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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- Media Coverage
- States' Fiscal Health
WLRN Public Radio: Florida Is Looking at a Budget Surplus Next Year
Florida lawmakers are doing something they haven't done in years: adding money to state programs. more
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- Issue Brief
- States' Fiscal Health
Public Attitudes on Pension Reform in Kentucky
Recent polling indicates that Kentucky voters favor moving to a new retirement system for future public employees. Large majorities favor specific reform proposals, including the core provisions that would comprise a new retirement system. more
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January 16, 2013
A Widening Gap in Cities
A number of the nation’s key cities face unpaid bills for the retirement benefits they have promised their employees. This report examines pension and retiree health care funding in 61 cities—the most populous one in each state plus all others with populations over 500,000—and looks at options for reform.
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- Press Release
- States' Fiscal Health ,
- State Health Care Spending
Pew Study Finds 61 Cities' Retirement Systems Face $217 Billion Gap
Sixty-one key cities across America have emerged from the Great Recession with a gap of more than $217 billion between what they had promised their workers in pensions and retiree health care and what they had saved to pay that bill, according to a report released today by The Pew Charitable Trusts. more
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- Featured Collection
- States' Fiscal Health
State Tax Incentives for Economic Development
This collection of research highlights steps that states can take to create fiscally sound state tax incentives and to determine whether existing incentives are generating solid economic returns.
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