Free Republic

Arguably no one in Michigan has made more recommendations to reform the state budget — literally hundreds of them worth billions of dollars — than Mackinac Center policy analysts. As the fiscal 2015 state budget has just climbed above $53.2 billion — a nearly 27 percent nominal increase since fiscal 2007 — it seems both prudent and timely to remind Lansing of some opportunities to trim state spending. In 2003, Center experts recommended cutting in half statutory revenue sharing to local units of government with the ultimate goal of eliminating it entirely. Halving statutory revenue sharing in 2003 would have...

MONTGOMERY–Governor Robert Bentley on Monday announced the State of Alabama has reached over a billion dollars in annual savings one year earlier than expected thanks to extensive efforts to reduce costs to state government and increase government efficiency. "Alabamians elected us to make state government more efficient and live within our means without raising taxes or cutting essential services," Governor Robert Bentley said. "State government was broke when Republicans entered office in 2011, but together with Legislative leaders, we took a serious look at how we could find savings in state government. Today, I'm honored to announce that we have...

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Rollercoaster Ride Lowering state’s spending limit will help prevent future budget deficits Tom Jenney Goldwater Institute Daily Email February 20, 2008 Arizona’s recent budget history looks a lot like a rollercoaster. During years with strong economic growth, policymakers allow spending to shoot up to unsustainably high levels. Then, during economic slowdowns, when tax revenues fall off, state spending goes crashing downward. Arizona’s budget really got out of control in 2006 and 2007, when the size of state government as a portion of the state economy exceeded 6.5 percent—levels of spending not seen since the early 1990s. Since 2002, the Arizona...

Retiring to the sofa after turkey dinner tomorrow, most Americans may feel they have little in common with the Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock. But one defining feature of 17th-century Americans remains: We still migrate for freedom. American mobility is legendary and the notion that it is driven by a desire for liberty is the basis for the methodology behind the Pacific Research Institute's U.S. Economic Freedom Index released last week. Kansas is America's freest state while New York -- home of the Statue of Liberty -- ranks at the bottom. The Index uses five categories -- fiscal, regulatory, judicial, government...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger began the year vowing to cut, cut, cut. But the final spending plan heading for a vote this week in the Legislature relies on billions of dollars in borrowing and one-time savings to balance and avoids most of the deep reductions Schwarzenegger proposed in January. Battered by a monthlong budget battle, Schwarzenegger gave ground to the Legislature's Democratic majority in fashioning the last details of the estimated $103 billion spending plan. Schwarzenegger agreed to lift an enrollment cap at state universities, to drop a proposal to slash wages of home health care workers and to provide a...

For the short term, the question is whether Schwarzenegger can draw enough power from his status as a mega-celebrity to overcome lawmakers' resistance to his budget and recover from any dip in his popularity. For the long term, Schwarzenegger's political interests dictate a fast resolution to the budget crisis to ease his path to reelection in 2006, should he seek a second term. "It's kind of like Civil War surgery: If you're going to take someone's leg off, then do it quickly," said Rod Kiewiet, a Caltech political science professor. History suggests that approach can succeed. Gov. Ronald Reagan approved...

In California, Arduin is taking on a state budget shortfall that could easily balloon past $25 billion, thanks to a chronic imbalance between spending and revenues and legally dubious borrowing. Campaign strategist Mike Murphy first suggested that the new administration consider Arduin, whose work he knew from Michigan, where they both had jobs in the early 1990s. Schwarzenegger's transition chief, Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas), was impressed by rave reviews of Arduin, and then by conversations with her. "She likes to say this is the Super Bowl of budgeting, to deal with the kind of challenge California faces," he said....

Any college kid with too much credit-card debt might look longingly at state governments these days and wonder: How can I do that? The states are having a fiscal crisis without reducing spending.If the states face the worst fiscal emergency since World War II, as governors are wont to complain, they aren't acting like it. According to USA Today, state spending increased 6.3 percent in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2002. It increased another 5 percent in the fiscal year ending this month. During the past two years, states have added workers, hiring another 74,000 people at a time...

<p>State governments spent themselves into financial crises by routinely building budgets that outstripped inflation and population growth during the 1990s, a Cato Institute report suggests.</p> <p>Had states limited new spending to a "benchmark" percentage equal to their combined inflation and population growth rates and returned any excess revenue to taxpayers, the conservative think tank said most would not be in as dire straits now.</p>

   Colorado has an income tax, yet Colorado also has a big budget shortfall thanks to the recession, proving that not even an income tax can assure a state will avoid fiscal crises. But that's not the most important lesson of Colorado's budget crunch. The truth is Colorado's $1 billion shortfall would have been far worse if the state hadn't finally placed a firm limit on the growth of spending a few years ago. The Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) in Colorado's constitution limits spending growth to the rate of inflation plus population growth. Revenue above that TABOR limit is...