SQ744: Regional Averages Compared

Jamison Faught over at Muskogee Politico made an interesting post yesterday with graphics showing how low Oklahoma ranks in budget size compared to the regional average. I want to expand on it a little.

On a per capita scale, Oklahoma has a budget of $1925.65 per year. (Populations based of of July 2009 Census Bureau estimates.)

Colorado: $3661.88
New Mexico: $7314.63
Texas: $3389.52
Arkansas: $1488.17
Missouri: $3741.08
Kansas: $4789.36.

That gives us a regional average state budget per capita of $4064.11. That means that Oklahoma's budget per capita is less than half of the average of our surrounding states. So does that mean that our taxes need to double?

I don't have time right now to compare percentages of each budget that is spent on education. Hopefully, someone can do that and send me a trackback.