"Sobering Statistics
The study, called Financial State of the Cities 2023, was done by Truth in Accounting. It has some difficult truths: 50 out of 75 cities could not pay their bills; the combined debt for all 75 cities is $267 billion. Moreover, elected officials didn’t include the cost of government in this figure, instead pushing it onto future taxpayers."
This year's report found that 31 states did not have enough money to pay all of their bills.
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.
By Jared Walczak, includes “At the federal level, the state and local tax (SALT) deduction has emerged as a hot-button political issue ever since the deduction was capped at $10,000 under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017. The SALT deduction has defenders as well as detractors, but a peculiar inversion of it—a state deduction for federal taxes paid—exists in only six 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.
Op-ed by David Guenther, includes “… At best, the American Rescue Plan Act was unnecessary. A worse and more likely scenario is that larding hundreds of billions of federally borrowed dollars onto state governments will enable ill-conceived spending that costs taxpayers twice — once for higher federal debt payments and again for ongoing spending paid for initially with one-time funds. ”
By Dirk VanderHart, includes “Worries over a potential funding gap in Oregon’s next two-year budget turned into a different sort of problem on March 11. … All in all, the framework presents a far sunnier outlook than lawmakers once expected.”
Editorial, includes “The federal government is not taxing the stimulus payments. In Oregon, they are not taxed as income, either. But the payments can impact the federal tax calculations used on your Oregon income tax. And so the stimulus payment may mean you owe state tax on more of your income and wind up paying more taxes or get a reduced refund.”
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.
The Ashland City Council last week discussed the city’s response to a drop in revenue as a result of the pandemic. The cuts Interim City Administrator Adam Hanks outlined are in line with what vocal critics of city spending have called for, but we’re not holding our breath waiting for any acknowledgment of that.
How large could the shortfall in state government general revenues be, amidst the coronavirus and related crises?
Treasurer Tobias Read is pushing an investment policy change for Oregon’s public pension fund that would promote unionization of the workforce at buildings and other facilities in which the fund has a majority ownership interest.
You’ve got Oregonians seeking to cascade into Idaho, Virginians who identify as West Virginians, Illinoians fighting to escape Chicago, Californians dreaming of starting a 51st state, and New Yorkers who think three states are better than one.
Programs include two rebate programs through the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, a federal tax credit, and local utility rebates though local utility rebates generally tend to
The board of Oregon’s public pension system voted 3-to-2 Friday to stand pat on the system’s key funding assumption, maintaining their assumed rate of return on investments at 7.2% annually.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has released her plan to improve the funding for the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System (PERS). The state’s retirement system currently has a funded level of 80%, and rates are projected to increase until 2035.
Municipalities or municipal corporations – including school districts - are only allowed to file bankruptcy if that authority is granted under state law.
“Joe Gall is the city manager of Sherwood, a city of about 20,000 people in Washington County. Over the last four years, the amount that his city pays in PERS costs has nearly doubled. … Gall says the solution to the very real problem Sherwood and other communities are facing is not going to come at the local level. 'The solution, quite honestly, is in Salem,' he said.”