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Girard Miller

Girard Miller

Contributor

Girard Miller retired in January 2026 as Governing’s finance columnist, having contribued some 200 biweekly columns after five years of monthly commentary for his “Benefits Beat” series. He expects to continue submitting occasional guest commentaries.

Miller was formerly an investment and public finance professional, and the author of numerous professional publications including the 2019 book “Enlightened Public Finance.” His professional career spanned 45 years of leadership in public finance and investments, which included the presidency of two national mutual funds. He has sponsored collegiate scholarships in his field for 25 years. Now residing in southern California, he can be contacted through LinkedIn.

Long-term financial incentives for investment success are commonplace in the private sector, but tricky to design in public retirement plans. The implementation challenges are structural, operational, methodological and, yes, political.
To compete for winning investment performance in capital markets, the plans need to build stronger internal bench depth. Compensation is part of the picture, but they also need to beef up their training camps.
As inflation and interest rates ease, 2024 will be a perfect time for overdue multiyear strategic planning and keeping up with breakthrough information technologies.
States and localities may have hidden treasure in their data that can be profitably unearthed by commercial interests. Governments need to be able to realize the value of their data while still protecting the public.
Office workers’ exodus should be countered with wiser state and federal tax incentives, and there’s a novel municipal bond angle to promote. But cities themselves must step up to stem the urban maladies that feed public fears.
Rapidly developing AI-powered technology is making it easier to appropriate the public sector's financial information for proprietary uses. Businesses that slice and dice this data should be renters, not owners.
Halloween seems an apt metaphor for what state and local financiers will encounter over the next year and beyond: plenty of tricks but a modest supply of treats.
The annual Medicare-plus advertising blitz now under way should remind us that smarter post-employment benefit designs for state and local employees are long overdue.
A hefty nationwide increase in premiums for public employers to provide their workers and retirees with health coverage will outstrip most governments’ revenue growth. It’s time to address and attack root causes.
With federal deficits soaring, bond issuers may face higher financing costs. State and local cash managers shine for now, but all eyes will be on the coming congressional budget battle.