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
September 14, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
The Obama administration recently announced a series of measures aimed at making it easier for Americans to save. As the New York Times article on the initiative noted, the measures are all rooted in research from the field of behavioral… Read more [More...]
By: David Blatt
September 11, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Yesterday, the U.S. Census Bureau released its annual report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage for 2008 from its Current Population Survey. You can or click here for fact sheets and links to all the data or click here… Read more [More...]
By: David Blatt
September 9, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Should states be looking at broadening their sales tax bases to cover more currently untaxed services? That is the argument made in a recent paper by Michael Mazerov of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
Most states could improve… Read more [More...]
By: David Blatt
September 8, 2009 // Updated: May 1, 2019
Last week, OK Policy convened a meeting of over 30 representatives of non-profit and advocacy organizations to discuss the state’s budget situation. We begin with a presentation on budget trends and outlooks, which can be viewed on our website; the… Read more [More...]
By: David Blatt
September 4, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Note: Occasionally we are re-running blog posts on topical subjects that you may have missed the first time around. Last week, the Tulsa World reported that DVIS (Domestic Violence Interventions Services) of Tulsa has been awarded a $426,335 grant from… Read more [More...]
By: David Blatt
September 3, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
In a recent post on our blog, Paul Shinn looked at state tax incentives and made the case for holding them to the same standards of accountability as direct government spending programs. In the new blog at Tax.com, David Brunori,… Read more [More...]
By: David Blatt
September 1, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
The National Conference of State Legislatures has developed an interesting interactive demographic map that allows you to examine the makeup of each state’s legislature by ethnicity, gender, age, religion and occupation and compare those figures to national averages. Oklahoma’s most… Read more [More...]
By: David Blatt
August 31, 2009 // Updated: May 1, 2019
The continued weakness of natural gas prices and production is the most important factor accounting for Oklahoma’s disappointing revenue collections. July collections from natural gas production to the General Revenue Fund (GRF) totaled just $22.2 million in July – a… Read more [More...]
By: David Blatt
August 24, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
If you did not see last Sunday’s Tulsa World, it is well worth checking out their front-page profile of families hit by the economic downturn, titled “Faces of the Recession”. Reporters Ginnie Graham and Mike Averill tell the stories of… Read more [More...]
By: David Blatt
August 20, 2009 // Updated: May 1, 2019
As a follow-up to our earlier post about the announced cuts to state agencies resulting from the shortfall in July revenue collections, we have prepared a spreadsheet that shows how much of a cut each agency will receive in dollar… Read more [More...]
OKPOLICY.ORG
The continued weakness of natural gas prices and production is the most important factor accounting for Oklahoma’s disappointing revenue collections. July collections from natural gas production to the General Revenue Fund (GRF) totaled just $22.2 million in July – a… Read more [More...]
As a follow-up to our earlier post about the announced cuts to state agencies resulting from the shortfall in July revenue collections, we have prepared a spreadsheet that shows how much of a cut each agency will receive in dollar… Read more [More...]
