Category: Media

EPS explains funding for Pre-AP instruction (Enid News)

By Sally Asher  Enid Public Schools officials agreed to hire teachers to offer instruction in middle school Pre-AP courses earlier this week, and administrators have announced how they will fund the new teachers. As budget cuts and teacher shortages ravage… Read more [More...]

Funding tightens for trooper raises (Woodward News)

By Janelle Stecklein OKLAHOMA CITY — Two years after troopers got hefty raises, the state can no longer afford them and is considering furloughs and other cuts to make ends meet in the Department of Public Safety. The plight of… Read more [More...]

Surveying State Tax Policy Changes Thus Far in 2016 (Tax Justice Blog)

By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff With the exception of New Jersey, the dust has now settled on most state legislatures’ 2016 tax policy debates.  Many of the conversations that took place in 2016 were quite different than… Read more [More...]

Former Air Force captain outraising Baptist preacher in race to represent Edmond (News OK)

By Rick Green Ultraconservative issues pushed by Edmond preacher Paul Blair appear to be hurting him in fundraising for the state Senate District 41 race against former Air Force Capt. Adam Pugh. Business interests are concerned that some of Blair’s… Read more [More...]

Education fail, part the infinity: The best and (mostly) worst of SQ 779 (Tulsa Voice)

By Barry Friedman  “I personally don’t like sales taxes particularly.” That was OU President David Boren, during an interview with Intermission Magazine in January, talking aboutState Question 779, an amendment on November’s ballot that would raise sales taxes statewide by… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma isn’t alone with challenging budgeting issues (The Oklahoman)

By The Oklahoman Editorial Board IN recent years, critics have noted Oklahoma’s state government budget has increasingly relied on one-time funds as an ever-smaller share of money is run through the formal state appropriation process. A recent article in Governing… Read more [More...]

Rural poverty: ‘A way of life’ for numerous Oklahomans (Tulsa World)

By Michael Overall  STILWELL — With no air conditioning on a brutally hot summer afternoon, 19-year-old Breeze Bunch is sitting on the front porch with a half-empty Pepsi and a bottle of sunscreen. “Why don’t you go splash in the… Read more [More...]

Right to Farm (OETA)

Proponents are calling state question 777 the “right to farm” amendment but opponents say it is really “a right to harm” . The question asks voters to limit what laws the state legislature can pass regarding farming and ranching. Proponents… Read more [More...]

What the Legislature really needs (The Journal Record)

By Arnold Hamilton  It’s not unusual for legislative-exes to extend their taxpayer-financed careers once leaving office. Consider: ex-Rep. Dan Sullivan is Grand River Dam Authority CEO, ex-Rep. Tad Jones is Will Rogers Memorial Museum director, and ex-Sen. Sean Burrage is… Read more [More...]

Tulsa Talks police-violence forum seeks ways to turn ‘moment’ into a ‘movement’ (Tulsa World)

By Paighten Harkins  Panelists and community members worked together Monday evening to address police violence issues and come up with feasible strategies to overcome them. More than 200 people packed into the Greenwood Cultural Center on Monday to talk about… Read more [More...]