Nice data about land use and property valuations are available. Critical to the project is how I may control other variables, especially spatial or locational factors. Some of them are shown in the maps below:
Medicaid Program in US is a shared responsibility between the Federal and state governments, with lots of variation across states on eligibility criteria and associated benefits.
The Economist (08/30) has a nice chart on the percentage of non-senior population (age under 65s) without health insurance in the states. (Americans ages 65 or older will be covered by a different program, Medicare.)
Massachusetts has the country's lowest rate of uninsured, at just 5.2%. At about 10%, Minnesota also belongs to the lowest group. In contrast, in Texas the uninsured rate is 26.3%. The sticking difference highlights the fact that the states vary significantly across service levels and spending priorities.
]]>
Key assumptions include real interest rate (r), GDP growth (g), primary budget balance (p), and inflation (i). In the government-debt dynamics, in any given period, the debt stock grows by the existing debt stock multiplied by (r-g), less the primary budget balance p. Inflation helps reduce the total debt stock over time, as the real value of debt decreased with inflation.
Too bad the chart does not include China, where local government debts have been skyrocketing in recent years.
]]>Note that the decrease of federal tax collection has been accompanied by the increase of state and local tax burdens. The shift itself may incur significant efficiency loss, both administratively and economically.
According to a recent Minnesota Budget Project report, Minnesota’s credit rating is already on unstable footing, as credit rating agencies become increasingly concerned about the lack of long-term budget solutions across the states.
The report cites several recent examples that states suffered a hit to their credit standings, as the rating agencies cited limited financial flexibility and reliance on one-time measures as contributing factors to the downgrades. The link between financial flexibility and state’s credit rating, however, remains a hypothesis to be tested in research -- a topic that suits my interest very well.
]]>For the interest of comparison, in my Tencent Weibo, a Twitter-like mini-blog in Chinese, I provided my Chinese readers some information about U.S. state and local government debt burdens, 1992-2011, with data compiled by the website usgovernmentspending.com. In 2011, the state with the highest debt/GDP ratio (for total state & local debts) is Massachusetts, with a ratio of 25%; for "all states combined," the ratio is about 17%. (See the attached graph for the top ten states.)
Two other common measures of debt burden are per capita debt and the ratio of debt to personal income. In 2011, per capita debt in Massachusetts is about $15,000, slightly lower than 30% of annual personal income; the national average of per capita debt is about $8,000, roughly 20% of annual personal income.
Despite recurring budget crises in recent years, U.S. state and local governments are more fiscally responsible than the U.S. federal government, and likely so than many Chinese local governments.
2. About local government in Georgia:
• Government Management Indicators Survey
• Tax and Expenditure Data Center
• Local Government Analysis System
3. About local governments in Minnesota:
• MN Office of the State Auditor (The Government Information Division is super helpful)
• State and local government finances, US Census Bureau
• Minnesota QuickLinks, US Census Bureau
• Minnesota Vital Statistics State and County Trends (Excellent database!)
• Selected Public Health Data Websites
• Minnesota Geographic Data Clearinghouse
4. For nonprofit organizations:
• Data from National Center for Charitable Statistics
• Data from GuideStar
More to come...
See our recent article on Publius: The Journal of Federalism: "Fiscal Reform and Public Education Spending: A Quasi-natural Experiment of Fiscal Decentralization in China."
Since the 1990s, China has pushed forward the "province-managing-county" (PMC) reform in Henan as an experiment of fiscal decentralization. Using a data set of 108 counties in Henan Province during 1999-2008, we employ a difference-in-differences approach to investigate how the PMC reform affects local public education spending. The results show that counties given additional autonomy tend to spend a lower share of their annual expenditures on public education than other counties do. The findings suggest that fiscal decentralization does not necessarily make local governments more responsive to long-term benefits of local residents.
]]>--------
NASPAA has partnered with GovLoop, the premier social networking site for government, to sponsor a Public Service Scholarship essay contest.
The contest is open to current graduate students interested in pursuing a career in government (at any level), who submit a short (300-500 words) essay that answers:
“What if the U.S. government had only $100 million left in its budget. Where should that money go and why? Should it be allocated on the local, state or federal level? Which agency or department should receive funding, and for what project?”
GovLoop is generously funding three awards of $2,500, $1,500 and $1,000. Submissions will be read and scored by a panel of judges (one from each organization) using a rubric to measure: Knowledge of Government; Clarity of Thought; and whether the solution proposed is Relevant, Realistic, and Innovative.
The 15 highest-scored essays will become finalists. The finalist entries will be posted on GovLoop, to be reviewed and voted on by its members. The three students whose essays receive the most votes will be awarded the scholarships (to be paid directly to their school’s financial aid office).
The entry form, and Rules, are posted at: www.govloop.com/scholarship-2011. The deadline is October 31.
]]>The report by the Center on Budgeting and Policy Priorities shows that 30 states are spending less per pupil on K-12 education this year than in the 2007-2008 school year, before the recession started. In aggregate, schools in those 30 states received $25.5 billion less than they did in 2008.
According to a Labor Department jobs report, the nation's schools shed 24,000 jobs in this september. In the last three years, schools have cut 278,000 jobs, with over 40 percent of the cuts occuring in the lasts year.
]]>
From 1990 to 2009, the federal collected about $1017 billion in Minnesota but spent less than $504 billion, a gap of about $513 billion. This is equivalent to about twice the state's 2009 GDP. New York transferred the highest amount, over $650 billion. Relative to its economy, however, Delaware made the biggest contribution, and Minnesota is the second.
]]>
NYT's graphic department has won many national and international awards, including the National Design Award for Communication Design. And I always love to cite their works in my blogs -- for example, the interactive graph of Obama's 2011 budget.
Early this week, a member of the team, Kevin Quealy, spoke at the Walker Art Center. The lecture is webcasted and archived on the Walker Channel.
]]>
]]>
]]>
