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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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By:
Paul Shinn
December 15, 2009 // Updated: May 1, 2019
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…
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By:
David Blatt
December 14, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
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…
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