The report details that Illinois has the lowest bond rating of all fifty states, a wildly underfunded public pension system, skyrocketing Medicaid costs, and budget gimmicks galore, and concludes that Illinois’ state budget is “not fiscally sustainable.”

When a "premier global consulting and actuarial" firm proves in its first Public Pension Funding study that those government pensions are doomed, it is past time for action. Milliman's study showing a 33 percent increase in pension debt over official numbers from a minute change in accounting should be enough to spur reform.

Washington State was selected as one of 15 states to design plans that would more effectively deliver their care and coordinate the Medicare-Medicaid programs.

Governor Gregoire this morning opened a 2-day state conference on LEAN and the impact this tool is having in Washington State.

Robert Novy-Marx and Josh Rauh studied how much additional money would have to be devoted annually to state and local pension systems to achieve full funding in 30 years, a standard period over which governments target fully funded pensions. Or, to put a finer point on it, we researched: How much will your taxes have to increase? We found that, on average, a tax increase of $1,385 per U.S. household per year would be required, starting immediately and growing with the size of the public sector.

No matter what the Government Accounting Standards Board says or how grossly state and local politicians pervert new guidelines to continue looting workers' pension funds, reality will triumph when the real reckoning comes. Just ask the National Association of Bond Lawyers, municipal bond rating agencies and actuaries who do the calculations.

Anyone interested in the state and local government pension crisis - and all Americans should pay attention to this hidden $4.6 trillion hidden black hole in our economy - must read Alicia H. Munnell's new book, "State and Local Pensions: What now?" It is the best primer on this complex issue except for one missing factor: Reality.

The Washington Policy Center published the results of our legislative tax survey that asked legislators and candidates (including gubernatorial) the following question: If Initiative 1185 is adopted, would you vote to allow the people of Washington to have the opportunity to vote on a state constitution amendment to require a supermajority vote in the legislature to raise taxes?

When a widely recognized world pension expert refers to current defined benefit and defined contribution plans as "dysfunctional," it is time for politicians to stop their lying and denying that this fiscal catastrophe is spiraling out of control.

When State Budget Solutions started looking at real total state debt, just the staggering size of the numbers alone did not tell the whole story. So how to get a fix on the real burden taxpayers must bear in each state? Per capita is the usual way. But even that does not tell the whole story.