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liz-farmer

Liz Farmer

Liz Farmer, who formerly covered fiscal policy as a Governing staff writer, helps lead the Pew Charitable Trusts’ state fiscal health project’s Fiscal 50 online resource, focusing on budgets, fiscal distress, tax policy and pensions. A former research fellow at the Rockefeller Institute of Government’s Future of Labor Research Center, Farmer holds a bachelor’s degree in American history, film and television production from George Washington University and a master’s in journalism from the University of Maryland.

States each year dole out billions in incentives and tax breaks for businesses, but those that spend the most aren't necessarily winning the end game, some experts say.
Six months after Georgia enacted a law meant to attract more startups by allowing the state’s pension plans to invest in them, few plans have actually taken advantage, according to an Atlanta Journal Constitution report.
As municipalities are trying to find ways to pay for vital infrastructure projects while their budgets remain tight, more are turning to Tax-Increment-Financing (TIF), experts say.
A coalition representing state and local governments is urging the president and the Speaker of the House to keep the federal government income tax exclusion for municipal bond interest as leaders negotiate an alternative to the upcoming fiscal cliff cuts and tax hikes schedule to kick in next month.
Metropolitan areas in Texas and Oklahoma are leading the nation in their overall recovery from the recession, according to a Brookings report.
Moodys has downgraded the credit rating of one New Jersey town as a result of damages caused by Hurricane Sandy and made negative revisions to nine other public finance debt issuers, primarily along the New Jersey Shore and the South Shore of Long Island.
In the years during and after the Great Recession, governments have been turning more toward raising fees, according to a recent report.
Insurers holding $161 million of Stockton, Calif.’s debt and who want for the city’s case thrown out of court said this week the city didn’t pursue cost-cutting measures before filing for bankruptcy protection, according to a report by the Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review.
California and New York are considering heavier oversight of their financially troubled cities, according to a Stateline report. Bill Lockyer, California’s state treasurer, wants to create a system that would monitor local finances and issue a warning to flag cities and counties when their fiscal situation becomes troubled. New York’s comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, wants to score cities based on their financial strain, according to Stateline.
As a result of years of escalating wages and overtime costs, California state employees enjoy the highest average pay out of the nation's most populous states.