DT district to get more than twice If the $639,000,000.00 tax increase passes on November 12, the money for streets will not be spent equally around the City of Tulsa. In fact, Council District 4 is slated to get more than double what will be spent in Districts 3, 5, 6 and 9 (see related…
Lawmakers want to know how tax money is spent Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill to improve government transparency in a ceremony at the State Capitol last week. Senate Bill 271 was authored by Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, and Rep. Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow. The bill requires all state agencies to annually disclose and rank…
2018’s historic tax hike is helping set revenue records Despite the recent bad weather, state revenues rose again in May by more than 10 percent – a record high – from May of 2018, according to State Treasurer Randy McDaniel. May revenues totaled $1.1 billion, up $102.7 million, or 10.6 percent, from May 2018. Individual…
The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed a measure creating a legislative office to evaluate agency budgets and programs for lawmakers. Senate Bill 1 would create the Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency (LOFT) within the existing Legislative Service Bureau (LSB). The LSB is a shared office between the House of Representatives and the Senate that currently…
Gov. Kevin Stitt’s budget sets aside $200 million in savings, pumps an extra $203 million into public education and gives teachers an annual pay hike of $1,220. The House passed the budget on Friday and now it goes to the Senate. The budget has an additional $157.7 million for common education (K-12) and $28 million…
If you are a retired public school teacher, you should thank the Republicans in the Legislature for making sure you retirement check is there every month. In 2009, after 100 years of Democrat leadership, the teacher retirement fund had 49.8 percent of the amount of money needed to pay every teacher who was eligible to…
Mayor G.T. Bynum has revealed his new city budget, with is $845,800,000.00 and includes $100,000 for the “first phase” of an investigation of the possibility of mass graves from the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot. That riot was May 31-June 1, 1921, and dozens of deaths were confirmed while most of the Greenwood Business District was…
Gov. Kevin Stitt has issued a report on the progress has made during his first 100 days in office. Stitt signed into law legislation that forces five of the 12 largest state agencies to answer to the executive branch. Past governors have produced blue-ribbon studies showing that responsibility and power are spread so far and…
In a bipartisan, unanimous vote, the Senate Appropriations Committee last week advanced a House teacher pay raise bill . House Bill 1780 by Speaker Charles McCall would implement a $1,200 teacher pay raise bill at a cost of $70 million annually. President Pro Tempore Greg Treat, R-Oklahoma City, is the Senate author of the bill….
Monthly revenues have soared for state government for every month since March of 2017 and that trend continued in March of 2016, according to State Treasurer Randy McDaniel. March receipts of $1.1 billion are 10.3 percent higher than collections from the same month of last year. Receipts from the past 12 months, at $13.3 billion,…