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Headlines : Minnesota, Colorado, California, Maryland, Ohio, Nebraska, Louisiana, Massachusetts
States' Rift on Taxes Widens
Minnesota's move to raise $2.1 billion in new taxes, largely from the wealthy, to fund government programs puts it among a handful of states controlled by Democrats that are adopting more liberal fiscal policies at a time when many Republican-dominated statehouses are pushing to cut taxes.
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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 : Massachusetts
Mass. Senate to begin debating state budget plan
The Senate plan and a budget passed by the House last month both include $500 million in new revenue, including hikes in gasoline and cigarette taxes.
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Headlines : Massachusetts
Mass. senators unveil $34B state budget proposal
The Senate Ways and Means Committee released a nearly $34 billion state budget proposal, a spending plan significantly less than the plan Gov. Deval Patrick unveiled earlier this year.
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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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Budget timeline: Annual
Fiscal Year starts: July 1
The current state budget can be found here.
Find the legislative session calendar here.
Find the current legislative leaders here.
Gov. Deval Patrick
Office of Governor Deval Patrick
State House
Room 360
Boston, MA 02133
Phone: (617) 725-4000
Fax: (617) 727-9725
Glen Shor, Secretary
Executive Office for Administration and Finance
Room 272, State House
Boston, MA 02133
Phone (617) 727-2081
Fax (617) 727-2050
http://www.mass.gov/eoaf
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.
Massachusetts is required to pass a "balanced budget." Article 63, Section 2 of the 1780 Constitution addresses the need for the governor to set forth all expenditures and all revenues and other means "by which such expenditures shall be defrayed." More importantly, Chapter 29, Section 6E of the State law requires the governor to submit, and the general assembly to pass, a general appropriations bill which constitutes a balanced budget. If a deficiency in revenue exists, Chapter 29, Section 9C requires the governor to reduce spending or propose ways to generate additional revenue. Massachusetts law does not forbid the carrying over of a deficit from one year to the next.
The State maintained four major funds for FY07: General Fund, Highway Fund, Lotteries Fund, and Massachusetts School Building Authority. For FY06 and FY05, the State maintained several additional major funds. Each year, the State's CAFR includes a single Budgetary Comparison Schedule with no specific title, simply named Budgeted Funds. [from the Institute for Truth in Accounting]
Find the state's bond ratings here.
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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.
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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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Massachusetts
Under 50 and grabbing state pensions
But state workers hired before pension reforms went into effect last April are grandfathered in to the old rules, including a provision that hands out pension checks to anyone working at least 10 years by age 55.
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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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