Oklahoma

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    Budget timeline: Annual 

    Fiscal Year starts: July 1

    The current state budget can be found here.

    Find the legislative session calendar here.

    Find the current legislative leaders here.

     

    Ok Gov Mary FallinGov. Mary Fallin
    Office of Governor Mary Fallin
    State Capitol Building
    2300 Lincoln Blvd., Suite 212
    Oklahoma City, OK 73105
    Phone: (405) 521-2342
    Fax: (405) 521-3353

     

     

     

    Preston Doerflinger, Director
    Office of State Finance
    2300 N. Lincoln, Room 122
    State Capitol Building
    Oklahoma City, OK 73105-4801
    Phone (405) 521-2141
    Fax: (405) 521-3902
    http://www.osf.state.ok.us/

     

     

    Want a more robust, long-term look at your state's fiscal health, beyond the budget? There are two parts: Click here for the FY2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report compiled by the state government, and click here for information on the state's pension liabilities.   

     

    Oklahoma is required to pass a "balanced budget."  62 Okl. St.  § 41.33 requires a budget message outlining the fiscal policy of the State for the biennium and describing the important features of the budget plan.  This plan provides a summary of the budget setting forth aggregate figures of proposed revenues and expenditures and the balanced relations between the proposed revenues and expenditures and the total expected income and other means of financing the budget compared with the corresponding figures for the preceding biennium.  Additionally, Article 10, Section 23 of the Constitution sets regulations "to ensure a balanced annual budget".  The Oklahoma Budgetary Comparison Schedules within its annual report indicated the State ran budget deficits (negative net transactions) for each of the years studied.  State law forbids the carrying over of a deficit from one year to the next.

     

    The Oklahoma Constitution limits appropriations to the appropriations limit from the previous year, adjusted for inflation and the change in population.  This is commonly called "budgeting for fiscal discipline," and is a way to keep the growth of appropriations from outpacing the growth in revenues from year to year.

     

    The State has four governmental funds: the General Fund, the Commissioners of the Land Office Permanent Fund, the Department of Wildlife Conservation Permanent Fund, and the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Permanent Fund.  The State's annual budget is prepared on the cash basis utilizing encumbrance accounting.  Only the General Fund is budgeted.  Although information on the Budgetary Comparison Schedules is presented neatly and efficiently, actual and budget figures are hardly in sync since only one fund is budgeted.  [from the Institute for Truth in Accounting]

     

    Find the state's bond ratings here.

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    Oklahoma Council
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    • Pensions :

    • HEADLINES: Oklahoma

      OK governor vetoes pension reform bill

      Watchdog.org | by Patrick McGuigan | May 15, 2013

      Gov. Mary Fallin wanted to consolidate Oklahoma's half-dozen employee pension funds, but did not happen this year.

    • HEADLINES

      GAO finds growing state, local fiscal gap with Medicaid to blame

      by Cory Eucalitto | May 1, 2013

      Closing the gap to achieve fiscal balance over 50 years will require "action to be taken today and maintained for each year equivalent to a 14.2 percent reduction in the state and local government sector's current expenditures." 

    • View All Oklahoma articles

    • Unions :

    • HEADLINES

      Right To Work states still have less debt

      by Cory Eucalitto | December 10, 2012

      Michigan, home to unions like the United Auto Workers, will become the 24th state to protect individual workers' rights through Right To Work legislation, giving workers the freedom to choose whether or not they wish to belong to an organized labor union. The other 23 states have lower debt than those without such laws.

    • HEADLINES

      Huge government pension gap sparks backlash

      CNNMoney.com | by Chris Isidore | June 7, 2012

      Pensions and other retirement benefits have become a multi-trillion-dollar black hole for state and local government budgets.

    • Solutions:

      How Reality-Based Budgeting Can Permanently Resolve State Budget Gaps

      State Budget Solutions | by Bob Williams | November 7, 2012

      State Budget Solutions recommends that state legislators take action in 2013 to resolve the serious state financial crises by changing their focus from inputs to outcomes by redesigning budgets from the ground up based on priorities and performance.

    • Solutions:

      How to Prevent Future Pension Crises

      by Cory Eucalitto | November 1, 2012

      The time for state and local governments to offer defined contribution retirement plans that protect both taxpayer dollars and public employee retirement security is now.

    • Solutions:

      State Lawmaker’s Guide to Evaluating Medicaid Expansion Projections

      The Heritage Foundation | by Edmund F. Haislmaier and Drew Gonshorowski | October 17, 2012

      Supporters of Obamacare claim that expanding Medicaid will entail little to no cost to state governments, since the federal government will fund the vast majority of the additional costs. Indeed, some analyses project states achieving savings from adopting the expansion. However, state lawmakers should be wary of accepting such analyses at face value.

    • Solutions:

      Medicaid Is Broken—Let the States Fix It

      The Wall Street Journal | by Paul Howard and Russell Sykes | October 15, 2012

      Block-granting Medicaid is the best way to deliver better, cost-effective care to the most vulnerable Americans.

    • Solutions:

      The Case for Reform: Prisons

      Right on Crime | August 1, 2012

      Prisons are supremely important, but they are also a supremely expensive government program, and thus prison systems must be held to the highest standards of accountability.

    • View All Solutions