Pew's States' Fiscal Health initiative provides data, analysis, and guidance to help states navigate their fiscal challenges and identify and understand potential policy approaches. We examine key issues and promising approaches on both sides of the ledger—revenues and expenditures.
Why Understanding States' Fiscal Health Matters
States are emerging slowly from the Great Recession. In many states, revenues are gradually recovering but have not yet returned to pre-recession levels, and rising health care, education, and infrastructure costs are outpacing their growth. States’ fiscal health is critical to the nation’s economic recovery.
How We Conduct Our Work
Pew illuminates states’ fiscal challenges on both sides of the ledger—revenues and expenditures—and helps lawmakers, key stakeholders, and the media identify and understand potential policy options. We produce original research, including comprehensive 50-state assessments that compare and contrast states’ experiences and highlight promising approaches. And we convene policy leaders and experts in the field to discuss common challenges and learn from each other.
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The LATEST from the Project
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- Video
- States' Fiscal Health
Experts Discuss State Pension and Retiree Health Care Costs
Experts explore the long-term challenges of public sector retirement costs at a Pew Center on the States conference. more
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- Media Coverage
- States' Fiscal Health
Debt Ceiling Uncertainty Puts States at Risk
The federal debt ceiling debate is already complicating life for state and local governments. more
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- Q & A
- States' Fiscal Health
Kil Huh: State Pensions and Retiree Benefits
Research Director Kil Huh answers five questions about what governors and legislators are doing to meet the challenges of pensions and retiree health care costs.
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- Media Coverage
- States' Fiscal Health
States Want More in Pension Contributions
First came the pay freezes and unpaid furloughs. Then came the higher contributions for health insurance. Now, in the most definitive sign yet that the era of generous compensation for public-sector employees is ending, workers in more than half the states face the prospect of paying more of their salary toward their pensions. more
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- Media Coverage
- States' Fiscal Health
How Bad Is the Pension Problem?
Well-publicized crises in Illinois and New Jersey may have given public systems a bad reputation, but in reality, the vast majority of state and local government programs are not on the verge of collapse. "The public pension community is not in a state of crisis," says Keith Brainard, research director at the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. "Some plans face larger challenges than others, but it varies by plan."
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- Media Coverage
- States' Fiscal Health
Report: Savings Gap for Pensions Growing
The gap between promises states made for employees’ retirement benefits and the money they set aside to pay for them is widening, according to an April report by The Pew Center on the States. more
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- Data Visualizations
- States' Fiscal Health
Measuring Transportation Results
States spent an estimated $131 billion on transportation in fiscal year 2010, but many cannot answer critical questions about what returns this investment is generating. more
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- Press Release
- States' Fiscal Health
Many States Fail to Measure Performance of Transportation Dollars
States spent an estimated $131 billion on transportation in fiscal year 2010, but many cannot answer critical questions about what returns this investment is generating, according to a new report by the Pew Center on the States and the Rockefeller Foundation. more
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- Media Coverage
- States' Fiscal Health
U.S. States Pension Fund Deficits Widen by 26%, Pew Center Study Says
U.S. states’ deficits in their employee retirement systems widened by 26 percent in fiscal 2009 as governments were stung by investment losses and failed to pay enough into their pension funds, a study found. more
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- Media Coverage
- States' Fiscal Health
States Face $1.26 Trillion Shortfall in Funds to Pay Retiree Benefits
The state funds that pay pension and health-care benefits to retired teachers, corrections officers and millions of other public workers faced a cumulative shortfall of at least $1.26 trillion at the end of fiscal 2009, according to a new report. more
