Taxes
Covering topics such as bonds, cryptocurrency, federal aid and pensions.
Now 25,000 members strong, financially secure and long blessed with thoughtful leadership, the Government Finance Officers Association is poised to address the challenges to come for those who manage the public purse.
Three state-level officials demonstrate the characteristics of good governance, without the chaos playing out in the nation’s capital.
A new report from the Urban Institute tracks how a year of infrastructure and housing grants align with federal priorities for equitable spending.
User fees in particular have the potential to fund a variety of programs, from traditional services like disease intervention to new initiatives dealing with social determinants of health, such as housing and food insecurity.
Proposition 4 could usher in a bevy of property tax changes for homeowners and businesses. If passed, the measure includes using $12.7 billion from a record state budget surplus to lower school district taxes. Unanswered is the proposition’s affordability.
If approved, the new program would offer small, no-interest loans to civilian federal employees who work in Maryland but are not otherwise eligible for unemployment insurance payments.
Since federal protections keeping the medical insurance intact during the pandemic ended in April, approximately 3 in 4 patients have lost coverage due to “procedural reasons.” At least one-third of those patients are children.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated $4.7 billion for plugging abandoned oil and gas wells, but new standards, a workforce shortage and less visible leaks may mean that the money will only make a small dent in fixing the problem.
Vulnerable homeowners need financial help when flood, fire or dangerous winds strike. But whose job is it to provide the money?
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.
The regional hubs will help replace fossil fuels and will also create more than $40 billion in private investment along with thousands of new jobs. Nearly every state has joined at least one proposed hub.
To be eligible for the $800,000 annual environmental grant program, a project must demonstrate how it can serve a priority community. The funds for the program became available through a reconfiguration of the county’s sales tax.
Five bills headed to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s desk for signature will ensure major health and civil rights protections inside the Affordable Care Act if they are ever stripped or repealed at the federal level.
The Federal Railroad Administration has awarded $1.4 billion for railroad improvements, a huge expansion of a key funding program under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Funded projects will help make passenger and freight service more efficient.
While Congress has temporarily averted a government closure, the next 45 days provide uncertainty and opportunity to prepare for future fiscal turmoil.
The state’s public pension system had its worst investment performance in more than a decade, losing 1.55 percent of its value in 2022. To recoup its funds, the agency may have to make changes that could strain government employers.
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