Truth in Accounting has prepared a comprehensive analysis of the fiscal health of Longview, TX, based on their latest annual comprehensive financial reports (ACFR) dated 2022.
Truth in Accounting has once again created a transparency score for the financial reporting by state governments to encourage the publication of transparent and accurate government financial information.
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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"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.
Did you know that many cities, such as Chicago and Los Angeles, do not include the financial information of their school districts and other underlying entities in their financial reports and budgets? The result is taxpayers are on the hook for far more debt than they know. To provide a more complete picture of the 10 most populous U.S. cities including their largest underlying government units, Truth in Accounting has released its annual City Combined Taxpayer Burden report.
Includes: "Would it surprise you to know that every single one of our six most populous cities is insolvent? Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and El Paso could not pay their bills right now if asked to do so. ”
By Alexa Ura, includes “The U.S. Department of Justice is throwing its weight into the legal fight over Texas’ newly drawn maps for Congress and the state House, filing a lawsuit Monday that claims Texas lawmakers discriminated against voters of color by denying Latino and Black voters equal opportunities to participate in the voting process and elect their preferred candidates.”
By Sydnie Henry, includes “On Tuesday, the citizen organization Truth in Accounting (TIA) published the transparency grades states earned during Fiscal Year 2020. While Texas did not earn the worst score, state officials have room for improvement when it comes to being financially transparent with citizens. …”
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 Connor Harris, includes “Why do infrastructure costs in the U.S. run so high? Two recent examples from Texas illustrate one of the reasons. … New infrastructure projects, in Levy’s description, are large enough investments that there’s much less of a competitive market for them than there is for consumer goods.”
By Robert Montoya, includes “Texas taxpayer debts are rising and financial health is declining due to inaccurate financial reporting, Texans not knowing their state’s true financial health, and repeated poor decisions by state officials. However, our state finances can be turned around by an accurately informed citizenry demanding balanced budgets from the Texas Legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott.”
Truth in Accounting's twelfth annual Financial State of the States report, a nationwide analysis of the most recent state government financial information.
By TIA intern Joshua Terry, whose last day is today (Thanks for all the great hard work, Josh!) includes “… Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, and Texas have smaller Taxpayer Burdens compared to New York, California, and Illinois. There certainly may be other factors at play here, as Texas isn't too far off of New York or even California with its Taxpayer Burden.”
By James Hohman, includes “State lawmakers find themselves bound by constitutional rules that require them to balance their budgets each year, allowing them to pledge to spend no more than their revenues. And lawmakers often interpret this rule to mean that they’re going to spend every last dollar of revenue each year, when they don’t have to.”
Earlier last month, the IRS released the 2019 migration data for adjusted gross income (AGI) that showed a departure in the billions of dollars of taxable income from New York, California, and Illinois. These three states experienced the most outflow of AGI in 2019, while Florida, Texas, and Arizona gained the most AGI. The IRS included a breakdown of this migration by age group:.
Editorial, includes “… Employees will receive a guaranteed rate of return of 4 percent annually. Employees and the system will then split market returns up to a maximum annual return of 7 percent. The system will keep higher returns to prepare for future downturns. This reform helps the state by reducing its downside risk when the market crashes.”
By Leonard Gilroy, Steven Gassenberger and Zachary Christensen, includes “The law, signed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on June 18, includes two major changes: committing the state to make annual contributions that will fully fund the retirement promises already made to public workers and introducing a cash balance plan for future hires...” (Note: See their Figure 4, “ERS Statutory vs. ADEC Contributions (1998-2020)”)
Op-ed by Leonard Gilroy and Steven Gassenberger, includes “… Texas will then join a growing list of states—including Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Colorado—that have created or expanded retirement plans that reduce financial risks for governments and can help avoid burdening future taxpayers with more unfunded liabilities. … State and local leaders seeking to make lasting improvements to government finances should look to Texas, Arizona and Michigan.”