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Crowdsourcing the state budget crisis

Submitted by Leslie Graves on Sun, 01/18/2009 - 17:09

I've been playing around with a few formats on Sunshine Review for capturing updated information about the state budget crises in the various states that are experiencing them:

State budget crisis, 2009-2010 is in a rough, preliminary form. What information should the chart try to capture?

Information on the manifold issues with the California budget is more developed. What should be added? Are any of the major proposals for addressing the $42 billion shortfall missing?

What do you know about your state's budget that could be added?

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Comments

Interesting. Bookmarked.

Submitted by noufa on Mon, 01/19/2009 - 22:22.

How does the debt break down as dollars per capita? Much as I enjoy ragging on CA, I think my home state of MN is doing worse than CA on this point.

We're doing much better than CA when it comes to municipal bond ratings. Would also be interesting to see how the states compare on that point.

Dollars per capita.  Great

Submitted by Leslie Graves on Tue, 01/20/2009 - 08:05.

Dollars per capita.  Great idea for addition; thanks.

The games they play

Submitted by JackinMichigan on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 01:00.

Definition of state "deficit": The difference between expected revenue and desired spending.

Forget "general fund" vs. "restricted fund" - ultimately it's all fungible. Focus on spending, not revenue*. Here's the formula:

The difference between this year's gross spending less federal revenue, and the same figure for last year, adjusted for inflation and population changes, is the measure of how much state government has grown or shrunk.

 

*Games are played with "revenue": Does it include tobacco settlement extortion proceeds? "User fees?" Sneaky deficit financing like "securitizing" some or all of that tobacco money (borrowing against the future revenue stream). Spending is spending, and gross spending should capture almost all of it.