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...

Rhode Island's state and municipal pension systems face large and growing unfunded pension liabilities. The governor and state treasurer have identified pension reform as a key to stabilizing the state's finances and also to ensuring a sustainable retirement fund for Rhode Island's public...

Current government accounting standards result in US public pension plans understating the size of pensions promised to workers. The result is that state plans are more deeply underfunded than is recognized. Delaware reports an overall funding ratio of 81 percent, but on a market-valuation basis...

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...

Maryland's budget rules were designed with the intent of restraining spendinggrowth. They have instead produced sustained and growing deficits. The rapidgrowth in Maryland's budget, as well as the increase in mandated spending areproducts of the state's fiscal institutions—the legislative and...

Based on the fiscal year 2013 Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports of the 50 states, this study ranks states' fiscal solvency using 14 metrics that assess whether the states can meet their short-term bills and long-term obligations. State finances are analyzed according to five dimensions of...

Based on the FY 2015 comprehensive annual financial reports of the 50 states, this study ranks states fiscal solvency using 13 metrics that assess the extent to which the states can pay short-term bills and meet longer-term obligations. State finances are analyzed according to five categories of...

New Jersey entered the 2008 recession in a weakened fiscal and economic condition. With the state's economy and revenues closely linked to Wall Street, the collapse of the financial sector and its aftershocks - rising unemployment and falling income leaves New Jersey facing “a historic revenue...

"The chapters in this volume analyze the interplay between knowledge, public policy, and entrepreneurship in both theory and practice. In particular, they examine how policymakers often struggle with limited economic knowledge, which hinders their ability to intervene in the market process to...

Based on the fiscal year 2014 comprehensive annual financial reports of the 50 states and Puerto Rico, this study ranks states fiscal solvency using 14 metrics that assess the extent to which the states can meet short-term bills and longer-term obligations. State finances are analyzed according...