Budget & Tax
Brandon Dutcher | February 11, 2009
Too much manpower
Brandon Dutcher
Oklahoma's budget hole is now $900 million, The Oklahoman's Michael McNutt reports today, adding that State Treasurer Scott Meacham "could not guarantee no state jobs would be cut, although he is hoping any loss of state manpower would be accomplished by not filling vacant positions."
Oklahoma's ratio of government employment to private-sector employment is the fifth-highest in the country. Bringing this ratio in line with the national average would have saved Oklahoma taxpayers $2.8 billion last year.
Brandon Dutcher
Senior Vice President
Brandon Dutcher is OCPA’s senior vice president. Originally an OCPA board member, he joined the staff in 1995. Dutcher received his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Oklahoma. He received a master’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in public policy from Regent University. Dutcher is listed in the Heritage Foundation Guide to Public Policy Experts, and is editor of the book Oklahoma Policy Blueprint, which was praised by Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman as “thorough, well-informed, and highly sophisticated.” His award-winning articles have appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, WORLD magazine, Forbes.com, Mises.org, The Oklahoman, the Tulsa World, and 200 newspapers throughout Oklahoma and the U.S. He and his wife, Susie, have six children and live in Edmond.