By Ian Karbal (Mountain State Spotlight), includes “On July 1, Gov. Jim Justice announced that in the 2021 fiscal year, which ended the previous day, West Virginia had a budget surplus of $413 million, topping previous expectations for the year."

By Erika Cohen (school board member in Derry, New Hampshire) includes “Over five years, I have learned that those facts are usually numbers, but the words I use to explain them are even more important."

Editorial, includes “Democrats are accusing Republicans of holding up the Senate infrastructure deal over funding for mass transit. Here’s what’s really going on: Republicans have bowed to most Democratic demands..."

Editorial, includes “… we hoped that for lack of easy tax increases, they’d address the pension crisis that lawmakers of both parties spent decades creating, and that consumes nearly a quarter of state revenues."

By Edward Siedle, includes “… the Ohio Retired Teachers Association (ORTA) engaged my firm to conduct an independent expert forensic review of the $90 billion-plus State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio..."

Includes “… Alarmingly, our investigation reveals that the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (STRS) has long abandoned transparency."

By Luke Schafer, includes “… Lawmakers should adopt a consensus revenue estimate to minimize politics and improve accuracy. … Most other states recognize erroneous revenue predictions as a problem."

Includes “… Meanwhile, in 12 states, separate or competing forecasts are developed by the executive and legislative branches. In 10 states, the executive branch is solely responsible for revenue forecasting.”

From July 22, 2021, includes “Yet, despite obtaining the aforesaid new federal and state funding, the FY 2022 Enacted General Fund Budget that passed into law (‘P.A. 102-0017’) increases overall net spending on core services in FY 2022 by just $586 million."

From June 25, 2021, by Rich Miller, includes “From the CTBA … ‘Despite obtaining the aforesaid new federal and state funding.... the FY 2022 General Fund budget passed into law over Memorial Day weekend holds overall net spending on core services in FY 2022.”