Finance
Managing public finance has become a demanding aspect of state and local government, especially as economic health fluctuates and outside forces create revenue instability. Articles on taxes, budgets, pensions and bonds help to bring insight to finance management at the state and local level.
Providers report denial rates up to 17.5 percent. To cope with the mounting financial pressure, some small clinics have stopped accepting Medicaid altogether.
In distributing rental assistance funds to prevent evictions, Indianapolis found a creative alternative model, working across departments to get the money out to vulnerable families.
The agency will create a “Fareness” panel which will analyze and recommend ways to discourage fare evasion through education, equity and enforcement to mitigate revenue loss, which is expected to reach $500 million in 2022.
With the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, the yields on money market funds, state investment pools and bank accounts lag the payouts on safe securities. Staff needs to do its upside/downside homework.
The tax was imposed in 1994 to raise revenue for the Bay Area city’s library services. If the measure doesn’t pass in the June primary, the library system will have to cut 40 percent of its expenditures.
Rising costs are starting to put pressure on budgets and may increase pension risk. Still, government balance sheets are in good shape and the economy remains in growth mode.
State lawmakers discussed the possibility of curbing property taxes by using surplus state funds and restricting the annual growth of a home’s taxable value. But some worry it would shift the burden onto taxpayers.
The bottom half of Americans saw their wealth grow by 301 percent in 2020, in part boosted by unemployment benefits and stimulus payments. Despite that growth, the wealth gap also increased.
The American Rescue Plan Act funds were intended to help local governments and small businesses confront the financial impact of COVID-19, but many officials view the money as an opportunity to invest in future generations.
It includes investments that will raise health-care workers’ pay, improve their workplace infrastructure and provide incentives that will attract more people to the workforce, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Government workers are going to press for wage increases that — at a minimum — catch them up to rising prices. Budgeters and labor negotiators need to be careful not to lock in terms that put them in a fiscal squeeze in the future.
The ballot initiative would tax residents making more than $2 million a year and use the funds to help the state curb wildfire, smoke and other air pollution. But some say the measure is overkill, given the state’s ambitious climate plans.
A revised version of a $50 million spending bill has once again received approval from the state’s Legislature and will move to the governor’s desk for approval. The bill includes funding for police vehicles, courtroom upgrades and more.
The median net worth of white households in the U.S. is almost eight times greater than that of Black households. Most mayors agree this is a problem but differ on what solutions are best.
The city will make available prepaid gas and transit cards, worth $150 each, for as many as 50,000 drivers and $50 for up to 100,000 transit riders. The announcement follows a possible mayoral candidate’s free gas giveaways.
In some states, Uber and Lyft don’t have to pay if passengers are hurt by a hit-and-run. There are moves in a number of states to increase protections for riders and drivers in the case of accidents with uninsured motorists.
As a reprieve from high inflation and gas prices, and to hopefully spur ridership back toward pre-pandemic levels, Connecticut will use $8.1 million of ARPA funds to cover public bus fares for the next three months.
The state will direct federal funds to investments such as state and local parks, improving drinking water and water infrastructure, roads and bridges, mortgage assistance and expanding broadband access.
The White House has taken the first step. It’s time for our governments at every level to underwrite a public-private “solidarity bridge” to host many more: up to a million refugees and wartime orphans.
Consumers are feeling pain at the pump and demanding solutions. Some politicians are pushing gasoline tax waivers – but that means less money to fix roads, and often not much economic relief.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic lawmakers have made several proposals on how to help alleviate the financial pressures of increasing gas prices and inflation costs, but it’s unclear which plan will be the final version.
Revenues are robust enough to allow for increased spending, and tax cuts on top of it. But current flush conditions might not last long enough to turn permanent cuts into a good idea.
Kansas is just the latest: States keep throwing money at corporations, a practice that does little to improve their economies. What if they all decided to end this wasteful and ruinous arms race?
The stimulus program that followed the Great Recession was a model for tracking projects and spending down to the ZIP code level. We don’t have that with the American Rescue Plan, dooming us to fight about what matters most.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand announced the funding will be used to help city residents bounce back in their careers and education after being hit hard by COVID-19.
Many want to sanction Putin and Co. at every turn, but it’s a mistake to move too quickly. Pension funds actually don’t hold that much in Russian assets, and they're sitting ducks for crafty, amoral traders.
Obscure court fees are disproportionately issued to low-income residents of color, who often cannot afford to pay the fines; 86 percent reported that paying for the ticket would impact their ability to pay for food.
A recent study found that in 2019, women earned 80.8 percent of what a man earned in a similar position, though some jobs, like financial managers, judges and chief executives, make well below that mark.
A proposed bill amendment would have prohibited the investment of state retirement assets in any company that does business with the Russian government, but Republican lawmakers ruled out the change on a technicality.
The state’s investment in companies in Russia and government debt issued by Russia amounts to $218 million, less than half of 1 percent of the state’s total retirement funds, and has been in decline since 2014.
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.
