Oklahoma

For the fifth straight year, Oklahoma lawmakers will begin the budget process with lower revenues than the previous year as the state's energy slump continues.

The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority plans to price $480 million of toll revenue bonds in January after the state Supreme Court shielded the debt from future litigation.

For the second month in a row, Oklahoma’s tax collections from the production of oil and natural gas in November surpassed collections from the same month last year, while revenues from all sources continued to fall, according to State Treasurer Ken Miller.

A request for state Supreme Court validation on $420 million of toll revenue bonds has sidelined the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority deal as rates rose in post-election investor uncertainty.

A $500 million bond issue for a new Major League Baseball stadium in Arlington, Texas, a $720 million transportation issue in Austin and a record amount of school bonds in Colorado were among the winners in Tuesday’s elections in the Southwest.

For the first time in nearly two years, Oklahoma’s tax collections from the production of oil and natural gas in October surpassed those from the same month the previous year.

A proposal to raise the Oklahoma sales tax by one cent would give teachers a raise if voters approve. The Sooner State ranks 49th among states in teacher pay, according to recent studies.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court’s approval of changes in the state’s public pension plan is a positive credit factor for the state, according to Moody’s Investors Service. The Sooner State still faces a possible downgrade of its Aa2 rating.

Oklahoma’s September revenue collections were the lowest for the month since 2010, state Treasurer Ken Miller reported.

Oklahoma’s Grand River Dam Authority will seek savings through a $460 million advance refunding as the wholesale power provider nears completion of a gas-fired generating unit and repairs another plant damaged by fire.

Caught in a severe fiscal crisis after energy prices collapsed, Oklahoma is offering $181 million of revenue bonds to keep its highway construction program moving.

State and local governments and showing a wide variety of impacts from the collapse of the oil market that began two years ago, ratings analysts say.

Oklahoma’s pension fund investments are among the nation’s worst performers, with some turning negative in the last fiscal year, according to state Treasurer Ken Miller.

Oklahoma Treasurer Ken Miller sees no immediate signs of a turnaround as state revenues fall for the 18th straight month in August.

Oklahoma’s continuing downturn in revenue has exceeded the slump that followed the global financial crisis of 2008, state Treasurer Ken Miller said.

BOK Financial is changing the name of its broker-dealer to BOK Financial. The firm was known for 25 years as BOSC, Inc.

Oklahoma entered a recession more than a year ago and may still be in one as oil and gas futures trade at less than half of their 2014 peak prices, according to recent economic data.

With dozens of oil and gas company bankruptcies, energy producing states face a growing backlog of abandoned wells as revenue to fix the problems dwindles.

Oklahoma’s recently enacted budget offers positive credit factors for public schools but negative factors for higher education and the state itself, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Using new criteria, Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings warned that eight federal prisons operated privately for profit could see downgrades or upgrades.