Tag: Oklahoma

Stuck in a Hole: What flat funding means for the common education budget

After three straight years of budget cuts, funding for public education in Oklahoma is in dire straits.  This year’s appropriation to the Department of Education is $254 million, or 10.0 percent, less than it was in 2009.  In the past… Read more [More...]

How Oklahoma is falling behind

Even as the economy recovers, it’s become increasingly apparent that there is no end in sight to Oklahoma’s budget woes. Oklahoma has seen three straight years of budget cuts, and according to one House leader, we may be in for… Read more [More...]

No leg left to stand on: Laffer and OCPA debunked again

The push to eliminate Oklahoma’s personal income tax relies heavily for intellectual support on a study done for the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs by economist Arthur Laffer and his colleagues. The Laffer report makes two claims: (1) that states… Read more [More...]

Over a Barrel: How we ended up on the hook to oil and gas producers to the tune of $294 million

NOTE: This week, Oklahomans learned the state was on the hook to pay oil and gas producers $294 million over the next three years in deferred tax rebates for horizontal and deep well drilling in 2010 and 2011, an amount… Read more [More...]

Report: Affordable Care Act to substantially expand coverage, reduce uncompensated care in Oklahoma

The Affordable Care Act, the federal health care law that takes full effect in 2014, is expected to provide health insurance coverage to over 335,000 uninsured Oklahomans and reduce the state’s uncompensated health care costs by more than two-thirds ,… Read more [More...]

The pseudoephedrine debate: Available with or without a prescription?

The question of whether to require a prescription for the purchase of pseudoephedrine (the main ingredient in medications such as Sudafed) as a means to help combat the production of methamphetamine,  promises to be one of the  hotly contested issues… Read more [More...]

Guest Blog (Matthew Norris): City 5.0 – The Economics of Personal Fabrication

Matthew Norris is Board President of Fab Lab Tulsa, Inc. and is one of the principal founders of the organization. This post originally appeared on the Fab Lab Tulsa blog. Fab Lab Tulsa opened on a hot September 13th in… Read more [More...]

Guest Blog (Juan Pedroza): Should I stay or should I go?

Juan Pedroza is a Research Associate at The Urban Institute’s Center on Labor, Human Services and Population. This originally appeared on the Urban Institute Metro Trends blog and is reposted with permission. Juan’s research will appear in a forthcoming issue… Read more [More...]

Revenue forecast confirms need for caution

On Tuesday, the Board of Equalization certified a preliminary estimate of the revenues available for next year’s budget. The numbers confirm that while the worst of the fiscal crisis is over, the state is experiencing a slow, incomplete recovery that… Read more [More...]

People as Commodities: Some profit by detaining immigrants

This post is by OK Policy intern Kasey Hughart. Kasey is attending the University of Tulsa as a Sociology major/Spanish minor. Aside from being simultaneously employed at three jobs and going to school full-time, she is active in advocating for… Read more [More...]