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Health Care Reform for Dummies… and the French

Every year or two, I get an e-mail from my former housemate in France asking me to help make sense of some raging American political issue – impeachment, the electoral college, superdelegates – that is getting regular coverage abroad but… Read more [More...]

2009 Most Popular Blog Posts

OK, so we’re supposed to be on blog break, but then I realized that we could end up as the only information source in the world without its own end-of-year Top 10 or “Best of” list. Not to miss the… Read more [More...]

Happy holidays!

We’re taking a break from blogging until after New Year’s. We hope everyone has a healthy and joyful holidays; we’ll see you back in 2010.… Read more [More...]

This hardly seems like a time to brag, but…

The State Board of Equalization yesterday certified official revenue projections for this year and next. Based on actual revenue collections through November and forecasting data for the next seven months, the various agencies involved in generating the certified estimate are… Read more [More...]

Learning from the Crisis (4): Capping and suspending tax breaks

As a result of Oklahoma’s severe budget shortfalls, every state agency and program is absorbing substantial budget cuts that are having a real impact on Oklahoma families and communities. But tax expenditures – the term encompassing the array of exemptions,… Read more [More...]

Déjà Vu All Over Again: funding essential services

Well, it happened again. This month Leadership OK (LOK) was in McAlester instead of in Muskogee, but there was something familiar about what we heard and how the class reacted. Last month, after a presentation by Neal McCaleb, President of… Read more [More...]

Learning from the crisis (3): Putting multi-year revenue commitments on hold

On January 1st, tax cuts with a revenue impact exceeding $100 million, which include the full repeal of the state’s estate tax and a steep increase in the standard deduction, will take effect in Oklahoma.  Do these tax cuts reflect… Read more [More...]

What does it take? Oklahoma Self-Sufficiency Standard calculates what families need to get by

How much does an Oklahoma family have to earn to meet its basic needs? What are the major costs of a family budget, and how do these vary for different family types and in different parts of the state? How… Read more [More...]

Learning from the crisis (2): Strengthening our reserve funds

As state leaders struggle to find solutions to this year’s revenue shortfalls and funding gaps, it is not too soon to draw lessons from the current state fiscal crisis to design policies that will allow us to respond better the… Read more [More...]

DHS Policy and Practice lecture series examines recession and recovery

On January 11th, Chad Wilkerson, the Branch Executive of the Oklahoma City office of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City will be giving a free public lecture on “The Economy Around Us: Recession and Recovery”. Wilkerson, who serves as… Read more [More...]

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