Dealing with revenue shortfalls–this year and beyond

Last week, State Treasurer Scott Meacham unveiled the the state revenue report for June, 2009. Revenue was below the previous year, for both  the last  month and the fiscal year as a whole, as we reported earlier. It’s natural to… Read more [More...]

Fewer Exceptions – Tobacco tax revenues rise while sales fall

Five years after voters approved a State Question increasing the tax on tobacco, there is good news to report: over the course of the recently completed fiscal year (FY ’09), tobacco sales in Oklahoma declined by 7.2 percent over the… Read more [More...]

Revenue figures: A tale of two half-years

Treasurer Scott Meacham today released revenue collections for the final month of the just-completed fiscal year, FY ’09. As was widely expected, the numbers were dismal: June General Revenue (GR) collections came in 30.1 percent below last year and 26.2… Read more [More...]

Tobacco Taxes

This spreadsheet provides annual information on Oklahoma tobacco taxes since passage of SQ 713 including: Total stamp sales by tribal and non-tribal retailers; Total revenues from tribal and non-tribal sales; Annual allocation of revenues by funding purpose.… Read more [More...]

Making Oklahoma taxes fairer–from our Online Guide

We’re getting closer to launching the OK Policy Online Guide to Oklahoma Budget and Taxes, a comprehensive resource for understanding state and local government finance in Oklahoma. Most of the guide is factual in nature–how we collect tax dollars, how… Read more [More...]

Starving the Beast: Government in lean times

As we’ve discussed in various blog posts and issue briefs, most state agencies received basically flat funding or were dealt budget cuts of 5 to 7 percent for the new fiscal year beginning July 1st, even as inflation leads to… Read more [More...]

Updates from Stimulusland

OK Policy is pleased to launch a new monthly Stimulus Update publication. Each month we will take a quick look at one set of federal stimulus (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA) programs. Each issue includes a short review… 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...]

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...]

Numbers You Need: Key Oklahoma Economic and Budget Trends

Numbers You Need is a monthly publication from OK Policy that presents key data on the state’s economy, work force, human services, and budget in one concise easy-to-read fact sheet.  Each issue of Numbers You Need provides monthly updated figures,… Read more [More...]