Bad Brew (Guest Post: Erin Taylor)

Erin Taylor, PhD is a mother to five and a disability advocate living in Oklahoma City. Her previous guest post, “What I Didn’t Get From My Tax Cut,” ran in March. Like many advocates, I’m still recovering from the Capitol… Read more [More...]

FY 2017 Budget Highlights

Download the budget highlights as a pdf. OK Policy’s annual Budget Highlights issue brief is one of the most informative and accessible ways to track Oklahoma’s public spending. Today we’ve released the FY 2017 Budget Highlights, which includes a bullet… Read more [More...]

Highs and lows of Oklahoma’s 2016 legislative session

The 2016 session began with some high hopes and grave concerns given the state’s massive budget shortfall. Prior to session, OK Policy laid out our top priorities in the areas of budget and taxes, health care, education, criminal justice, economic… Read more [More...]

Big budget problems won’t be solved until parties find a way to work together (Capitol Updates)

Steve Lewis served as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1989-1991. He currently practices law in Tulsa and represents clients at the Capitol. You can sign up on his website to receive the Capitol Updates newsletter by email.… Read more [More...]

‘Behind Smoky Doors’: Last-minute bills breed public distrust

Each year, the Legislature appropriates a sum of money to the Department of Education in the General Appropriations bill for “programs and activities.” This line-item covers contributions to teachers’ retirement, early childhood education, alternative education, reading sufficiency, remedial programming, and… Read more [More...]

Where next year’s shortfall starts: Budget counts on $600-$750 million in one-time revenues

OK Policy’s analysis of the General Appropriations bill and budget documents released this week shows that far more than half of the additional revenues agreed to by legislative leaders and Gov. Fallin as part of the FY 2017 budget consists… Read more [More...]

Proposed budget will add to the cost of mental illness in Oklahoma

Terri White, Commissioner of the state Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (ODMHSAS), has frequently said that mental health has never been adequately funded in Oklahoma. The state ranks 44th in the nation for mental health spending per… Read more [More...]

Budget plan brings more bad news for Oklahoma seniors, children, & people with disabilities

Earlier this month, we warned that important protections for seniors, children, and Oklahomans with disabilities were crumbling because the Department of Human Services had already made “the easy cuts” and was now forced to make cuts that directly hurt our… Read more [More...]

Budget agreement leaves $243 million in Rainy Day Fund

The budget agreement announced today by legislative leaders and the Governor includes some $1.060 billion in additional revenue above what was certified by the Board of Equalization in February as available for the budget. This includes $200 million in transportation… Read more [More...]

The budget big picture and little picture

The budget agreement announced today by legislative leaders and the Governor proposes a total of $6.778 billion in state appropriated dollars for FY 2017.  This is a decrease of 5.1 percent from the initial FY 2016 budget and of 1.2… Read more [More...]