State Policy Reports

State Policy Reports is rich with information about the 50 states. Published twice a month (except in August and December when it is published once), each issue covers a variety of topics including trends in state spending, the quarterly index of state economic momentum, federal aid to states and state tax burdens.

March 2013, Volume 31, Issue 6

Index of State Economic Momentum

The condition of state economies continues to improve, with personal income and employment inching up while housing prices show marked signs of recovery. The states hit hardest by the housing collapse—Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada—all show encouraging signs of recovery in that sector and more generally. A handful of small states have unemployment rates that are the envy of the larger states, but those low rates may also indicate labor shortages that could constrain growth going forward. On balance, the economic signals are positive, with some large and important state economies helping to lead the way.

 
March 2013, Volume 31, Issue 5

Massachusetts Takes the Long View on Sequestration

Over the last several months, states have been understandably preoccupied with the potential effects of federal budget sequestration on federal programs that operate through the state-federal partnership. While the ultimate budgetary impact of sequestration was estimated to be much smaller than many initially feared, it nevertheless introduced a degree of uncertainty that made planning for and running the affected programs extremely difficult. In the midst of this worry, officials in Massachusetts stepped back to take the long view, focusing not only on the impacts of sequestration on the budget, but on the longer-term impacts of sequestration and federal budget retrenchment on the economy.

If Tax Policy Experts Made Tax Policy
February 2013, Volume 31, Issue 4

The Limits of State Business Climate Rankings

As it has in many previous years, Reports had every intention of writing about the various components and scores for the 2013 rankings of state business tax climate released by the Tax Foundation last autumn. After reading the report, a more compelling assignment emerged: explaining why such rankings are of limited value and sometimes raise more questions than they answer.
February 2013, Volume 31, Issue 3

Diverging Incomes: The New Normal?

It has been well-publicized that analysis of income trends over the last several years shows that those with the highest incomes have seen gains while those with the lowest incomes have seen stagnation or even losses. The result of these trends is a large and growing gap between the two groups. In a recent analysis, two liberal-leaning research and advocacy groups examine the results on a state-by-state basis and propose a host of state policies that might reverse or at least mitigate this trend. That said, economics tells us that income is most efficiently and effectively redistributed at the national level of government, so state actions can only go so far. Moreover, many of their recommendations run contrary to recent state actions and face an additional hurdle of scarce government resources.
January 2013, Volume 31, Issue 2

Quality Counts 2013

As it does every year, Education Week has published its most recent Quality Counts report on states’ K-12 education policies and outcomes. This year’s report includes updated data for three of the six measures: school finance, transitions and alignment, and chance for success. The results from these measures highlight some of the key differences in state education reforms, especially as efforts to enact more sweeping changes on the federal level through reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act have stalled. As states continue to enact their own changes to K-12 systems, the Quality Counts data are likely to become more important in gauging the success and progress of these individual state reforms until Congress takes up the issue on a federal level.

 
January 2013, Volume 31, Issue 1

Virginia’s Gas Tax Tanked?

The governor of Virginia recently laid out a plan to make big changes to his state’s transportation funding structure. The proposal would eliminate the state motor fuel tax on gasoline, increase the state sales and use tax, and dedicate more of that revenue source to transportation infrastructure funding. After suffering from highway maintenance deficits since fiscal year (FY) 2002, the governor’s proposal is intended to increase Virginia’s overall transportation funding levels and shore up funding to meet the future needs of the state’s transportation systems.
December 2012, Volume 30, Issue 23-24

Seeking to Sustain a Recovery
December 2012, Volume 30, Issue 22

Sorting Out
December 2012, Volume 30, Issue 21

State and Local Finances in FY 2010
November 2012, Volume 30, Issue 20

Fiscal Threats to States in a Nutshell
October 2012, Volume 30, Issue 19

Health Insurance Coverage: Mixed Messages

How Federal Budget Problems Can Affect States
September 2012, Volume 30, Issue 18

Index of State Economic Momentum
September 2012, Volume 30, Issue 17

A Pause in State Tax Collections

When Government Spending Declines
September 2012, Volume 30, Issue 15-16

All Eyes on Kansas

The ACA and Medicaid: To Expand or Not to Expand
August 2012, Volume 30, Issue 14

How States Address Municipal Bankruptcies
August 2012, Volume 30, Issue 13

States and the Fiscal Cliff
August 2012, Volume 30, Issue 12

Index of State Economic Momentum
July 2012, Volume 30, Issue 11

Continuum of State Fiscal Stress
July 2012, Volume 30, Issue 10

The Local Angle

June 2012, Volume 30, Issue 9

Federal Tax Reform and the States
June 2012, Volume 30, Issue 8

Should States Adopt Combined Reporting?
May 2012, Volume 30, Issue 7

State Spending on Higher Education