Numbers You Need: Bad year, good decade for state per capital personal income

Last month, the Bureau of Economic Analysis released its preliminary report on state per capital personal income for 2009. Personal income is the income received by all persons from all sources, and is the most commonly used measure of state… Read more [More...]

Guest Blog (Sara Waggoner): Can emergency food programs continue to meet growing needs?

From time to time, we use the OK Policy blog to post submissions we receive from Oklahomans who have interesting perspectives on important policy issues for the state. This entry is from Sara Waggoner, Executive Director of the Community Food… Read more [More...]

ASPIRE-ing to lifetime savings and building assets

For many of us, the economic events of the past two years have eroded our savings and heightened our sense of economic fragility. Yet for many low- and moderate-income households, savings have long been out of reach. The 2009-10 Assets… Read more [More...]

Lighter Side: A Solution to the School Funding Crunch a 4th Grader Could Love

Last night my family was discussing the tough times facing public schools in Tulsa and elsewhere. My son, Noah, who’s in the 4th grade, offered one of his favorite jokes (from Jokes for Children, Marguerite Kohl and Frederica Young, 1963):… Read more [More...]

Asset poverty data shows many have no cushion to fall back on

As the economic downturn continues to take its toll in Oklahoma and across the nation, how financially prepared are families to deal with extended periods of unemployment and underemployment. Newly-released data (PDF) from CFED that focuses on “asset poverty” confirms… Read more [More...]

State Unemployment Insurance fund feeling the strain but still holding up

A stark indicator of the extent of Oklahoma’s job losses over the past year is the state’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund account. Going into 2009, the Trust Fund enjoyed a very healthy balance of $824 million. Now, twelve months… Read more [More...]

Tom Joad dances on

Kurt Hochenauer, whose OkieFunk: Notes from the Outback blog provides consistently sharp and perceptive commentary on Oklahoma political issues, recently had a nice piece in the Oklahoma Gazette putting the recent rise in poverty in the state in its historical… Read more [More...]

Nothing but a strand of the net: One in 37 Oklahomans has food stamps, nothing else

The New York Times this weekend ran an important feature on one important and disturbing sign of the impact of the recession – the large and growing population of food stamp recipients that report zero household income: About six million… Read more [More...]

What does it take? Oklahoma Self-Sufficiency Standard calculates what families need to get by

How much does an Oklahoma family have to earn to meet its basic needs? What are the major costs of a family budget, and how do these vary for different family types and in different parts of the state? How… Read more [More...]

2009 Oklahoma Self-Sufficiency Standard

The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Oklahoma 2009 calculates the amount of income Oklahoma families need to meet their basic needs. The report was prepared by Dr. Diana Pearce of the Cenetr for Women’s Welfare at the University of Washington for the… Read more [More...]