Tag: Oklahoma

Casual Friday–Redder than red, bluer than blue

If we need any more evidence for how divided politics is in our nation today, here’s a couple video clips. Here, Rep. Henry Waxman, Democrat from California, argues for his cap-and-trade bill on climate change, while Oklahoma Republican Rep. Mary… Read more [More...]

Nose to the Grindstone

For those of you who missed it earlier, the Grindstone Journal has reprinted my article on expanding coverage to the uninsured in Oklahoma that ran originally as an op-ed contribution to The Oklahoman. The Grindstone Journal is a recently-created, Oklahoma-based… Read more [More...]

Numbers you can't make sense of–the falling welfare caseload

If you look closely at our most recent Numbers You Need summary of Oklahoma economic and fiscal indicators, you’ll find a puzzle. On one hand, economic hardship is evident. Oklahoma’s unemployment rate continued its rapid ascent in April, climbing to… Read more [More...]

Hunger doesn't take a holiday

Recently I had the pleasure of being invited by the Oklahoma Food Security Committee to give a presentation on funding for food and nutrition programs in the stimulus bill.  The meeting featured a superb overview from Liz Tate of the… Read more [More...]

Hard budget choices remain

The Tulsa World ran our op-ed laying out the budget challenges that state agencies are now beginning to confront as the new fiscal year approaches: We won’t know until next June the full impact on public services or our health… Read more [More...]

Local government mandates–the bad news isn't that bad

As we reported last week, the 2009 legislative session was relatively calm for Oklahoma’s local governments. Last week’s post summarized the good news, including some greater control over governance and more land use planning tools. There is bad news, too.… Read more [More...]

Lottery numbers

There has been some discussion in recent days about the performance of the Oklahoma State Lottery, including this editorial from The Oklahoman, after the Lottery Commission adopted a budget for FY ’10 that projects $66.6 million in revenues for education… Read more [More...]

Guest blog submission: Protecting our natural resources must be a priority

From time to time, we will use the OK Policy blog to post submissions we receive from Oklahomans who have interesting perspectives on important policy issues for the state. This submission is from Clay Pope, Executive Director of the Oklahoma… Read more [More...]

Child abuse and neglect numbers moving in the right direction

We’re out with our latest Numbers You Need bulletin for June, tracking economic and fiscal trends in Oklahoma and the nation. While the bulletin focuses on monthly and quarterly data on jobs, inflation, work support programs, and the like, each… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma is not a poor state – we just continue to play one on TV

Back in March, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released 2008 data on state personal income, which is the most widely used measure of a state’s relative prosperity. We took note of it at the time in our April Numbers You… Read more [More...]