OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — State finance officials say revenue collections are continuing to plummet, increasing the chances for budget cuts to state agencies before the end of the fiscal year in June.
Secretary of Finance Preston Doerflinger released figures on Tuesday that show collections to the state's main operating fund trailed the official estimate last month by more than 10 percent.
Collections to the General Revenue Fund in October were $415 million, which is 10.2 percent below the estimate and about 12 percent below October collections from last year.
Doerflinger says sustained low oil prices are driving Oklahoma's economic contraction.
Oklahoma builds a cushion of 5 percent into every budget for when collections fail to meet the estimate, but this month's poor collections ate up nearly half of that.