Tag: Stimulus

Why total spending has gone up as budgets are cut

OK Policy has spent a lot of time focusing on the real and continuing damage caused by repeated state budget cuts over the past three years, as well as the fact that state tax collections are at historic lows. Meanwhile,… 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...]

If you think this is bad…Federal fiscal relief funds averted budget doomsday

The state’s deep and prolonged budget crisis has taken a serious toll on public services in Oklahoma.  We have seen rate cuts to providers of community-based health services, elimination of violence prevention programs for at-risk youth, closures of facilities for… Read more [More...]

Enhanced Medicaid match extension would help state budget and low-income families

One of the most important provisions of the stimulus bill passed by Congress last February was the assistance provided to beleaguered state budgets in the form of enhanced federal matching rates for Medicaid. Now, as Oklahoma and other states remained… Read more [More...]

Saved by the net: Food assistance programs help mitigate recession’s impact

This week we released the November issue of Numbers You Need (PDF), our monthly look at key data on the state’s economy  and budget. As we reported in the bulletin, one of the clearest signs of the depth and length… Read more [More...]

Summer re-run: Domestic violence programs provide shelter from the storm

Note: Occasionally we are re-running blog posts on topical subjects that you may have missed the first time around. Last week, the Tulsa World reported that DVIS (Domestic Violence Interventions Services) of Tulsa has been awarded a $426,335 grant from… Read more [More...]

Is spending the easy part? Stimulus transparency is opaque

As the debate about the speed and impact of stimulus spending rages on, Good Jobs First is taking on the less glamorous but equally important task of assessing accountability in state spending of funds from the stimulus bill (more formally,… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma's new state budget–the first word

Just a day after Governor Brad Henry signed the state budget for FY ’10, Oklahoma Policy Institute released its annual budget review. And the new fiscal year, which starts July 1, promises to be an interesting one: all agencies face… Read more [More...]

Federal grants in Oklahoma–the whole picture

Federal stimulus money has been in the news nationally and in Oklahoma. It has expanded or stabilized a wide range of public services. The recently-completed state budget for FY’10 used $641 million of stimulus funding to make up for over… Read more [More...]

Stimulus Funds – There but for the Grace of Congress…

It is clear that the $7.2 billion FY ’10 budget agreement reached by legislative leaders and the Governor will lead to a tough and painful year ahead as agencies struggle to address increased costs and growing caseloads on flat or… Read more [More...]