New Survey: 2016 Top State & Local Management Challenges
A new nationwide survey by Route Fifty and Government Business Council reveals human capital and budget issues to be the year's top state and local management challenges.
Dropping Oil Prices Are Hammering Tax Revenues in Energy-Producing States
A new brief from the U.S. Department of Energy outlines some of the fiscal ramifications of the energy industry declines in six states.
San José’s Innovation Agenda Will Hinge on the Internet of Things
Starfish, a new smart city network, will be demonstrated in the heart of Silicon Valley.
California Budget Proposal Is ‘Prudent and Bodes Well for Continued Fiscal Stability’
Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his spending plan for the Golden State last week, stressing the need for fiscal moderation, despite continued economic growth.
Here’s How One City in Kansas Has Been Pushing to Improve Its Budgeting Process
‘Our other budgets, they were difficult to see,’ says a City Council member who has embraced a budget-making approach that involves program inventories and ‘priority based’ spending.
Jerry Brown’s Proposed Budget Seen as ‘All Good News’ for California Counties
But a budget deficit could be on the horizon, which prompted the Golden State’s governor to suggest more money be placed in reserves.
Rainy-Day Reserves Remain Short of Pre-Recession Levels in Most State Governments
Projections for fiscal 2016, the current budget year, show decreasing median reserves for the 45 state governments that reported complete data, with 34 state budgets anticipating lower levels relative to operating expenditures than in fiscal 2015.
Rhode Island Truck Tolling Fracas Heads Into High Gear
Despite widespread agreement among state lawmakers and others that the Ocean State’s bridges need fixing, there is deep discord over how to foot the bill.
Survey: Local Government Can Compete With Private Sector at Hiring Younger Workers
Incoming workers’ desire to do good makes county and city employment a perfect fit—if jurisdictions can make the often-smaller pay palatable.
Illinois Budget Impasse Drags On Into 2016
And that’s having a big impact on cash-strapped businesses, residents, institutions and non-profit organizations that depend on state payments.
State Government Revenue Outlook Looking Sluggish
A new brief from the State University of New York highlights demographic factors and slowing economic growth as reasons why sales and income taxes are expected to grow slowly in coming years.
State Budget Crises Call Out for Better Disclosure
The Volcker Alliance details 10 principles for sound fiscal planning.
State Governments Hit Post-Recession Revenue Milestone
For the first time since the Great Recession, tax receipts have recovered in a majority of states.
When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going
How one California city kept itself running during the Great Recession.
State of the States: A Q&A With the National Governors Association's Scott Pattison
In a wide-ranging discussion with Route Fifty, the NGA's new executive director discusses state finances, education, infrastructure and more.
These 5 Major Fiscal Problems Await Louisiana's Next Governor
Bobby Jindal relied on short-term fixes that did nothing to address years of "unresolved structural deficits." Here are the budgetary challenges that await John Bel Edwards in Baton Rouge.
How Minnesota Rebuilt Its Rainy Day Fund and Created Its Largest Budget Reserve in History
A first step for states planning for future economic downturns: “Lawmakers need to determine what exactly constitutes rain.”
Illinois Knocked by Researchers for Sub-Par Budgeting Practices
A new report offers up four budget-making principles and says the Land of Lincoln has not done well following any of them.
Civic Hackers Launch Toolset to Shed Light on Sacramento’s City Budget
A group affiliated with Code for America released a new suite of online apps this week, meant to help people explore the city’s revenue and spending.
Pennsylvania Counties Look at Drastic Actions Against State Amid Budget Mess
Will cash-strapped local leaders sue to get the money they’re owed?
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link
If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.
Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.
Cookie List
A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:
Strictly Necessary Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Functional Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Performance Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Social Media Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Targeting Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.