Topic: Budget & Tax

Oklahoma lottery’s contribution to education reaches new low

By: Gene Perry
October 21, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019
As an effort gears up to restore funding to education through a 1-cent sales tax, we’re already hearing more Oklahomans ask a common question: Why hasn’t the lottery fixed our education funding problems? In a post from last year, we… Read more [More...]

Back in time: The 1980s budget crisis and today’s (Capitol Updates)

By: Steve Lewis
October 9, 2015 // 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. You can sign up on his website to receive the Capitol Updates newsletter by email.… Read more [More...]

Our statement on the proposed ballot initiative to fund education with 1 cent sales tax increase

By: Gene Perry
October 2, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Oklahoma Policy Institute released the following statement on the proposal for a ballot initiative that would increase funding for common and higher education through a 1 cent increase in the state sales tax: Our public schools and colleges are the… Read more [More...]

Is Oklahoma headed for a revenue shortfall?

By: David Blatt
September 24, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019
The next legislative session is still four months off, and we’re nine long months out from the start of the next fiscal year. Yet concern is already mounting that the state’s protracted budget crisis is likely to get more severe.… Read more [More...]

Lawmakers to state agencies: “Don’t tell us what Oklahoma needs. Tell us what we can cut.” (Capitol Updates)

By: Steve Lewis
September 18, 2015 // 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. You can sign up on his website to receive the Capitol Updates newsletter by email.… Read more [More...]

Lawmakers are not done asking agencies to do more with less (Capitol Updates)

By: Steve Lewis
August 21, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 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. You can sign up on his website to receive the Capitol Updates newsletter by email.… Read more [More...]

Should Oklahoma put a tax on carbon?

By: Derek Wietelman
August 18, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Derek Wietelman is an OK Policy summer intern. He is an Oklahoma State University student pursuing a double major in statistics and political science, with minors in economics and environmental economics, politics, and policy. Last May, U.S. Senators Sheldon Whitehouse… Read more [More...]

Oklahoma’s ‘three-legged stool’ of tax incentive reform is incomplete (Guest post: Ryan Gentzler)

By: Ryan Gentzler
July 9, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Ryan Gentzler is an OK Policy Research Fellow and a Research Associate with the Early Childhood Education Institute. He recently completed his Master of Public Administration degree at the University of Oklahoma. After years of stalled reforms on tax incentives… Read more [More...]

Funding shortfalls motivate finding waste… but also ending important services (Capitol Updates)

By: Steve Lewis
July 2, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 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. You can sign up on his website to receive the Capitol Updates newsletter by email.… Read more [More...]

Two insider takes on the 2015 legislative session

By: Guest
July 1, 2015 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Editor’s note: We came across these two thoughtful takes on the 2015 session, with a particular emphasis on the budget, from Senate Republican Mike Mazzei and House Democrat Ben Loring. Their assessments offer some stark contrasts but also some surprising… Read more [More...]