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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Oklahoma Policy Institute released the following statement in response to the state budget deal announced by lawmakers:
Lawmakers have not risen to the challenge of a historic budget shortfall. While this budget deal may prevent further cuts to common education…
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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.…
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By:
Gene Perry
May 20, 2016 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Oklahoma Policy Institute issued the following statement in response to the House of Representatives giving final passage to SB 1604, which makes the state Earned Income Tax Credit non-refundable, and SB 1606, which ends the “double deduction”:
The legislators who…
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By:
Gene Perry
May 19, 2016 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Oklahoma Policy Institute released the following statement in response to the standoff in the Legislature over a tobacco tax increase:
Accepting available federal dollars for health care and rolling back an income tax cut that should not be happening in…
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No state agency has escaped budget cuts unscathed. For many Oklahomans, the effects are most visible in their schools and communities, as their children lose teachers and their friends and neighbors lose needed health care services.
Less visible is the…
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With less than two weeks until the end of the Legislative session, there’s still no agreement on the state budget. The stakes are exceptionally high: unless legislators agree on ways to close the budget gap, deep cuts are certain to…
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