Paul Shinn served as Budget and Tax Senior Policy Analyst with OK Policy from May 2019 until December 2021. Before joining OK Policy, Shinn held budget and finance positions for the Oklahoma House of Representatives, the Department of Human Services, the cities of Oklahoma City and Del City and several local governments in his native Oregon. He also taught political science and public administration at the University of Oklahoma, University of Central Oklahoma, and California State University Stanislaus. While with the Government Finance Officers Association, Paul worked on consulting and research projects for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and several state agencies and local governments. He also served as policy analyst for CAP Tulsa. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from University of Oklahoma and degrees from the University of Oregon and the University of Maryland College Park. He lives in Oklahoma City with his wife Carmelita.
By: Paul Shinn
August 16, 2023 // Updated: November 20, 2023
While this program could make private and homeschooling more practical or affordable for a few families, taxpayers will mostly be paying for people to do what they were willing to pay for on their own. As a result, we’ll be handing millions of tax dollars to the most well-off among us while propping up private schools, whose enrollment has stagnated in recent years. [More...]
By: Paul Shinn
April 26, 2023 // Updated: May 8, 2023
Oklahoma legislators are considering several unpredictable, expensive, and dangerous proposals to drastically change our state education policy. These proposals would use tax dollars to fund private education for fewer than 1 in 10 Oklahoma children and take funding from public schools. [More...]
By: Paul Shinn
April 17, 2022 // Updated: April 17, 2022
In the past, I’ve written Tax Day articles for OK Policy about a world without taxes. This year I’m celebrating Tax Day by describing my work helping dozens of Oklahomans file their federal and state income taxes through the VITA… Read more [More...]
By: Paul Shinn
December 8, 2021 // Updated: December 8, 2021
he public should be involved through public hearings and through the opportunity to comment — both in person and online — about budgets. Our state’s budget process won’t be this transparent until Oklahomans demand it. While many steps must be taken, moving back toward the more open and participative process of the 1990s would put us on the right track. [More...]
By: Paul Shinn
June 11, 2021 // Updated: June 11, 2021
Families are the backbone of our society and economy, but too many Oklahoma families cannot keep up. Many Oklahoma jobs pay less than a quarter of what it takes to support a family. [More...]
By: Paul Shinn
May 17, 2021 // Updated: May 18, 2021
Because budgets affect us all, both immediately and into the future, they should be made in public view with public input. While most states show this is easily accomplished, Oklahoma’s leaders neither inform nor engage the public in their budget deliberations. [More...]
By: Paul Shinn
April 26, 2021 // Updated: April 26, 2021
Oklahoma is one of few states where there is currently no introduced budget and limited discussion of budget priorities. Oklahoma is likely to once again wait until late in the legislative session to introduce a budget and then to bypass regular legislative rules to pass a budget in just a week or two with little to no public debate. [More...]
By: Paul Shinn
April 15, 2021 // Updated: April 14, 2024
Twelve years ago, I wrote this article to make a point about the essential role taxes play in our everyday lives. Since then, however, the real Oklahoma has moved closer to the one I feared in my dream. [More...]
By: Paul Shinn
April 7, 2021 // Updated: April 6, 2021
Lawmakers should set aside both of these bills and have a broader discussion about whether it's more important to broadly cut taxes than to provide public services, invest in our state’s future, save for the next economic downturn, or provide better-targeted tax reduction. [More...]
By: Paul Shinn
March 19, 2021 // Updated: March 19, 2021
Oklahoma’s corporate income tax is good public policy. Forty-four states have corporate income taxes like Oklahoma’s, and all but two of the remaining states tax business revenues. [More...]
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While this program could make private and homeschooling more practical or affordable for a few families, taxpayers will mostly be paying for people to do what they were willing to pay for on their own. As a result, we’ll be handing millions of tax dollars to the most well-off among us while propping up private schools, whose enrollment has stagnated in recent years. [More...]
Oklahoma legislators are considering several unpredictable, expensive, and dangerous proposals to drastically change our state education policy. These proposals would use tax dollars to fund private education for fewer than 1 in 10 Oklahoma children and take funding from public schools. [More...]
In the past, I’ve written Tax Day articles for OK Policy about a world without taxes. This year I’m celebrating Tax Day by describing my work helping dozens of Oklahomans file their federal and state income taxes through the VITA… Read more [More...]
he public should be involved through public hearings and through the opportunity to comment — both in person and online — about budgets. Our state’s budget process won’t be this transparent until Oklahomans demand it. While many steps must be taken, moving back toward the more open and participative process of the 1990s would put us on the right track. [More...]
Families are the backbone of our society and economy, but too many Oklahoma families cannot keep up. Many Oklahoma jobs pay less than a quarter of what it takes to support a family. [More...]
Because budgets affect us all, both immediately and into the future, they should be made in public view with public input. While most states show this is easily accomplished, Oklahoma’s leaders neither inform nor engage the public in their budget deliberations. [More...]
Oklahoma is one of few states where there is currently no introduced budget and limited discussion of budget priorities. Oklahoma is likely to once again wait until late in the legislative session to introduce a budget and then to bypass regular legislative rules to pass a budget in just a week or two with little to no public debate. [More...]
Twelve years ago, I wrote this article to make a point about the essential role taxes play in our everyday lives. Since then, however, the real Oklahoma has moved closer to the one I feared in my dream. [More...]
Lawmakers should set aside both of these bills and have a broader discussion about whether it's more important to broadly cut taxes than to provide public services, invest in our state’s future, save for the next economic downturn, or provide better-targeted tax reduction. [More...]
Oklahoma’s corporate income tax is good public policy. Forty-four states have corporate income taxes like Oklahoma’s, and all but two of the remaining states tax business revenues. [More...]
