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Headlines
Rich States, Poor States, 6th Edition
This 6th edition of Rich States, Poor States contains invaluable insight into each of the 50 "laboratories of democracy." With solid empirical research and the latest data on state economies, the evidence is clear on which state tax and fiscal policies directly lead to more opportunities, more jobs, and more prosperity for all Americans.
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Headlines
Ex-Penn State president tops highest paid list
Presidents of public universities are taking home bigger paychecks, and a growing number are raking in more than $1 million.
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Headlines
What if the Internet Sales Tax Doesn't Make it Through Congress?
Some states are so anxious for the anticipated revenues they've already committed the money to various projects.
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Headlines
Williams: Marketplace Fairness Act and Internet taxes are not the answers to state budget problems
Bob Williams: Hoping for more federal stimulus or hoping the feds will allow taxes on the Internet will not solve the budget crises the states currently face. The problem is spending, not revenue.
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Headlines
State Pension Litigation Update, May 2013
In attempts to reign in the costs of pensions, state lawmakers legislate pension reform. Challengers to those reforms often bring suit, alleging violations of state law, contracts, and the Constitution.
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Budget timeframe: Annual
Fiscal Year begins: July 1
Find the legislative session calendar here.
Find the current state budget here.
Find the current legislative leaders here.
Arkansas Gov. Beebe
Office of Governor Mike Beebe
State Capitol
Suite 250
Little Rock, AR 72201
Phone: (501) 682-2345
Fax: (501) 682-1382
http://www.governor.arkansas.gov/
Brandon Sharp, Administrator
Department of Finance & Administration
P.O. Box 3278
Little Rock, AR 72203
Phone (501) 682-1941
Fax: (501) 682-1086
http://www.state.ar.us/dfa/budget/
brandon.sharp@dfa.arkansas.gov
Want a more robust, long-term look at your state's fiscal health, beyond the budget? There are two parts: Click here for the FY2012 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) compiled by the state government, and click here for information on the state's pension liabilities.
Arkansas is required to pass a “balanced budget." Section 19-4-201 of state law mandates that proposed expenditures shall not exceed estimated available resources. But Amendment 20 to 1874 the Constitution does permit the State to incur indebtedness with the consent of a majority of the electorate. As there are no statutory requirements to govern what kinds of assumptions can be made about revenue or expenses, the Arkansas budget will be “unbalanced” in different ways in different years. Arkansas law forbids the carrying over of a deficit from one year to the next.
The State of Arkansas has one governmental fund, which is the General Fund. The State’s budget is adopted in accordance with a statutory cash basis of accounting, which is not in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Although Arkansas budgets its only major fund, the General Fund, it does not budget revenues for that fund. The State only budgets expenditures. [from the Institute for Truth in Accounting]
Find the state's bond ratings here.
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Unions :
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HEADLINES
Right To Work states still have less debt
Michigan, home to unions like the United Auto Workers, will become the 24th state to protect individual workers' rights through Right To Work legislation, giving workers the freedom to choose whether or not they wish to belong to an organized labor union. The other 23 states have lower debt than those without such laws.
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HEADLINES
Huge government pension gap sparks backlash
Pensions and other retirement benefits have become a multi-trillion-dollar black hole for state and local government budgets.
Revenue :
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HEADLINES
Williams: Marketplace Fairness Act and Internet taxes are not the answers to state budget problems
Bob Williams: Hoping for more federal stimulus or hoping the feds will allow taxes on the Internet will not solve the budget crises the states currently face. The problem is spending, not revenue.
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HEADLINES
What if the Internet Sales Tax Doesn't Make it Through Congress?
Some states are so anxious for the anticipated revenues they've already committed the money to various projects.
- View All Arkansas articles
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Solutions:
How Reality-Based Budgeting Can Permanently Resolve State Budget Gaps
State Budget Solutions recommends that state legislators take action in 2013 to resolve the serious state financial crises by changing their focus from inputs to outcomes by redesigning budgets from the ground up based on priorities and performance.
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Solutions:
How to Prevent Future Pension Crises
The time for state and local governments to offer defined contribution retirement plans that protect both taxpayer dollars and public employee retirement security is now.
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Solutions:
State Lawmaker’s Guide to Evaluating Medicaid Expansion Projections
Supporters of Obamacare claim that expanding Medicaid will entail little to no cost to state governments, since the federal government will fund the vast majority of the additional costs. Indeed, some analyses project states achieving savings from adopting the expansion. However, state lawmakers should be wary of accepting such analyses at face value.
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Solutions:
Medicaid Is Broken—Let the States Fix It
Block-granting Medicaid is the best way to deliver better, cost-effective care to the most vulnerable Americans.
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Solutions:
The Case for Reform: Prisons
Prisons are supremely important, but they are also a supremely expensive government program, and thus prison systems must be held to the highest standards of accountability.
- View All Solutions
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State Pension Litigation Update, May 2013
In attempts to reign in the costs of pensions, state lawmakers legislate pension reform. Challengers to those reforms often bring suit, alleging violations of state law, contracts, and the Constitution.
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GAO finds growing state, local fiscal gap with Medicaid to blame
Closing the gap to achieve fiscal balance over 50 years will require "action to be taken today and maintained for each year equivalent to a 14.2 percent reduction in the state and local government sector's current expenditures."
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In Congress, a Bill Seeks to Tie Municipal Borrowing Power to Public Pension Disclosure
Representatives from California and two other states introduced a bill in Congress on Thursday that would strip states and cities of their right to issue tax-exempt bonds unless they first disclosed the true cost of their pension plans and whether they could pay it.
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States move along different roads to tackle underfunding dilemma
More states are enacting measures to help improve the solvency of their public pension funds as funding ratios remain low.
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GASB changes to boost pressure for pension reform, Fitch report says
Impending changes in Governmental Accounting Standards Board standards in 2014 and 2015 should increase public pressure on decision-makers to reform state and local government pension plans, according to a report from Fitch Ratings.
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BLOG: Higher Education, Spending
Who is the highest paid state employee in your state?
Time to add a new diagram to the state budget and policy playbook--your state's highest paid employee is probably a football or basketball coach.
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BLOG: Medicaid
Medicaid expansion won't yield quality health care
The bombshell Oregon Medicaid study released this week should give all states pause as they consider plans to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. States must now ask what the point of Medicaid is in the first place.
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BLOG: Budget Gimmicks, Budget Processes and Systems, Measures to Balance Budgets, Spending, State Debt
Let's Put Privatizing Municipal Services Back on the Table
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BLOG: Unions
Airing Out the Smoke-filled Rooms: Bringing Transparency to Public Union Collective Bargaining
To help prevent union strong-arming that fleeces taxpayers, we should know precisely what public union officials are demanding and what government employers are offering in any collective negotiation about employment terms and conditions.
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BLOG: Budget Gimmicks, Budget Processes and Systems, Budget Transparency, Federal Government Impact, Federal Government Impact, Measures to Balance Budgets, Pensions, Revenue, Spending, State Debt
Yes, Your Paycheck is Smaller...And it May Get Worse
And it isn’t just individuals who must reconfigure budgets, the states are looking at smaller “paychecks” as well.
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