Colorado’s “rolling conformity” with the federal tax code, coupled with sweeping tax breaks enacted by Congress, triggered a sudden revenue loss.
At least 19 states are directing money from Medicaid into housing aid and addressing the nation’s growing homelessness epidemic. Homelessness jumped last year to 12 percent nationally.
The top finance official in Massachusetts announced that the administration does not plan to downgrade revenue expectations through June or implement budget cuts, despite a recent drop in tax collections.
The city is scaling down its spending for sheltering immigrants to save money. But the move will force hundreds of people out of their temporary housing.
An analytic tool known as a long-term budget assessment can help states anticipate the fiscal challenges that lie ahead and change course in time to avoid them. Unfortunately, only a minority of states do this.
The home health-care industry is lucrative — but lightly regulated.
Washington provided $800 billion in pandemic relief. With most of that money spent, states now face major funding gaps for Medicaid, while school districts, child care providers and transit agencies are also struggling.
In 2022, Cook County, Ill., became the first local government to partner with the nonprofit group RIP Medical Debt to use private donor funds to buy up and forgive patient debt. Since then, seven local governments, including NYC, have joined the program.
Fifteen states are not participating in a program to provide meals to school-age children over the summer, due to administrative costs or ideological opposition.
Critics argue that schools are spending too much on administrative costs at the expense of instruction. One group found that administrative spending increased 6.3 percent from 2016 to 2021.
Locking up a California state prisoner for one year costs nearly twice as much as tuition at the state’s top private universities. The number surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, and remains high because of inmate medical costs and pay boosts for prison guards and other workers.
The state ranked first nationally in 2022 with 458 hailstorms. Losses are most severe in Dallas County, which has $102 million in expected losses every year due to storm damage.
Future in Context
A discussion about the near future and the legislative issues to keep an eye on this year. Technology, budget and transportation top the list.
The governor wants to cut more than $1 billion from health-care services and eliminate 1,000 jobs, many of which are currently unfilled. DeSantis’ proposed budget falls $4.4 billion short of what state agencies and the Legislature have requested.
Previous funding that had been slashed from police, fire, sanitation and schools has since been restored. Meanwhile, costs related to migrants have been cut by 20 percent.
Due to an expected $1 billion shortfall, the Healey administration has wiped out $1.7 million in fire-fighting earmarks this week. Some towns will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding.
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