Illinois has run a structural deficit for over a decade [as of the date of this paper, October 2011]. The state's unfunded pension obligations are $173 billion, with the fund projected to run out of assets by 2018. Illinois's Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB)—largely consisting of health...

This paper establishes a basic definitional framework that can be used to assess long-running fiscal practices in the states against a standard of fiscal prudence. The aim is to further refine this framework to capture the drivers of the states' long-running fiscal problems and to offer...

In 2010, after grappling with a decade of structural deficits and two years of recession, Maryland's Spending Affordability Committee (SAC) questioned its 30-year record on limiting state spending: "Recent years have sorely tested the budgetary concepts customarily employed to account for...

Recognizing the unsustainable fiscal outlook facing the United States, the authors present a plan to constrain the growth of federal spending and reform the tax system to promote economic growth. The plan replaces the income tax system with a progressive consumption tax, eliminating the bias...

Our country faces a serious fiscal crisis. According to President Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, the nation is on an unsustainable fiscal path, with spending well above tax revenue. The Congressional Budget Office projects that, under current policies, federal...