Oklahoma

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.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin voiced regret that the newly approved state budget did so little to solve structural imbalances.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin announced an agreement with legislative leaders that narrows the state’s $1.3 billion budget gap while averting what she called a “worst-case scenario.”

The trustee firm in many recent troubled bond deals assembled by accused fraudster Christopher Brogdon is taking a harder line against the former employee it blames for its involvement in the mess.

Oklahoma’s monthly collection of tax revenue from the oil and gas industry hit the lowest level since 1999, state Treasurer Ken Miller said.

While the key oil production states of Oklahoma, North Dakota and California have all been hit hard by the drop in crude oil prices, the impact varies at both the state and local government level, Moody’s Investors Service says.

A plan to reduce Oklahoma’s $1.3 billion budget shortfall would include $500 million of bonds for highway projects under a plan announced by Gov. Mary Fallin.

As Oklahoma lawmakers sought additional funds to close a $1.3 billion budget gap, Treasurer Ken Miller gave them the bad news that state tax receipts in March were the lowest in four years.

Some investors holding millions of dollars of bonds in default in the Florida panhandle are upset by what they see as inaction by trustee Bank of Oklahoma Financial and a fired employee with links to accused fraudster Christopher Brogdon.

The Oklahoma City suburb of Yukon does not have enough money to pay its bills for the remainder of the fiscal year after $1.3 million was taken from a bond fund for general expenses, officials said.

Oklahoma City is at risk of losing its triple-A rating after Moody’s Investors Service shifted the outlook to negative.