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How policy decisions affect Oklahoma’s workforce and economy.

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December 27, 2012

America Can Fix Its Crumbling Water Infrastructure, If You Help Pay For It

An sludge pump built in the 1930s still operates at the Konawa, Okla. wastewater treatment plant.

New Deal programs in the 1930s and federal construction grants through the ’70s helped build America’s vast water infrastructure. Now the rapidly aging treatment plants and pipelines need to be replaced, but the generous programs of the past are long gone. Ratepayers will ultimately have to shoulder a large portion of the $1 trillion burden. [...]

December 13, 2012

After Years Of Delay, DEQ Submits Lake Thunderbird Pollution Study

Lake Thunderbird is Norman's main source of drinking water, and classified as 'impaired' by the EPA.

Lake Thunderbird, the main drinking water source for Norman, is classified as “impaired” by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. So, the state Department of Environmental Quality is required to submit a report on how polluted Thunderbird can be while still meeting EPA standards, known as ‘total maximum daily loads.’ But as The Norman Transcript‘s Joy Hampton reports, it [...]

December 10, 2012

Oklahoma’s Water Future Depends On Cheap, State-Backed Loans

Broken Arrow Engineering Director Kenny Schwab says the city's water currently has to be piped in from 30 miles away.

How important are the Oklahoma Water Resources Board’s financing programs for local water projects across the state? Since 1985, close to $3 billion in low-interest loans have been secured for projects ranging from $80,000 for a water tower in rural Custer County, to $65 million for a new water treatment plant in Broken Arrow. For [...]

December 6, 2012

How Oklahoma’s Credit Rating Affects Your Tap Water

New construction surrounds the rusting remnants of Broken Arrow's old water treatment plant.

Building new water systems is expensive, so Oklahoma has a program to help communities pay for these projects. Here’s how it works: Cities and towns apply for a low-interest loan through the Oklahoma Water Resources Board. The state has a better credit rating than most cities do. So going through the state gets them a [...]

December 3, 2012

Oklahoma Governments Pay $2.19 Billion a Year to Incentivize Private Companies

Oklahoma spends at least $2.19 billion a year on economic incentive programs for private companies, according to a state-by-state analysis by the New York Times. That’s more than one-third of Oklahoma’s state budget or roughly $584 per Oklahoman each year. Nationwide, the Times found thousands of incentives worth more than $80 billion to private companies. The paper’s [...]

November 21, 2012

Oklahoma’s Top 5 Local Water Priorities Now That State Question 764 Is Law

Water Tower

The Oklahoma Water Resources Board’s Financial Assistance Program helps local governments secure loans to make water infrastructure improvements. Since the program began in 1985, nearly $3 billion has been provided to counties and municipalities to build wells, improve sewer systems, install generators, and a host of other water projects. The program allows localities to use [...]

November 16, 2012

Ken Burns’ Dust Bowl: How the ‘Dirty Thirties’ Changed Policy in Oklahoma

A farmer's son in 1936, standing amid the Dust Bowl landscape of Cimarron County in Oklahoma's panhandle.

Arthur Rothstein / Library of Congress A farmer’s son in 1936, standing amid the Dust Bowl landscape of Cimarron County in Oklahoma’s panhandle. Ken Burns’ new documentary on the Dust Bowl premieres Sunday, and Oklahoma is the backdrop for much of the two-part, four-hour television epic. But while the ecological and economic devastation had a [...]

November 15, 2012

Too Much, Too Fast: Why Vision2 Failed and What’s Next

Both proposals went down on election night, but voters likely haven't seen the last of Vision2.

The polling ahead of this year’s election was mostly accurate. But one Oklahoma poll was among those that missed the mark badly when, just days before the election, it showed Tulsa County’s Vision2 tax extension headed for victory. Close to 60 percent of respondents said they were in favor of Arkansas River dam upgrades and [...]

November 14, 2012
November 9, 2012

Supporters of Failed Vision2 Looking for Another Way to Improve the Airport

Tulsa County voters soundly rejected Vision2, but supporters of improving the city-owned airport-industrial complex have vowed to find another way. “We cannot stop this process,” Vision2 co-chairman Don Walker tells the Tulsa World. “If the voters did not like this proposal, we as citizens are going to have to find another way to reinvest in [...]

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