Guest Blog (John F. Gajda): State budget cuts will impact people with developmental disabilities

From time to time, we use the OK Policy blog to post submissions we receive from Oklahomans who have interesting perspectives on important policy issues for the state. This entry is from John F. Gajda,  Executive Director of TARC, an… Read more [More...]

What's at stake: Public health budget cuts

While discussing the state of public health in Oklahoma with a House health appropriations subcommittee, Health Commissioner Terry Cline warned that “Oklahoma is about to become the public health joke of the country.” With Oklahoma standing at 49th in overall… Read more [More...]

What's at stake: Medicaid under the budget knife

OK Policy has argued repeatedly  that next year’s budget outlook, with shortfalls equal to cuts of 12 percent across all agencies of state government above those already enacted this year, threatens to have catastrophic consequences for the state’s economy, businesses,… Read more [More...]

Limiting oil and gas tax exemptions would help bring budget balance

In recent months, with the state confronting historic budget shortfalls for the coming fiscal year and critical services facing massive cuts, there has been growing attention paid to the vast array of exemptions, credits, deductions, and rebates known collectively as… Read more [More...]

Fact Sheets: Lottery, Gaming and Tobacco (2010)

In 2004, Oklahoma voters approved a series of measures that created the Oklahoma Education Lottery (SQ 705 & SQ 706), authorized and regulated gaming (SQ 712) and increased tobacco taxes (SQ 713) to generate new revenues to help fund education… Read more [More...]

Budget Cuts: The pain spreads broader and deeper

Last month, we surveyed some of the budget cuts that state agencies were being forced to implement as result of the state’s revenue shortfalls. Since then, the grim news continues to spread deeper into core programs, affecting major services like… Read more [More...]

Citizens for Tax Justice questions Oklahoman's defence of state income tax break

Last week, the Oklahoman published a “Tax Day” editorial addressing OK Policy’s recent contributions to the debate on the state budget crisis. They began by emphasizing our common ground: Along with the Oklahoma Policy Institute’s David Blatt, we’ve been urging… Read more [More...]

Classic Reruns: No-tax day

This is one of our most widely read and popular blog posts. It was written by Paul Shinn and initially ran on our blog on April 15, 2009. April 15. I’m not a fan of tax day. Who is? After… Read more [More...]

Revenues: Despite improvements, next year’s die is cast… unless the Legislature acts

Today’s announcement of the monthly General Revenue collections brought incontestable good news: State revenue collections in March topped prior year collections for the first time since December 2008 and the official estimate for a second consecutive month, State Treasurer Scott… Read more [More...]

Bridging the Gap (4): Controlling runaway tax credits

As Oklahoma faces record budget shortfalls, the threat of massive cuts that would slow the state’s economic recovery and, in the Governor’s words, “have irreparable and damaging effects on our state services infrastructure,” looms large. This post is the fourth … Read more [More...]