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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 : Ohio
Bill in Ohio House revives Medicaid expansion
The bill is the first of a handful expected to be introduced since Republican leaders in the House rejected the proposed Medicaid expansion Gov. John Kasich included in his two-year budget proposal.
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Headlines : Ohio
Senate Democrats want more money for schools in state budget
Senate Democrats want to direct $508 million more to Ohio schools over the next two years by eliminating part of a GOP-proposed tax cut for upper-income Ohioans.
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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 : Ohio
State pension fund leaders fire back at Mandel
Dissatisfied with state pension reforms enacted last year that affect 1.8 million current and former government workers, Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel says without more changes "there will be nothing left at the end of the rainbow" when public employees retire.
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Budget timeframe: Biennial
Fiscal Year begins: July 1
The current state budget can be found here.
Find the legislative session calendar here.
Find the current legislative leaders here.
Gov. John Kasich
Office of Governor John Kasich
77 South High Street
30th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215-6117
Phone: (614) 466-3555
Fax: (614) 466-9354
http://governor.ohio.gov/
Timothy S. Keen , Director
Office of Budget & Management
30 E. Broad Street, 34th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215-3457
Phone (614) 466-4034
www.ohio.gov/obm
obm@obm.state.oh.us
Want a more robust, long-term look at your state's fiscal health, beyond the budget? There are two parts: Click here for the FY2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report compiled by the state government, and click here for information on the state's pension liabilities.
Ohio's "balanced budget" requirements come in the forms of a limit the issuance of debt and an appropriations cap that is tied to the actual revenue raised during previous years. Section 107.33 of the State law creates a cap on appropriations that is the previous year's revenue, adjusted for inflation and population growth, or the previous year's revenue plus 3.5%, whichever is greater. Article 8, Sections 1 and 2 of the 1851 Constitution permit the state to contract debts, to supply casual deficits or failures in revenues, or to meet expenses not otherwise provided for as long as those costs do not exceed $750,000. Title 1, Section 126.05 of the State law requires the director of the budget to notify the governor each month on the status of available revenue receipts and balances. The governor must then prevent expenses of state agencies from exceeding those revenue receipts. Ohio law forbids the carrying over of a deficit from one year to the next.
Even though Ohio has specific balanced budget requirements, the State's Budgetary Comparison Schedules indicated budget deficits (negative net transactions) for the three years studied.
Budgetary information within the Ohio CAFR is presented in a consistent manner all three years and easy to locate. Specific information is also presented efficiently (inclusion of "total" columns). The State's governmental funds include the General Fund and 15 special revenue funds, 23 debt service funds, and 10 capital projects funds. The State budgets on a modified cash basis of accounting. The General Fund, and 11 out of 15 special revenues funds, 9 out of 23 debt service funds, and 9 out of 10 capital projects funds are budgeted. Most but not all funds are budgeted. Revenues are budgeted only for the General Fund. This results in very large gap between actual and budgeted figures. [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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Ohio
State pension fund leaders fire back at Mandel
Dissatisfied with state pension reforms enacted last year that affect 1.8 million current and former government workers, Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel says without more changes "there will be nothing left at the end of the rainbow" when public employees retire.
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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.
- View All Pensions
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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 Processes and Systems, Budget Transparency
Non-fiscal budget issues threaten accountability, transparency
Citizens need to know where their dollars are being spent and they need to know where their elected representatives stand on a wide range of policy issues. Including dozens of policy issues that are only tangentially related to the budget, if at all, impedes both those goals.
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BLOG: Budget Processes and Systems, K-12 Education
Cultural issues have no place in the budget process
Cultural issues work their way into state budget processes frequently. Without commenting on their objective validity, they more often than not distract elected officials and citizens alike from the primary focus of the budget process.
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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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