How the state turns $15.3 billion into $5,854,386,815

There’s a fascinating flow chart on page 11 of Gov. Kevin Stitt’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2020.

It shows — sometimes very precisely but other times in broad conceptual estimates — just how much tax money gets pushed through the state government machine every year and how much of its gets diverted into different causes before the Legislature starts writing what is commonly referred to as “the budget.”

At the top of the chart there’s a really big approximated number — “over $15.3 billion” — labeled “state revenue from taxable activities” for fiscal year 2018.

At the bottom of the chart there’s a really precise number that is also big, but not nearly as big — $5,854,386,815. That’s the tax money the Legislature had to work with when it started writing the 2018 budget.

Wait! Where’d all that other money go?

Read more: https://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/columnists/how-the-state-turns-billion-into-wayne-greene-explains/article_1c4d503e-a8c5-5324-aff9-0d2c4c9e53ea.html