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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. 

Legalized online wagering is already hauling in substantial state revenue, but additional taxation will need a uniform, multistate approach that might also take in “gamified” financial trading. And it’s time to do a better accounting of the growing social costs.
To combat inflation, the central bank will be raising interest rates and shedding a big chunk of its $8 trillion bond portfolio. Its actions will ripple through the world of state and local finance.
Progressives dislike its regressivity, but states and localities depend heavily on the revenue. Some reformers’ eyes are on taxing luxuries and digital intangibles — NFTs, anyone? — but that presents its own problems.
Many years ago, public financiers woke up to the problem of funding “other post-retirement benefits,” but then some of them went back to sleep. Younger public employees should demand an actuarial wake-up call.
Barring unknowable virus mutation scenarios, state and local fiscal managers have the opportunity to navigate trends and crosscurrents already underway to make better decisions. One factor figures into almost everything: inflation.
This year taught us to humbly expect the unexpected, from hundreds of billions in federal “helicopter money” to $35,000 bonuses to lure back retired transit workers. And how is your public pension fund doing on something called ESG?
Populists are once again advocating the creation of state-owned banks to overcome private-sector lending market failures. But market innovations hold a lot of promise for accomplishing the same goal.
To accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, every burg along our “blue highways” is going to need a place for motorists to plug in. For states, that means tax credits, matching grants or similar incentives. But we’re not talking big money.
The COVID recession and its fiscal aftermath should remind politicians, advocates and labor that budget reserves are not piggybanks for new discretionary spending. Economic cycles have not been repealed.
Pending municipal finance provisions in the big spending bills before Congress could benefit issuers, investors and taxpayers. To get the best deal, state and local leaders must press their case immediately.