Tag: Oklahoma

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...]

Visualizing where the money goes

Every year during state budget discussions, state leaders speak about prioritizing spending to protect core services. That’s especially true when times are bad and the overall budget pie is shrinking. However, the distribution of that pie among agencies over the… Read more [More...]

May Employment Report: Unemployment numbers improve again but job creation remains sluggish

The Bureau of Labor Statistics released May state-level employment numbers today and the news was again good for Oklahoma. The state’s unemployment rate fell from 5.6 percent to 5.3 percent, continuing a trend that has seen the rate fall a… Read more [More...]

The Weekly Wonk – June 17, 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 looked at what the Legislature did and did not do this session to… Read more [More...]

Quick Take: Revenues rebounding but still way down from pre-downturn levels

This week, State Finance Director Preston Doerflinger announced General Revenue (GR) collections for May.  For the month, GR was $36 million, or 9.5 percent, above May 2010 and $25.4 million, or 6.5 percent, above the certified estimate. May collections would… Read more [More...]

Can we stop the runaway train of tax expenditures?

In an earlier post, we discussed tax breaks that had been extended or newly created in the most recent legislative session. The governor promised to eliminate tax credits that “do not create jobs,” but there were no successful bills to… Read more [More...]

Falling Unemployment: Are workers getting jobs or getting discouraged?

The national unemployment rate rose for the second consecutive month in May, edging up to 9.1 percent. Fortunately for Oklahoma, the unemployment rate is moving in the opposite direction, dropping for a fifth consecutive month in April to 5.6 percent,… Read more [More...]

Legislative action on pensions shores up system, defuses rhetoric

The 2011 legislative session was marked by passage of legislation to limit lawsuit damages, restrict the collective bargaining rights of public employees and the legal rights of teachers, revamp the workers compensation system, and consolidate state agencies. Yet when asked… Read more [More...]

Guest Blog (Kathy McKean): Alternative Education – Oklahoma leads the nation

Kathy McKean is the director of the Oklahoma Technical Assistance Center, which provides evaluation and professional development to Oklahoma schools. When people think of alternative education, they may imagine “punishment schools” or the Sweathogs on Welcome Back, Kotter.  In many… Read more [More...]

Where Are They Now? Bills we kept our eye on

It was a busy session.  Last Friday marked the deadline for Governor Fallin to take final action on bills that landed on her desk. Now that sine die has passed, we thought it would be useful for OK Policy to… Read more [More...]