We are at a truly critical time for Oklahoma. The state faces its most severe budget crisis of the past quarter century, perhaps the most severe in its history. As revenues have fallen, successive rounds of budget cuts have created…
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From time to time, we use the OK Policy blog to post submissions we receive from Oklahomans who have interesting perspectives on important policy issues for the state. This entry is from John F. Gajda, Executive Director of TARC, an…
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While discussing the state of public health in Oklahoma with a House health appropriations subcommittee, Health Commissioner Terry Cline warned that “Oklahoma is about to become the public health joke of the country.” With Oklahoma standing at 49th in overall…
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OK Policy has argued repeatedly that next year’s budget outlook, with shortfalls equal to cuts of 12 percent across all agencies of state government above those already enacted this year, threatens to have catastrophic consequences for the state’s economy, businesses,…
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In recent months, with the state confronting historic budget shortfalls for the coming fiscal year and critical services facing massive cuts, there has been growing attention paid to the vast array of exemptions, credits, deductions, and rebates known collectively as…
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Last month, we surveyed some of the budget cuts that state agencies were being forced to implement as result of the state’s revenue shortfalls. Since then, the grim news continues to spread deeper into core programs, affecting major services like…
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Today’s announcement of the monthly General Revenue collections brought incontestable good news:
State revenue collections in March topped prior year collections for the first time since December 2008 and the official estimate for a second consecutive month, State Treasurer Scott…
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The Oklahoman’s Michael McNutt covered the remarks I made last week at a panel on the state budget crisis at the University of Central Oklahoma’s Southwest Business Symposium. My conclusions were rather stark:
“We’ve been able to avoid the apocalypse…
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From time to time, we use the OK Policy blog to post submissions we receive from Oklahomans who have interesting perspectives on important policy issues for the state. This entry is from Valerie Andrews, Chief Financial Officer of 12&12, a…
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As revenues have come in significantly below estimates this year, funding to state agencies was cut 5 percent a month from August to November and 10 percent each month since (see our updated fact sheet). OK Policy’s intern Matt Gardner…
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