Mary Fallin is Oklahoma’s Governor and Chief Economic Influencer

Background

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Gov. Mary Fallin

Oklahoma’s Governor is the head of state and the elected representative with the single biggest role in shaping economic and budget policy.

Mary Fallin is Oklahoma’s 27th Governor. She entered office in January 2011 and her first term ends January 2015.

Fallin served as Lt. Governor from 1995-2007 and represented Oklahoma’s 5th District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007-2011.

The Governor prepares the state budget, which must be approved by the legislature. The governor has line-item veto powers, which can only be overridden by a super-majority vote in the legislature.

Many of the Governor’s appointees directly influence state economic, financial and budgetary issues.

In 2011, Gov. Fallin was face with a roughly $400 million deficit. Her $6.3 billion FY 2012 state budget included 3 percent cuts to Education, Health, Human Services and Public Safety and up to 5 percent in cuts to other agencies.

Gov. Fallin is a proponent of reducing or eliminating the personal income tax and has pledged efforts to restructure and reform the state tax system.

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May 18, 2012

How Lawmakers Plan to Pay for the Income Tax Cut

Republican lawmakers and Gov. Mary Fallin have agreed on a plan to cut Oklahoma’s individual income tax rate. The agreement would cut the top personal rate to 4.8 percent from 5.25 percent next year, includes an additional tax cut tied to a revenue growth trigger in 2015, and simplifies the tax code by reducing the [...]

April 30, 2012

Steep Income Tax Reduction Won’t Happen This Year, Gov. Fallin Says

Gov. Mary Fallin’s proposed steep reduction of the state’s top individual income tax rate won’t happen this year. This is the first time Fallin has publicly acknowledged what state lawmakers have been signaling for weeks, the Associated Press reports. “There doesn’t seem to be the appetite in the state Legislature to make a huge, significant [...]

April 9, 2012

Governor’s Biz Survey Results: What Surprised Us

Business is a big deal in Oklahoma, and political talking points hinge on discussions over what policies will bring new ones here, and what practices might help existing ones expand. To that end, Gov. Mary Fallin and the Department of Commerce launched a website to survey Oklahoma employers about what’s hurting and helping business growth. [...]

March 1, 2012

The Cause and Cure of Oklahoma’s Rural Doctor Deficiency Might be Money

Bob Abernathy has been a physician for about 30 years. He grew up in the country, and enjoys his life and medical practice in Cordell, a town of about 3,000 in the western part of the state. Two of his sons are in medical school, but neither wants to follow their father’s path. AUDIO BY [...]

February 23, 2012

What is Oklahoma’s Government ‘Core,’ and What Agencies Can We Eat?

“Modernization,” “streamlining” and the search for “efficiencies” are code words for cuts, and a lot of Oklahomans would be happier with a lot less government. Lawmakers echo their constituents’ sentiments. The trick, they say, is to strip the state government to its most fundamental framework. But what, exactly, are “core services?”

February 22, 2012

Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems for Many State Agencies

Yesterday, state lawmakers learned they’d have an additional $47 million for appropriations. The money should be spent, but not on the state itself, say Republican lawmakers who want to use the money to reduce Oklahoma’s personal income tax. “While it’s great news that the state has more revenue than expected, it should not be seen [...]

February 20, 2012

AP: Gov. Fallin’s Plan Would Phase-Out Income Tax by Wiping Out Popular Deductions

The final language of Gov. Mary Fallin’s income tax phase-out plan has not made its way into a bill, but details are starting to emerge. A review of Fallin’s plan by the state Tax Commission, which was obtained by the Associated Press through a state Open Records request, shows that the state would eliminate $888 [...]

February 13, 2012

In the Income Tax Debate, ‘Growth’ Depends on How and What You Count

Hype surrounding no-income tax states like Texas is based upon misleading population data, opponents say.

The Great State Income Tax Debate is all about economic growth, and one way to measure a state’s losses and gains is to count jobs, output and people. Many such measurements are tied to population. And some opponents say Gov. Mary Fallin’s income tax phase-out plan is based on a “highly misleading analysis” of population [...]

February 10, 2012

Debt Rating Unchanged, Income Tax Cut Plan Partially to Blame

Moody’s won’t lower Oklahoma’s cost of borrowing because of worries about the state’s financial future. One of the New York bond rating agency’s concern: efforts to eliminate Oklahoma’s personal income tax. Moody’s also worries about energy industry volatility and Oklahoma’s constitutional limit on raising taxes, which — under State Question 640 — can only be [...]

February 8, 2012

Visualizing the State of the State Address

Here’s a different take on Monday’s State of the State address by Gov. Mary Fallin. The 50 most-frequent words in her prepared remarks are shown above. The bigger the word, the more it was used. Hit the jump to compare the 2012 address to last year’s.