State coffers are overflowing for at several reasons.

In June, the state tax revenues were up 40% over June of 2020. But there is a good news/bad news aspect to the June statistics.

The good news is that the energy industry is growing, with a 305% percent increase of taxes paid to the state in gross production taxes. That’s good for state government but it is bad for high gasoline prices for consumers due to Biden’s war on oil and gas.

The good news is that income tax payments rose 73% from June 2020 to June 2021. But that can be partially explained by a delay in the tax filing deadline. And the tax revenue spike could be partially explained by a gigantic inflow of borrowed federal dollars for individuals and government since Biden because president. The bad news is that the federal government is borrowing trillions of dollars to buy votes and someday that money will have to be paid back.

So the good news is that the State of Oklahoma does not have a budget shortfall. The bad news is that all of the agency heads – and most politicians – are licking their chops in anticipation of budget windfalls. And it’s bad news that the Legislature and state agencies will give no thought to paying off debt when they are awash with funds – funds that won’t be there every year (or even next year).

Pay as you go and general fiscal responsibility is lost. It’s just too easy to spend someone else’s money. And when revenues are artificially ballooning, the result will be bad news.