Topic: Budget & Tax

This ain't over yet: Outlook and recommondations for navigating the ongoing state fiscal crisis

By: David Blatt
October 7, 2010 // Updated: May 1, 2019
This week OK Policy distributed a 4-page memo on the state budget to all candidates for state offices, which we have now released to a broader audience. The memo is intended to offer policymakers a clearer understanding of the budget… Read more [More...]

Candidate Memo: The State Budget – Outlook and Recommendations

By: Oklahoma Policy Institute
October 4, 2010 // Updated: May 2, 2019
In early October, OK Policy distributed and released a memo to Oklahoma candidates and elected officials on the state budget. The memo was intended to provide a concise summary of our analysis of the state’s fiscal situation, and to suggest… Read more [More...]

Has common education been a budget priority?

By: David Blatt
// Updated: May 2, 2019
One of the more contentious skirmishes in the battle over SQ 744 concerns the question of whether, in the absence of a constitutional amendment basing common education funding on a constitutionally-entrenched formula, Oklahoma’s elected officials have neglected K-12 funding. Supporters… Read more [More...]

State revenue forecasts: Looking backward

By: Paul Shinn
September 15, 2010 // Updated: May 1, 2019
Last year at this time, OK Policy began a revenue forecasting project. Our efforts stemmed from the limitations of official revenue forecasting efforts, which are limited to two annual forecasts prepared for the Board of Equalization, issued in December and… Read more [More...]

SQ 744: Whichever ways revenues go, education spending must go up

By: David Blatt
September 13, 2010 // Updated: May 2, 2019
For anyone who thinks that balancing the state budget in the midst of an economic downturn and declining revenue collections isn’t a tough enough challenge already, just wait to see what happens if Oklahoma voters approve State Question 744. Because… Read more [More...]

Revenue from voter-approved "sin taxes" grew in FY 10, but pace is slowing

By: David Blatt
September 1, 2010 // Updated: May 2, 2019
In 2004, Oklahoma voters approved a series of measures intended to raise new revenues for education and health care through a state lottery (SQ 705 and 706), gaming compacts (SQ 712), and increased tobacco taxes (SQ 713).  OK Policy has… Read more [More...]

Crisis or correction? Exploring the sharp swings in state spending

By: David Blatt
August 26, 2010 // Updated: May 1, 2019
The recent history of state appropriations, displayed here from our FY ’11 Budget Highlights fact sheet, shows a  series of successive ups and downs: We see that the state appropriated budget for the current year, FY ’11, is 5.8 percent… Read more [More...]

Limiting itemized deductions would improve the fairness and adequacy of the state income tax

By: David Blatt
August 25, 2010 // Updated: May 2, 2019
Earlier this year, we called attention to one of the stranger loopholes in the Oklahoma tax code, the case of the “double deduction” of state income taxes.  Federal tax law allows taxpayers who itemize their deductions to claim a deduction… Read more [More...]

New Report Urges Reform of Itemized Deductions

By: Oklahoma Policy Institute
August 23, 2010 // Updated: May 2, 2019
An August 2010 Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy report looks at how the group of tax breaks known as “itemized deductions” cost states hundreds of millions of dollars each year while providing no benefit to the great majority of… Read more [More...]

State revenue glass: Half-full or half-empty?

By: David Blatt
August 10, 2010 // Updated: May 1, 2019
Treasurer Scott Meacham today announced that General Revenue (GR) collections for the first month of the new state fiscal year, FY ’11, came in 9.9 percent above the prior year and 11.9 percent above the official certified estimate. The sales… Read more [More...]