Now Available
Our annual report on state fiscal health. Debt among the states improved slightly. Going from $1.2 trillion down to $938.6 billion.
What happened?
How did your state do? Read the full report below.
https://www.truthinaccounting.org/news/detail/financial-state-of-the-states-2023
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This year's report found that 31 states did not have enough money to pay all of their bills.
By Shannon Bird, includes “…. Unfortunately, however, in the wake of the pandemic’s damage to our economy, and because our state constitution requires a balanced budget, the legislature was forced to make the difficult decision to suspend the state’s required payment. Since that time, however, our economy has rebounded and economic activity in Colorado is now exceeding pre-pandemic levels. ”
To encourage the publication of transparent and accurate government financial information, Truth in Accounting has created a transparency score for financial reporting by the states.
PRESS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Truth in Accounting's twelfth annual Financial State of the States report, a nationwide analysis of the most recent state government financial information.
By Truong Bui and Jordan Campbell, includes “… A single year, or even several years, of above-average investment returns would be welcome news for public pension plans. But, a year or two of great returns will not resuscitate the public pension plans at risk of financial insolvency. … For the last 20 years, state and local pension plans’ assumed rates of return have been far too optimistic.”
By Brian Eason, includes “The deteriorating funding means public workers and the government agencies that employ them will have to contribute more, and retirees will receive less starting in July 2022. These changes are the latest ripple effect of the 2018 pension overhaul that automatically adjusts contributions and benefits whenever the pension’s funding veers off course."
By David Sirota, includes “Are taxpayers and retirees willing to give billions of dollars to financial firms in exchange for the potentially false perception of financial stability? ”
By Justin Wingerter, includes “For Colorado’s local governments, the money represents an opportunity they have never had and may not get again soon. It’s a chance to fill holes in budgets and bridges, to address decades-long addictions and afflictions, to build up and better their towns.”
By Conrad Swanson, includes “In the COVID-19 pandemic, the very definition of a public health crisis, Denver spent less than 5% of federal stimulus money on public health itself. …”
Some fifty years ago Sen. Paul Douglas of Illinois, who had been an economics professor in his pre-congressional life, stood up in the Senate chamber to announce that he had devoted the entire month of December to perusing the federal budget.
The 2020 Financial State of the States report surveys the fiscal health of the 50 states prior to the coronavirus pandemic. This data is released today by Truth in Accounting (TIA), a think tank that analyzes government financial reporting.
Colorado and South Carolina have pulled back from making additional payments to their underfunded pensions, moves that may play out in other states that are struggling to balance budgets as the coronavirus ravages tax revenue.
As many states enter new fiscal years amid the coronavirus pandemic, budgets already crushed by the crisis could see services slashed without additional federal support, according to recent reports.
How large could the shortfall in state government general revenues be, amidst the coronavirus and related crises?
The financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic is so severe that an injection this past week of more than $1 billion of federal funds into Colorado’s economy to battle the disease may prove to be little more than a Band-Aid for hard-hit cities and counties facing a sudden fiscal crisis.
In 378 U.S. counties, voter registration rates exceed 100% of the adult population, meaning there are more voter registrations on file than the total voting-age population
TABOR does not hamper the ability of local governments by requiring voter support for new taxes and extensions of old ones. Quite the opposite, in fact… One reason attempts to mess with TABOR like Prop CC keep flopping is that TABOR isn’t just about taxes. It is also about control and power sharing. TABOR gives ordinary citizens a role in the exercise of one of government’s core powers — the power of the purse.