its Board this week that it… Read more [More...]
By: David Blatt
January 8, 2010 // Updated: May 1, 2019
Everyone knew it would be bad. Could we have known it would be this bad? Nearly one year ago, in February of 2009, several months after the national economic recession finally hit Oklahoma, the Board of Equalization certified an official… Read more [More...]
By: David Blatt
January 7, 2010 // Updated: May 2, 2019
The New York Times this weekend ran an important feature on one important and disturbing sign of the impact of the recession – the large and growing population of food stamp recipients that report zero household income:
About six million… Read more [More...]
By: David Blatt
January 5, 2010 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Every year or two, I get an e-mail from my former housemate in France asking me to help make sense of some raging American political issue – impeachment, the electoral college, superdelegates – that is getting regular coverage abroad but… Read more [More...]
By: David Blatt
December 30, 2009 // Updated: October 17, 2012
OK, so we’re supposed to be on blog break, but then I realized that we could end up as the only information source in the world without its own end-of-year Top 10 or “Best of” list. Not to miss the… Read more [More...]
By: David Blatt
December 23, 2009 // Updated: October 17, 2012
We’re taking a break from blogging until after New Year’s. We hope everyone has a healthy and joyful holidays; we’ll see you back in 2010.… Read more [More...]
The State Board of Equalization yesterday certified official revenue projections for this year and next. Based on actual revenue collections through November and forecasting data for the next seven months, the various agencies involved in generating the certified estimate are… Read more [More...]
OKPOLICY.ORG
In writing about the state’s current budget woes, I’ve tended to say that Oklahoma is in the midst of its worst fiscal crisis since the oil bust of the 1980’s. Whether we were around during those days or not, I… Read more [More...]
Everyone knew it would be bad. Could we have known it would be this bad? Nearly one year ago, in February of 2009, several months after the national economic recession finally hit Oklahoma, the Board of Equalization certified an official… Read more [More...]
