State Budgets

The Williams Report

Fiscal:

Alabama: Industrial sector growth likely to improve property tax revenues without rate increases in Morgan County, Alabama.

Alabama’s State Department of Education is projected to have exceeded its appropriated revenue by 27 percent.

 

Alaska: The Alaska Supreme Court has upheld the governor’s veto of PFD payments, which halved the payout.

 

Arkansas: Arkansas Gov. Hutchinson issued a press release, highlighting agencies within the state government which have successfully found efficiencies and reduced their budgets.

 

California: California State University system attempted to implement a new payroll platform starting in 2014. However, the platform is likely to run five years late and $200 millions of dollars over budget.

 

Connecticut: State legislators are unable to reach an agreement about the best way to close the remaining $3.5 billion dollar deficit, making the current budget impasse the longest in state history.

 

Georgia: More shortfalls projected for Georgia’s state employee health care and OPEB plans.

 

Illinois: Illinois governor vetoes $15 dollar minimum wage.

 

Indiana: Indiana filed a lawsuit in defense of remote sales taxation, against the physical presence standard set by Quill Corp. v. North Dakota.

 

Iowa: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will decide whether to call a special session to address the projected revenue shortfall soon.

 

Kansas: State employees begin to push for raises which would force a tax hike, immediately following tax hikes.

 

Kentucky: State pension plan threatens to consume an extra billion dollars a year.

 

Louisiana: State parks are shut down in response to budget crises.

 

Maryland: Gov. Larry Hogan pushes for $68 million dollars in budget cuts to begin to address projected shortfall of $742 million.

 

Minnesota: The budget battle between Gov. Dayton and the legislature reaches the State Supreme Court.

 

Montana: A $226 dollar budget shortfall forces Montana to look for budget cuts.

 

New Mexico: Cibola County continues to lay off workers in an effort to address $440,000 dollar budget shortfall.

 

North Dakota: The state’s general fund has slightly stronger than expected revenue, resulting in a $66 million surplus.

 

Oklahoma: Oklahoma braces for budget cuts after the Oklahoma Supreme Court blocked a $1.50 cigarette tax, legislatures request a hypothetical 3 percent budget cut plan.

 

Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania still does not have a budget.

 

South Carolina: South Carolina continues to battle with Amazon over third party sales and tax collection.

 

Vermont: Vermont’s Gov. Scott aims to cut $5 million dollars from the state budget to close the state’s revenue shortfall.

 

Virginia: Virginia runs a deficit, dipping into the rainy day fund for the second year in a row.

 

Wisconsin: Legislature approves $639 million in education funding, loosens restrictions on charter schools.

 

Wyoming: Wyoming legislature considers a wide range of tax increases and new taxes to cover the revenue shortfall.

 

Pensions:

Arizona: Prescott, Arizona has increased their local sales tax by 0.75 percent to cover the cost of past pension mismanagement.

 

California: Steven Greenhut, western region director for R Street Institute, explains why CALPERs went out of its way to punish a small municipality.

 

Florida: The Florida Retirement System Pension plan experienced a 13.77 percent rate of return this year. However, the CIO warns that a good year is not enough to remain solvent.

 

Georgia: In Georgia, the state pensions and other fixed costs are projected to capture nearly all of new revenue.
The number of pension recipients who receive more than $100,000 dollars a year has more than doubled since 2011.

 

Hawaii: State pension and retiree healthcare costs are rising rapidly.

 

Illinois: Illinois legislators passed an education budget which will allow the Chicago Board of Education to increase property taxes by $120 million dollars, which will go toward the Teachers’ Pension Fund.

 

Kentucky: Proposal to shift most current and future hires to a 401(k) style retirement plan.

 

Louisiana: the Louisiana State Employees Retirement System posted a 15.8 percent return this year.

 

Minnesota: The state pension funding ratio dropped from 80 percent to 53 percent due to a switch to more realistic actuarial assumptions.

 

Mississippi: The Mississippi Public Employee Retirement System audit suggests that the discount rate is too high.

 

New Jersey: New Jersey credit outlook increased to “stable”.

 

Oregon: Task force explores ways to shift the burden of pension payments and increasing taxes as a means to maintain state employee pensions.

 

Rhode Island: Rhode Island’s pension fund continues to lag behind year to date benchmarks.

 

South Carolina: South Carolina legislators push for alternatives to the state’s defined benefit plan.

 

Texas: Pension investment board votes to lower expected rate of return from 8 percent to 7.5 percent.


In Depth: State Budgets

Smart budgeting is vital to a state’s financial health. The ALEC State Budget Reform Toolkit offers more than 20 policy ideas for addressing today’s shortfalls in a forthright manner, without resorting to budget gimmicks or damaging tax increases. One way to stabilize budgets over time is to embrace…

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