By:
David Blatt
June 12, 2019 // Updated: June 19, 2019
Thanks to last year's revenue increases and a strong economy, fueled especially by booming oil and gas revenues, lawmakers entered the 2019 session looking at a large budget surplus It was clear from the start that tax policy would be far less prominent and contentious than in past years.
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By:
Gene Perry
June 6, 2019 // Updated: June 7, 2019
For a second year in a row, the budget approved by Oklahoma lawmakers increases funding significantly from the year before. However, for much of state government, there is still a long way to go before Oklahoma restores funding to where…
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Without accounting for inflation, next year’s appropriations will be the largest in state history, surpassing the $7.567 billion budget in FY 2019.
When adjusted for inflation, next year’s budget remains 10.2 percent below the budget of FY 2009 and 14.9 percent less than the peak year of FY 2007.
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By:
David Blatt
June 5, 2019 // Updated: February 16, 2022
Strong oil and gas tax collections, due in substantial part to lawmakers’ willingness in 2017 and 2018 to restore the gross production tax to higher rates, are a major contributor to the state’s fiscal health.
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By:
Paul Shinn
May 29, 2019 // Updated: May 27, 2021
Overall, it's best to think of this budget as a second step on what needs to be a long journey. When adjusted for inflation, this budget is still 10.1 percent below the FY 2009 level. Over half of state agencies still have lower budgets than they did in FY 2009 without accounting for inflation.
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By:
David Blatt
April 16, 2019 // Updated: July 11, 2019
A new research brief prepared by Dr. Kent Olson, Professor of Economics Emeritus at Oklahoma State University, examines the effect that passage of HB 1010xx and other recent revenue measures will have on the state's long-term fiscal outlook. He finds that these revenue measures reduce the state's budget shortfalls over the next decade, but a significant and growing funding gap will remain in the absence of new revenues.
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By:
David Blatt
March 7, 2019 // Updated: January 6, 2020
Our healthy fiscal outlook provides a great opportunity to build on the progress made last year by making sizeable investments in critical needs that have long gone unmet. However, Governor Kevin Stitt, in his FY 2020 budget blueprint, suggested going in a different direction. The Governor’s approach would tilt the budget too heavily towards savings at the expense of key investments that are urgently needed to promote Oklahoma’s prosperity and well-being.
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For the past five years Oklahoma has led the nation for the largest per-pupil cuts to education funding since the Great Recession, according to an annual report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP). This year's report, released today, finds that Oklahoma has finally moved out of the bottom spot in per pupil formula funding cuts thanks to last year’s teacher pay raise funded by the Legislature on the eve of the statewide teacher walkout. However, despite these gains, Oklahoma remains well below pre-Recession levels in per-pupil funding and still has cut more than any state other than Texas.
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Download this fact sheet as a printable pdf here.
Read about the rest of OK Policy’s 2019 Legislative Policy Priorities here.
Oklahomans look to our state government to fund a wide range of critical investments – schools, roads and bridges,…
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By:
David Blatt
January 10, 2019 // Updated: May 1, 2019
After a decade of ongoing shortfalls and repeated cuts to core services, Oklahoma’s finances are finally in recovery. Revenues are growing and lawmakers are expected to have substantially more money for next year’s budget, according to initial projections that were…
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