State's Revenue Woes

Later today the revenue report for October's results for Oklahoma should be made public. In September, general revenues fell about 30% from the same time last year. Experts are blaming low oil and gas prices and a depressed economy.

I really question the judgment of our legislators who apparently expected the blowout oil and gas prices from the first half of 2008 to be the norm for 2009. And by the way, oil and gas prices plummeted in the fall of 2008. By September 2008 everyone knew that our economy was in for a rough ride.

I think that the legislature lacked the discipline to plan for these corrections and are now governing us using fear tactics as they have to slash services in the face of declining revenues.

The use of a 3 or 5 year average of revenues would go a long way to smooth out the bumps we inevitably see in our economy.