By:
Paul Shinn
September 10, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Burgerville, a small fast-food chain in the Pacific Northwest, has always made a killer fresh blackberry shake. Recently, it also made a shrewd business move: providing health insurance for employees. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported on the genesis…
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By:
David Blatt
September 9, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Should states be looking at broadening their sales tax bases to cover more currently untaxed services? That is the argument made in a recent paper by Michael Mazerov of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
Most states could improve…
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By:
David Blatt
September 8, 2009 // Updated: May 1, 2019
Last week, OK Policy convened a meeting of over 30 representatives of non-profit and advocacy organizations to discuss the state’s budget situation. We begin with a presentation on budget trends and outlooks, which can be viewed on our website; the…
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By:
David Blatt
September 4, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Note: Occasionally we are re-running blog posts on topical subjects that you may have missed the first time around. Last week, the Tulsa World reported that DVIS (Domestic Violence Interventions Services) of Tulsa has been awarded a $426,335 grant from…
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By:
David Blatt
September 3, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
In a recent post on our blog, Paul Shinn looked at state tax incentives and made the case for holding them to the same standards of accountability as direct government spending programs. In the new blog at Tax.com, David Brunori,…
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By:
Paul Shinn
September 2, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
The News on 6 in Tulsa reported last week on Oklahomans who lack health insurance. OK Policy’s David Blatt was featured in the story, available here in both print and video, describing who is likely to be uninsured and explaining…
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By:
David Blatt
September 1, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
The National Conference of State Legislatures has developed an interesting interactive demographic map that allows you to examine the makeup of each state’s legislature by ethnicity, gender, age, religion and occupation and compare those figures to national averages. Oklahoma’s most…
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By:
David Blatt
August 31, 2009 // Updated: May 1, 2019
The continued weakness of natural gas prices and production is the most important factor accounting for Oklahoma’s disappointing revenue collections. July collections from natural gas production to the General Revenue Fund (GRF) totaled just $22.2 million in July – a…
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By:
Paul Shinn
August 28, 2009 // Updated: October 17, 2012
Check out Slate.com’s animated map of the changing job picture over the last three and a half years. If you scroll down to the map and click the green arrow at the lower right, you can watch the job picture…
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By:
Paul Shinn
August 27, 2009 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Our new Stimulus Update looks at the $52 billion in education funding in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA, better known as the stimulus). The education programs, in contrast to most other ARRA funds coming to state and local…
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