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

State Unemployment Insurance fund feeling the strain but still holding up

By: David Blatt
February 11, 2010 // Updated: May 2, 2019
A stark indicator of the extent of Oklahoma’s job losses over the past year is the state’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund account. Going into 2009, the Trust Fund enjoyed a very healthy balance of $824 million. Now, twelve months… Read more [More...]

New revenue numbers: Still waiting to exhale

By: David Blatt
February 9, 2010 // Updated: May 1, 2019
We may never have expected to see the day when the announcement that monthly revenue collections had come in 16.7 percent below the prior year and 20.8 percent below the certified estimate would be taken as good news. But after… Read more [More...]

FY '10 Budget: Not a done deal?

By: David Blatt
February 8, 2010 // Updated: May 1, 2019
Just before the start of the Legislative session, Governor Henry announced that he had reached an agreement with Speaker Benge and President Pro Tem Coffee on the FY ’10 budget.  Faced with projected mid-year revenue shortfalls of slightly more than… Read more [More...]

Things Fall Apart

By: David Blatt
February 4, 2010 // Updated: May 1, 2019
The January-February issue of the Atlantic Monthly magazine features an excellent cover article by editor James Fallow weighing the question of whether America has entered a period of terminal decline. On the one hand, he suggests that the nation’s crucial… Read more [More...]

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

By: David Blatt
February 3, 2010 // Updated: October 17, 2012
Two years ago, Oklahoma Policy Institute was launched to provide timely and credible analysis of state policy issues that would help educate the state’s residents and guide public policy decisions.  We formed OK Policy to respond to the need for… Read more [More...]

A first look at the Governor’s FY ’11 budget

By: David Blatt
February 2, 2010 // Updated: May 1, 2019
In Monday’s State of the State address, Governor Henry laid out the broad parameters of his FY ’11 Executive budget. The Governor’s speech likened our current fiscal storm to the severe weather the state has faced recently and so often… Read more [More...]

Your program and playbook for the Oklahoma legislative session

By: David Blatt
January 29, 2010 // Updated: October 17, 2012
Do you know who chairs the Senate Appropriations committee? When the deadline is for passing bills out of their original chamber? How much money there is in the Rainy Day Fund? The answers to these questions – and more! –… Read more [More...]

Saving the Rainy Day Fund won't work

By: David Blatt
January 27, 2010 // Updated: May 1, 2019
Our friends over at Oklahomans for Responsible Government have a blog post up on the FY ’10 budget agreement expressing dismay over the use of (an unspecified amount of) Rainy Day Funds to help cover this year’s revenue shortfall. They… Read more [More...]

FY '10 budget agreement leaves questions and challenges

By: David Blatt
// Updated: May 1, 2019
In a press release Tuesday afternoon, Governor Brad Henry, Speaker Chris Benge and Senate Pro-Tem Glenn Coffee announced agreement on how to address the shortfalls in the FY ’10 budget that have resulted from this year’s revenues coming in sharply… Read more [More...]

Glimmers of good news in state revenue collections?

By: David Blatt
January 26, 2010 // Updated: May 1, 2019
This month’s announcement of December General Revenue collections didn’t seem to provide much in the way of good news. Revenues for the month again came in around 30 percent below levels of one year ago (graph) and 30 percent below… Read more [More...]

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