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Girard Miller

Girard Miller

Finance Columnist

Girard Miller is the finance columnist for Governing. He is a retired investment and public finance professional and the author of “Enlightened Public Finance” (2019). Miller brings 30 years of experience in public finance and investments as a former Governmental Accounting Standards Board member and ICMA Retirement Corp. president.

Miller writes Governing's bi-weekly newsletter on public finance, which you can sign up for here.

He can be reached at millergirard@yahoo.com. 

Pandemic money from Washington stimulated the economy but arguably ended up feeding inflation. Before the next downturn, governors, mayors and public financers need to be part of the conversation about how to open the countercyclical aid spigot quicker — and when to shut it off.
States can compensate with vehicle and odometer taxes, but local governments can harness new data technologies — including GPS, 5G and AI — to meet the need for more than states’ hand-me-down dollars.
State and local treasurers have been playing it safe by capturing high short-term rates. Some are wary of longer maturities, but markets spell lower short-term yields. Tricky decisions are in store.
The major public funds have almost doubled their investments in high-fee, nontraditional vehicles, and important new research shows how costly it’s been. It’s a wake-up call for greater scrutiny of fee structures and consultants' assumptions.
Homeowners are being squeezed out of affordable coverage. Sustainable intergovernmental partnerships with the insurance industry offer a solution. And there may be a role for state and local pension funds.
Chris Ailman, the chief investment officer for the giant California teachers’ pension fund, is retiring. He showed the way in navigating a landscape of complexity, hazards and challenges to achieve steady investment success.
With most public retirement systems seeing improved actuarial funding levels, there’s an opportunity to offer options that could make government compensation more competitive. But any impetus for change should come from pragmatic public employers, not partisans or lobbyists.
Hundreds of billions of state and local dollars are sitting stagnant in bank accounts earning almost nothing — balances that have tripled in recent years. It’s not clear why this is happening, but it’s far too much foregone income.
States are beginning to use artificial intelligence to multiply the power of their audit teams. But the tax collectors risk political blowback unless they can convince the public that it’s just the artful tax dodgers they’re after.
While they enjoy today’s high tide in the money markets, state and local treasurers should also promote the case for expanded and targeted federal insurance for public deposits.