The Pew Charitable Trusts

April is the cruellest month, T.S. Eliot lamented in his epic 1922 poem, The Waste Land. State lawmakers might be inclined to agree after tallying up April income tax collections. more

Only 12 percent of families eligible for child care get the help they need. But President Bushs welfare reform reauthorization plan doesnt have any new money for child care, which concerns advocates for the poor and some state lawmakers. more

When a lieutenant governor shakes hands with the boss, a couple of fingers check the governors pulse -- because, as an old joke goes, no pulse equals a promotion. The joke stems from conventional wisdom, which holds that, like the U.S. vice president, the main duty of whoever occupies the number two state job is to take over if the state's numero uno dies or becomes disabled. But a new study by a Georgia political science professor argues that conventional wisdom is wrong. more

Alabama, Michigan and the District of Columbia split $75 million in extra federal welfare funds last year for achieving the largest decreases in out-of-wedlock births and abortion rates between 1996 and 1999. But the program that brought this windfall may soon disappear because President George W. Bush's welfare reform reauthorization plan does away with bonuses to states that do the best job of reducing illegitimacy and medically terminated pregnancies. more

More and more states are using electronic tools ranging from web portals to interagency data sharing to make delivery of government services all a taxpayer could hope for, according to two recent studies on the use of digital technologies. more