Tag: budget cuts

Guest Blog (Dr. James Utterback): OETA is vital to the public education mission of Oklahoma

James W. Utterback, Ph.D. is President of Seminole State College and Chair of the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority Board. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of OETA or any other group… Read more [More...]

Why a federal Balanced Budget Amendment will never happen, and why that’s a good thing

[This post has been changed slightly from the original. An earlier version questioned SoonerPoll’s reliability without providing evidence to back up that claim.] As part of the agreement to raise the federal debt ceiling, Congress will vote on a Balanced… Read more [More...]

Weather Break: Understanding the debt ceiling deal

Now that default has been averted and the agreement to raise the federal debt limit has been signed into law, attention here in Oklahoma has shifted, at least temporarily, from politics back to the weather (or, from the debt ceiling… Read more [More...]

Play It Again: Private sector suffers, too, from public sector decay

Anyone following the news finds daily stories of the public sector under assault.  Across the nation and in Oklahoma, cuts to state government continue into their third straight year, while in Washington, the rhetoric around budget cuts has reached a… Read more [More...]

The Weekly Wonk – July 15, 2011

What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk is dedicated to this week’s events, publications, and blog posts. This week at OK Policy, we reported that June General Revenue (GR) collections came in $66.2 million, or 13.0… Read more [More...]

The toll of budget cuts: Programs promoting high-quality teaching and schools under the axe

If Oklahoma is to have any chance of improving our students’ educational performance, we need to support excellence in our teachers and administrators. In recent years, Oklahoma has made such a commitment by investing in research-based professional development programs for… Read more [More...]

Revenue collections finish strong year – but still face a steep upward climb

State Finance Director Preston Doerflinger yesterday announced that June General Revenue (GR) collections came in $78.1 million, or 15.7 percent, above last year and $66.2 million, or 13.0 percent, above the official certified estimate. The June collections brought to an… Read more [More...]

The Weekly Wonk – July 8, 2011

What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk is dedicated to this week’s events, publications, and blog posts. This week at OK Policy, we presented interactive charts tracking state agencies’ share of the budget over time.  A… Read more [More...]

Child care cuts deal a blow to low-income working families and kids

The Oklahoma Department of Human Services this week approved changes to the state’s child care subsidy program that  will increase hardships for struggling low-income working families, threaten access to quality child care, and harm child care providers who serve low-income… Read more [More...]

Hot off the Presses: Our FY '12 budget highlights

With the 2011 legislative session now wrapped up, we are pleased to release our FY ’12 Budget Highlights, a one-page summary analysis of the budget for the upcoming year, along with eight detailed charts and tables on revenues and appropriations.… Read more [More...]