OK Policy Blog

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2023 Census data: Oklahoma ranks as sixth poorest state

By: Oklahoma Policy Institute
September 12, 2024 // Updated: September 12, 2024
Lawmakers have options to improve Oklahomans’ well-being, access to prosperity Data from the Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey released Sept. 12 show that Oklahoma’s poverty rate was 15.9 percent, which was the nation’s sixth highest. The national poverty rate… Read more More...

Recent Posts

Tom Joad dances on

By: David Blatt
January 13, 2010 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Kurt Hochenauer, whose OkieFunk: Notes from the Outback blog provides consistently sharp and perceptive commentary on Oklahoma political issues, recently had a nice piece in the Oklahoma Gazette putting the recent rise in poverty in the state in its historical… Read more [More...]

It pays to recycle: Lessons from the Budget Crisis

By: David Blatt
// Updated: May 1, 2019
Just a quick post to let you know that the Oklahoman today ran an op-ed setting out the policy proposals we have developed for managing budget downturns. The op-ed was based on the full issue brief and 1-page summary we… Read more [More...]

Say "ow": Next round of Medicaid budget cuts to hit providers

By: David Blatt
January 11, 2010 // Updated: May 2, 2019
According to an e-mail that went out late last Friday afternoon from Nico Gomez, the Deputy CEO for External Relations and Communications of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA), the agency will recommend to its Board this week that it… Read more [More...]

Simply Dismal: Budget gap should spur look at improved forecasting

By: David Blatt
January 8, 2010 // Updated: May 1, 2019
Everyone knew it would be bad. Could we have known it would be this bad?  Nearly one year ago, in February of 2009,  several months after the national economic recession finally hit Oklahoma, the Board of Equalization certified an official… Read more [More...]

Nothing but a strand of the net: One in 37 Oklahomans has food stamps, nothing else

By: David Blatt
January 7, 2010 // Updated: May 2, 2019
The New York Times this weekend ran an important feature on one important and disturbing sign of the impact of the recession – the large and growing population of food stamp recipients that report zero household income: About six million… Read more [More...]

Health Care Reform for Dummies… and the French

By: David Blatt
January 5, 2010 // Updated: May 2, 2019
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

By: David Blatt
December 30, 2009 // Updated: October 17, 2012
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!

By: David Blatt
December 23, 2009 // Updated: October 17, 2012
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…

By: David Blatt
// Updated: May 1, 2019
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

By: David Blatt
December 17, 2009 // Updated: May 1, 2019
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...]

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