Oklahoma State Treasurer Ken Miller says the state’s recession is officially over and the economic recovery is well underway.
And he credits most of it to the oil and gas exploration in the past year as gross production tax revenues increased for the year and again in June.
“Monthly gross receipts have been higher than the same month of the prior year for five of the past six months,” said Miller in unveiling gross receipts for 2017 and for the month of June.
June gross receipts totaled $1 billion, the highest June total since 2014. And the FY-17 gross receipts, at $11 billion are the highest 12-month total in 10 months.
Miller said the FY 17 gross receipts were still lower than the prior fiscal year by 1.5 percent but the rate of decline was smaller than the 7.2 percent drop between FY 15 and FY 16.
“Current data is encouraging with lagging economic indicators showing improvements in the state economy.
Gross production taxes on oil and natural gas generated $41.6 million in June, an increase of $16.2 million or 63.5 percent from June of 2016. Compared to May, the gross production collections are up by $2.9 million or 7.4 percent.
For FY 2017, oil and gas gross production tax collections brought in $442.7 million which was an increase of $76.1 million or 20.8 percent from the previous year.
Listen to his answers to reporters’ questions about the impact of oil and gas operations in the state.