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
May 29, 2019 // Updated: May 27, 2021
Overall, it's best to think of this budget as a second step on what needs to be a long journey. When adjusted for inflation, this budget is still 10.1 percent below the FY 2009 level. Over half of state agencies still have lower budgets than they did in FY 2009 without accounting for inflation. [More...]
By: Paul Shinn
April 15, 2016 // Updated: May 2, 2019
In advance of tax day, we’re resharing this post by Paul Shinn, which originally ran on OK Policy’s blog in 2009.
I’m not a fan of tax day. Who is? After several tortuous weeks of determining whether I have excess… Read more [More...]
By: Paul Shinn
December 29, 2011 // Updated: May 1, 2019
Last week we reported that next year’s revenues are expected to be 7 percent below their levels of six years ago (FY ’07), even though costs are higher due to inflation, population growth, and increased caseloads
Elsewhere, people seem to… Read more [More...]
By: Paul Shinn
November 21, 2011 // Updated: May 1, 2019
Today we published “An Incomplete Recovery: The State Budget Outlook 2012-2015.” This is the third of our annual series of forecasts for the state budget. Our goals for this project are both to inform leaders and citizens about the state’s… Read more [More...]
By: Paul Shinn
September 1, 2011 // Updated: May 1, 2019
Once again, OK Policy is getting in touch with its inner dweeb (as if the outer dweeb wasn’t scary enough) and beginning work to develop new four-year forecasts of revenue and budgets for the state of Oklahoma. We’ve written elsewhere… Read more [More...]
By: Paul Shinn
January 24, 2011 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Last year we published OK Policy’s (and possibly the nation’s) first Online Budget Guide, a primer for Oklahoma state and local government finance. We were pretty excited about the online approach. It allowed us to save paper and printing and… Read more [More...]
By: Paul Shinn
December 17, 2010 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, was this month’s speaker at DHS’ Practice and Policy Lecture Series. Haskins looked at causes and offered solutions to the persistence of poverty in the United States. He attributed poverty to four… Read more [More...]
By: Paul Shinn
December 7, 2010 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Today OK Policy released “A New Fiscal Reality for Oklahoma: The State Budget Outlook, 2011-2014,” our second annual multi-year budget forecast. Click here for the full 10-page brief or here for the 1-page summary. Dangerously nerdy readers also can check… Read more [More...]
By: Paul Shinn
September 15, 2010 // Updated: May 1, 2019
Last year at this time, OK Policy began a revenue forecasting project. Our efforts stemmed from the limitations of official revenue forecasting efforts, which are limited to two annual forecasts prepared for the Board of Equalization, issued in December and… Read more [More...]