The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) predicts a stormy fiscal future for state and local governments, with expenses expected to outpace revenues during the next five decades. The GAO report released Dec. 13 said that both expenditures and revenues are…
A former deputy commissioner at the Social Security Administration (SSA) says pension trustees are assuming higher investment returns than in the past due to accounting trickery — despite what’s being widely reported in the public sphere. Andrew Biggs, a resident…
Fiscal hawks hope to see reforms in accounting standards for state and local governments that would increase the transparency of their debt. The Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) is now considering changes to its reporting recommendations, accepting comments until Feb….
If states were squirrels most don’t have enough nuts stored for winter – or the next recession. Standard & Poor’s recently released a report that says 30 states don’t have enough reserves to operate at full capacity during the first…
Gov. Matt Bevin told a conference of local government officials last week they’ll be “screwed” in the pocketbooks if the Kentucky Supreme Court rules against the state legislature’s new pension law, which aims to curb escalating retirement obligations to public-sector…
The pension situation has gotten so dire in Chicago that the city is considering stabilizing its retirement systems by financing bonds. Chicago has – tell us if you’ve heard this one before – taken hits to its credit rating, resulting…
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the side of public-sector workers, preventing them from being forced to pay “fair-share fees” for collective bargaining, means a lot of policy organizations will have to revamp their databases. In a post pointing out…
Editor’s Note: This piece is an ongoing investigative series in partnership with Watchdog.org’s state-level journalists. Pension budget woes beset nearly every state in the union and cities and municipalities are also being hit with unprecedented pension debt. Baby boomers are retiring….
Editor’s Note: This piece is an ongoing investigative series in partnership with Watchdog.org’s state-level journalists. Pension budget woes beset nearly every state in the union, and cities and municipalities are also being hit with unprecedented pension debt. Baby boomers are retiring….