Budget & Tax

A look at the state budget

February 27, 2017

Curtis Shelton

With the legislative session underway, the debate over the State budget begins heating up. In order to get some perspective, we look back at recent State spending. Since 2007 Oklahoma has increased state spending by 9.75%. Government spent $410,000,000 more in 2016 than 2013 even amid a sharp decline in the state’s economy due to a drop in the price of oil.

State appropriations are money that has been set aside by the Legislature for a specific state agency. These appropriations have made up around 40% of government spending annually for the last several years. The chart below shows the total appropriations level for Oklahoma since 2000. During this current drop in the price of oil appropriation levels fell by a small margin of $42 million since 2014.

Nearly 90% of Oklahoma’s appropriations are tied up in ten core services. Last year these ten categories made up 90.24% of state appropriations. Common and higher education routinely appear at the top of the list with the two categories combined making up roughly 50% of all state appropriations since 2000. Since the recent economic downturn common education spending has increased by 1.79% and higher education has been cut 3.96%. The area that has seen the biggest cut has been the Department of Public Safety with an 80.77% cut whereas the area with the largest increase in spending has been the Department of Human Services with a 6.14% increase.