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A State Question parable

Say that you’re a lower-income working-class family and the house you’re living in is falling into disrepair. There are cracks in some of the walls, parts of the backyard fence have fallen in, and you know that pretty soon you’re… Read more [More...]

Upside Down: New report shows most asset building spending helping the wealthy

It is widely accepted that ownership of assets – a home, savings accounts, stocks and investments, a business – is a cornerstone of family financial security. Assets provide a cushion against temporary setbacks and allow for an investment in greater… Read more [More...]

Hey Mikey! Raising the Rainy Day Fund cap is the one ballot measures everyone can like

Remember Mikey from those old cereal commercials? He was the picky eater whose siblings foisted a bowl of  Life cereal in front of him saying, “It’s supposed to be good for you. But he won’t eat it. He hates everything”.… Read more [More...]

Quick Take: Revenue collections recovering very slowly

The latest revenue collections announced today (PDF) by Treasurer Scott Meacham continue to confirm that while revenues are recovering from their precipitous drop during the worst of the downturn, the recovery is slow and far from complete. September’s General Revenue… Read more [More...]

Guest Blog (Amy Santee): Women in Recovery program making a difference

Amy Santee, the author of this guest blog, is Senior Program Officer with George Kaiser Family Foundation in Tulsa. In my last blog post, I posed the following question: “Is it not better public policy to provide these (incarcerated) women… Read more [More...]

This ain't over yet: Outlook and recommondations for navigating the ongoing state fiscal crisis

This week OK Policy distributed a 4-page memo on the state budget to all candidates for state offices, which we have now released to a broader audience. The memo is intended to offer policymakers a clearer understanding of the budget… Read more [More...]

Health Care Reform (5): Shifting more long-term care away from institutions

This is the fifth in an ongoing series of posts examining the new federal health care reform law. Our previous posts have explored the “cliff effect”; the  impact on state budgets; the Temporary High Risk Pool; and tax credits for… Read more [More...]

Has common education been a budget priority?

One of the more contentious skirmishes in the battle over SQ 744 concerns the question of whether, in the absence of a constitutional amendment basing common education funding on a constitutionally-entrenched formula, Oklahoma’s elected officials have neglected K-12 funding. Supporters… Read more [More...]

Going to scale: Initiatives to strengthen financial security are spreading

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the 2010 Assets Learning Conference that brought together over 1,000 participants for three days of plenaries, workshops and sessions exploring approaches to building an economy in which all Americans, including those of… Read more [More...]

Chart of the Day: Economy has lost over 9 million full-time, year-round jobs

Today the U.S. Census Bureau will release a new set of income, poverty and health insurance data based on the American Community Survey. This survey is the one recommended for state-level analysis, and we will be analyzing its data carefully… Read more [More...]

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