stimulus

URL:

Keywords:

Full Text:

Fiscal 2008 marked a turning point for state finances with a significant increase in states seeing fiscal difficulties, in stark contrast to the preceding several years. As the economy has weakened, so has the state revenue and spending picture. The decline of the housing sector along with a weak manufacturing sector have combined to cause significant declines in revenue for a number of states.

Findings include:

• Thirteen states were forced to reduce enacted budgets in fiscal 2008. This is in stark contrast to the three states that had to reduce their enacted budgets in fiscal 2007.
• Eighteen states assume negative budget growth for fiscal 2009 governors’ recommended general fund budgets, while four states are estimating negative growth budgets for fiscal 2008.
• Medicaid spending from state funds is estimated to increase by 4.4 percent in governors’ recommended budgets for fiscal 2009; more than four times the rate of growth for the overall general fund. This increase in health care spending continues to place pressure on state budgets by exceeding overall spending.
• Six states are recommending increases to their fiscal 2009 cash assistance levels under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, ranging from 0.1 percent to 30 percent.

Keywords:

Full Text:

As the financial crisis on Wall Street unfolds with intense media coverage, we are losing sight of another crisis: more than a million families across the United States will face foreclosure in the next six months as the last of the sub-prime mortgages contracted in 2006 and early 2007 reset. Accelerating job losses and low wages aggravate the lives of tens of millions of families. In the rush to focus on Wall Street, these are the families whose lives must not be forgotten. These are the working people who need attention and help from a new stimulus package as well as structural economic reforms. This study focuses on the needs of these economically distressed workers and proposes economic policies that will improve their lives while strengthening the overall economy.

Keywords:

Full Text:

At least 39 states faced or are facing shortfalls in their budgets for this and/or next year. Over half the states had already cut spending, used reserves, or raised revenues in order to adopt a balanced budget for the current fiscal year — which started July 1 in most states. Now, their budgets have fallen out of balance again. New gaps have opened up in the budgets of at least 27 states plus the District of Columbia just three months after they struggled to close the largest budget shortfalls seen since the recession of 2001. And these problems are expected to continue into next year.

URL:

Keywords:

Abstract:

Almost 21 percent of households in the U.S. are economically distressed, almost twice the official poverty rate. To reach full employment we need a stimulus package with sustained increases in government spending of $220 billion to generate a $330 billion increase in GDP required to create the new jobs. Economically distressed families also need structural economic reforms as well as the immediate benefits of the stimulus package.