Report: Oklahoma's Revenue Shortfalls Worst in Nation

A new report calls the state&#39;s revenue shortfalls the worst in the nation. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.ncsl.org/?tabid=19250" target="_blank">Learn more about the report.</a>

Sunday, December 20th 2009, 10:46 pm

By: News 9


NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- State Treasurer Scott Meacham will give an economic outlook for the rest of the fiscal year and preliminary projections for 2011 Monday, but already revenue shortfalls are forcing agencies to trim costs month after month.

A new report is even saying the state's shortfalls are the worst in the nation. Oklahoma ranks No. 1 with Arizona falling close behind.

The National Conference of State Legislators said Oklahoma's shortfall, so far, is 18.5 percent which amounts to a shortfall of $577.5 million.

Learn more about the report.

State Lawmakers say this report is just further proof of Oklahoma's finances and simply put, Oklahoma is in a lot of trouble.

"But the problem is they should've been cutting more from 17 to 18 percent if they wanted to sustain through the rest of the year and instead they choose the easy way out. I guess they thought something magic was going to happen to the economy, I'm not quite sure," Rep. Mike Reynolds said.

With the continuing climb of the revenue shortfall and recent announcement of more agency funding cuts, some lawmakers said because the gas market is flat and there's currently an over production of gas, the report is no surprise.

"This is the worst crisis since the Depression and 1982, back when we had that oil and gas problem. In that era it was just oil and gas. Now the entire economy has gone flat and we're not going to be able to come out of this quickly. It's going to be painful. That's why I feel we all need to work together and solve these problems," said Rep. Richard Morrissette.

Both state representatives do not expect state finances to recover any time soon, and they believe it will get much worse before they'll be any sign of improvement.

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