By:
Steve Lewis
December 15, 2017 // Updated: May 1, 2019
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.
Chinese water torture is a process in which water is slowly dripped onto a person’s forehead allegedly…
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By:
Gene Perry
December 14, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
[Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that nothing else was on the ballot with SQ 640. It shared the ballot with the Presidential primary election in 1992.]
In March 1992, Oklahoma voters approved State Question 640. It passed…
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As Oklahoma’s 2018 legislative session approaches, the state continues to struggle with huge and chronic budget shortfalls and an inability to make the critical investments needed to ensure our prosperity and well-being. We are seeing real and encouraging signs of…
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By:
David Blatt
December 11, 2017 // Updated: May 1, 2019
For eight long weeks this fall, Oklahoma lawmakers met in special session, trying to produce a budget agreement that would fill an immediate funding hole for three state agencies and produce a longer-term solution to continuing budget shortfalls. That attempt…
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By:
Gene Perry
December 4, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Download this fact sheet as a pdf here.
Oklahoma faces a large budget hole this year and a larger one next year.
The state Supreme Court in August struck down a cigarette fee that was expected to provide $214 million…
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By:
David Blatt
November 29, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
The United States Senate is poised to vote as early as this week on a major tax overhaul bill. Although tax reform is the highest priority of Congressional Republicans and the White House, crafting legislation capable of securing a 51-vote…
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By:
Gene Perry
November 17, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Oklahomans have learned the hard way what happens when you enact massive tax cuts without saying how you will pay for them. In the mid-2000s, we began slashing our top income tax rate. When Oklahoma first started cutting taxes, the…
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By:
Gene Perry
November 14, 2017 // Updated: May 2, 2019
In 2016, Oklahoma lawmakers were struggling to pass a state budget amid a massive revenue shortfall. Sound familiar?
One of the measures taken by lawmakers in that year to fill their shortfall was making Oklahoma’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)…
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By:
David Blatt
November 13, 2017 // Updated: May 1, 2019
Here is our assessment of the budget unveiled on Nov. 13th by House and Senate leaders. UPDATE: The new General Appropriations bill, HB 1019X, has now passed the House and Senate and awaits action by the Governor.
Lawmakers had plenty…
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By:
David Blatt
November 10, 2017 // Updated: May 1, 2019
A week ago we wrote: “At this point (barring further surprises), special session is likely to conclude with a new budget that averts the doomsday scenario facing the three health and social services agencies but does not address Oklahoma’s chronic…
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